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Posted on 10/05/2003 10:03:23 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
If you're like me, you were grudgingly caught up in the Cubs' drive for the National League Central championship this week.
History has taught me not to get my hopes up too high when it comes to Chicago sports in this post-Michael Jordan period. But I have hopes, nonetheless.
Sandwiched in between the sports mania that swept the city of Chicago and the debate over the aesthetic qualities of the renovated Soldier Field is the story of the unraveling of the Bush administration's support among the American people.
The president had National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows in an effort to spin the president's predicament and to stop the hemorrhaging of support.
Although Ms. Rice and Mr. Powell are poised and articulate, they had a tough assignment.
According to the conservative Wall Street Journal, 52 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The president's popularity has dropped to where it was prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Part of the president's troubles stems from his handling of the invasion of Iraq.
Despite his pledge to lead a humble administration, the president went out and did the opposite.
He seems to have squandered the good will that accrued to his government after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on defenseless American citizens.
After telling the world "you are either with us or against us" and saying the United Nations is going to become irrelevant because the international organization refused to co-sign the invasion of Iraq — the equivalent of "talking trash" to the international community — the president had to go back in front of the international body to ask for military and financial support.
While at the U.N., he enunciated what I call his "Burger King" policy on Iraq: He wanted to have it his way.
He wanted France, Germany, Japan, Russia, India and the rest of the world to help defray the costs of the war and winning the peace, but to accept American leadership when it comes to governance and decision-making.
In a second performance, he told Congress that it will cost an additional $87 billion to rebuild Iraq — on top of the $70 billion spent on the Iraqi adventure to date.
You probably saw the sound bite of West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd saying that "Congress is not an ATM" and that the president has to be held accountable.
I am guessing you may not have heard or read the complete text of his statement. So I will give you an abridged version.
The senator said, "The American people want to know more about the administration's long-term plans for Iraq, and it is the responsibility of Congress to help inform our public."
The senator took issue with the administration's comparison of its program for Iraq to the Marshall Plan used to rebuild Europe after World War II.
The Marshall Plan was debated in Congress for eight months and underwent tremendous scrutiny before being approved.
"The Marshall Plan was under taken in the spirit of internationalism" Byrd said. The invasion of Iraq has been the opposite; and it constitutes a threat to international cooperation.
His financial analysis is probably the most alarming aspect of the Byrd's statement.
Germany received $9.2 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars to rebuild its economy after the devastation of World War II.
"Great Britain received 24.7 percent of the Marshall Plan funds over the course of four years, the equivalent of $21.1 billion in 1997 dollars. Meanwhile, $20.3 billion are projected to be spent (rebuilding) Iraq in one year alone."
The senator advises that the president's overall one-year, $87-billion request is larger than the gross domestic product of 166 nations.
"It is the beginning of a potentially enormous commitment to Iraq that should be thoroughly understood by the American people."
Perhaps Americans are beginning to understand, and this may be one of the reasons for the decline in support for the president.
If the domestic economy does not produce the jobs that increasing numbers of jobless Americans are counting on over the next six months, George W. Bush may find himself in a domestic political quagmire.
Is it reasonable to expect a public that sees belt-tightening in its schools and at the state and local levels of government to remain supportive of President Bush?
While billions are spent in Iraq — and with the president's corporate friends benefiting from reconstruction contracts?
And what if those weapons of mass destruction are never found? Those weapons the president said made Saddam Hussein so dangerous he had to be taken out?
Will the president's credibility be damaged beyond repair, come November of 2004?
For those Americans living in communities in need of jobs, infrastructural improvements and affordable housing, the verdict may already be in.
Larger and larger numbers of them believe, come January 2005, George W. Bush deserves the same "reward" bestowed upon his father: a one-way trip to Texas on Air Force One.
David Johnson's "Subject to Change" is a twice-monthly column in The Star. Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland and a former mayor of Harvey.
Note how Mr. Johnson disses African-American Sec. of State Powell and NSA Rice in favor of KKK Grand Kleagle Byrd. I am outraged!! Why, if Byrd had his way, Ms. Rice and Mr. Powell would be cleaning houses and shining shoes!!!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Anyway, it may come to President Bush being only one term but along the way, he has tossed out dictators in Afghanistan and Iraq, reduced our obscene income taxes (while, unfortunately, not cutting spending) and has begun the rebuilding of our military which was gutted in the 90's. And if Mr. Johnson really believes that we can depend on the UN for support of our national security, he should go back to watching "West Wing."
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Now there are a couple of most impressive credentials.
It's become the last tactic of desperation for neocons.
Those of us who have been true conservatives all our lives have become quite accustomed to seeing it used as a diversion from the serious meat of issues.
The truth is, while I support the President's war against terrorism, and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (whether or not they ever find WMD), Dubya has bungled the economy big time. The 'Rats are totally clueless as far as proposing viable and effective alternatives, but it's still the Administration's own irresponsible policies that have given them a legitimate issue to harp about.
Wishful thinking, David. Maybe you'd better wake up and face reality--even if you don't like it--for your own good. Nothing is more dangerous than self-deception.
Or the Rats have learned not to propose anything until they have recaptured the WH. Afterall, both the President and Clinton have taken ideas from the other side and made them their own.
LOL! Well IF they were laughing it was because you ARE a joke.
It's evident you've never even been IN a UAW plant.
Sheeesh. Whenever I would visit a GM or Chrysler plant when I worked for an automotive supplier, I received cold glares simply because I drove a FORD. LOL! You might spot a foreign vehicle every now and then in the parking lot -- but I can guarantee that they were very few and far between. And you're also forgetting the HUGE employee discounts UAW members get if they work directly for one of the Big Three.
Spare me the hogwash about UAW members buying foreign cars.
I've been there firsthand and ain't buying that baloney.
I'm not sure what your point is.
You were WRONG, and HE was RIGHT.
The quality of American cars were crap in those years.
The industry was still directing resourcs to compliance with federal OSHA and EPA regulations imposed just a few years earlier, along with a drastic market shift that was precipitated by OPEC and the Arab Oil Embargo.
You boys including Buchanan who encouraged policies that exported jobs back then are the real joke.
Well in the words of Ronald Reagan: "There you go again."
Just like other liberals, you can't keep your facts straight, so you desperately resort to some kind of fictional character attack against Pat Buchanan.
People are beginning to see Bush has the worst record since Carter. In only 3 years - 3 million lost jobs, 2 wars and still no dead or alive Saddam, bin Laden, WMD, peace in Israel, or friendly nations in the world and the terrorist alert flag is still flying. Why should he have support?
Bush should not run again so another Republican can.
LOL!!!
The ultimate liberal trump card!
Blame it all on the most villainous conservative you can think of: "Tricky Dick" Nixon!
ROTFLMAO! You've successfully "outed" yourself!
LOL! You're still pi$$ed because McGovern got whooped. LOL!!!
Such as...??? Just curious. You would oppose the tax cuts, e.g.?
Even with the benefit of dramatic interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve, Dubya's tax cuts are failing to produce the economic stimulus that was promised. That is because the money is hemorrhaging OUT of our domestic economy as increased overseas investment and through the Trade Deficit.
Rather than merely cutting taxes to placate partisan demands, Dubya should've implemented a shift in tax policy. Yes, lower domestic taxation, but do it in combination with a reduction in federal expenditures along with raising of federal revenues through a relatively low (10~15%), flat-rate "revenue tariff" placed on ALL imported goods. Such a shift in policy would've retained more of the money from his tax cuts WITHIN our domestic economy and provide the desired stimulus effect. Those actions would've also avoided the record Budget Deficit that the Administration is now imposing on the nation.
Dubya didn't do that. Instead, he adheres to a politicly simplistic and myopic dogma of tax reduction while irresponsibly ignoring his duty to balance the budget by controlling expenditures or obtaining revenue from other sources.
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