I would say they had very different dreams of what the Presidential office was/is about.
Posted on 09/03/2003 2:01:57 PM PDT by NorCoGOP
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- In 2000, Bush campaigned upon meaningless slogans and the fact that he was a former president's son. His true vision for America did not appear until after 9-11.
Looking at past presidents, those who entered into office with a firm vision of where they wanted America to be when they left became the most successful in achieving their agendas.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton are just a few presidents in the last century who have been able to dream of a better America before taking office. All of these presidents have come from completely different eras with completely different problems, environments and situations that surrounded them as they took office. And yes, each of these presidents has had individual faults. As different as they are, the common thread that sews these great presidents together is that they had the character to challenge Americans to be even greater than what we were before. When these presidents left office, they left America, as well as the world, a much better place for future generations to build upon.
What is the current administration going to leave behind for future generations? By playing upon the fears that Americans have concerning terrorism, the Bush administration has been able to get what it wants by simply calling opponents "evil."
As a result of this political strategy, Bush shoved the Patriot Act through Congress, which happens to be one of the largest desecrations of the Bill of Rights. Need I remind Bush that it is the Bill of Rights that separates our American Republic from Saddam's Iraq and Kim Jong-Il's North Korea? This raises the larger question that if we are taking away our civil rights, what are we fighting for?
When Bush leaves office next year, he will not leave behind a better or stronger America. In fact he will leave behind a much weaker and poorer nation. When Bush was selected into office, he inherited more than a $5 trillion surplus and has turned it into a $4 trillion deficit. What does he have to show for it? Only tax breaks for the richest Americans and a war in Iraq that costs $1 billion a week, not to mention the loss of an American soldier's life almost everyday. Bush will leave behind 25 million Americans without health care, an economy that has only become worse since he came into office, an educational system that is ready to fall apart and a Veteran Affairs Department cut by billions.
After Sept. 11, the President missed the opportunity to ask Americans to dream of a safer and more secure America. Bush could have echoed the message that Secretary Tom Ridge told Pennsylvanians when he resigned as their governor, "Do what you do every day, but only do it better." Bush could have asked Americans to take an even deeper part in each of our own communities by volunteering at local food banks, schools, hospitals and community centers. Bush could have asked Americans to join organizations such as Teach For America and AmeriCorps. Bush could have firmly told America that even though terrorists had attacked us on our homeland and took the lives of loved ones, they will never, never take away the freedoms, liberty and justice that make America so infinitely better than any other country on the face of the planet.
Only we could take away what it means to be an American and Bush slowly is.
When Bush was selected into office, he inherited more than a $5 trillion surplus and has turned it into a $4 trillion deficit.
I can't stand this lie!
There was no 5 trillion surplus.
There was only a small yearly surplus.
The larger amount was only attainable if the economic conditions had remained the same.
Even without the recession and 9-11, an asteroid might have ended that so-called surplus as well as life on the planet.
Would the Chicken Littles blame Bush for that too?
This is the Lobo's list of dreamers? Lets take a look at that.
FDR - His solution to the unemployment rate was to just have the Government hire them. World War II was the real reason that the economy recovered during his tenure.
JFK - As the only demorat with enough brains to cut taxes to stimulate growth, he didn't live long enough to know if he would have kept up the trend.
LBJ - Creator of the Welfare State. We all know how beneficial that has been. We now have a generation of Americans who expect everything to be handed to them without any effort put out on thier own.
Bill Clintoon - Yeah, here's a visioniary. This man accomplished a lot in eight years. After 8 years no country or organization had any repect for the United States despite the fact that Reagan made us the sole superpower on the planet. He also managed to undermine our intellegence to the point that it was child's play for a rouge militant group to murder over 3000 American citizens on American soil. But don't be a religious cult, because he would burn you. And he managed to do all this with his fly down.
But it's all OK because the Univerisity of New Mexico is a state school, and taxpayer's money can be spent on printing political garbage as long as it's liberal trash. <./sarcasm>.
I'd sure like to meet this creep in a dark alley.
I'd show him what's worth fighting for!!
I have not lost a single right.
I'm only slightly inconvenienced at the airport.
I can live with that.
Evil applies as well to Democrats.
For a generation they have been preying upon the fears of senior citizens and using the BIG LIE just like the nazis that they are.
Clinton and Carter are the only two living Presidents that shiv a git about their legacies. Pathetic...
By election day 2004, President Bush will preside over a healthy economy - not like the cooked-books bubble of Clinton's time.
The stock market will be higher than when he took office and I would bet that the unemployment number will be down near 5.
And when President Bush leaves office in January of 2009, America will be extremely grateful for his enduring service!!
The past two presidents were both known as "fly guys".
But for different reasons. lol
Um, "next year?"
I thought it'd be January 20, 2005. The friggin Clintons still think they're still in the WH. And Carter? Another delusion dolt.
90s (D)- Failed move to socialistic health care, otherwise unremarkable.
00s (R)- The beginning of the end of world-wide terrorism. America moves to depose despots in every corner of the world.
I would say they had very different dreams of what the Presidential office was/is about.
And it is hyperbole like this that makes valid criticism of Bush take a backseat in the public debate. The way I see it, there are very real problems with the Bush administration:
Bush isn't bad, but the 2000 election was sorta like voting for the Antichrist or Satan himself. Neither Gore nor Bush are friends of limited government. Bush is almost a fifth columnist in that he has successfully diverted conservatives away from the goal of rolling back the government's size and jurisdiction. All "Compassionate Conservatism" reall is is a concession to the Socialists that government is not only an acceptable means to "fix society's problem" but that it is usually the best means.
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