Posted on 11/05/2008 4:54:51 AM PST by meandog
US President George W. Bush late Tuesday telephoned his apparent successor, Democrat Barack Obama, to congratulate him on his "awesome night," according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "Mr President-elect, congratulations to you. What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. Laura and I called to congratulate you and your good bride," she quoted Bush as telling Obama.
"I promise to make this a smooth transition. You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself," Bush told Obama, she said.
The president also invited Obama and his family "to visit the White House soon, at their convenience," Perino said.
Bush was also to reach out to Obama's defeated rival, Republican John McCain, who conceded the fight shortly after 11:00 pm (0400 GMT).
Personally, I think Bush shows real class. My only complaint is his inability to stand up for himself and his decisions. However, I do believe that history will be a bit more fair and will see him for being the great president that he is.
I commend you for defending GW.
However, leadership comes from above. GW never defended himself. Never had a fight in him. Never saw his opponents as ENEMIES OF THIS GREAT NATION. Thought they were good Americans like himself. Reach across the aisle, uniter not a divider, blah blah blah. Never called BS on anyone. Never asked anyone to defend him. This causes people to question whether or not he believes what he says he believes. So precious few did.
The point is, he was ideologically empty, just like McCain. That is why niether can put up a believable defense of most conservative ideas; they don’t believe them deep down.
What a gracious statement he just made though. He is such a good and decent man. While he accomplished some good things (keeping us safe and the SCOTUS picks come to mind), too bad he was so badly advised on other issues.
It was a thumpin (sic)(sarc)
I know you’re getting slammed but, you’re right: much of this is due to a failure of President Bush.
It was a gracious statement. Poor Obama will be in for a rude awakening when the President opens ‘the books’ so to speak and let’s him in on precisely what he will face as President. I wonder if he will concede >sarcasm<.
War crimes? The RATS voted for the war financing too, and also testified as to the danger of Sadaam Hussein!
They'd need to have gall bladders the size of Jupiter to go there and open that can of worms.
I think that with regards to GWB, we learned something. Not all Presidents are going to be the “Great Communicator”, but they simply can not be a non-communicator, or a poor communicator. I agree that Bush is a good guy. But we needed leadership, and that involves getting out and selling people on good ideas.
With regards to McCain, the lesson here is that you cant win an election by trying to get people to vote AGAINST the other guy, you have to give them someone to vote FOR. I voted form McCain, but if I am being as honest as I can be, I was doing it to stop Obama, not because I had any great affection for McCain.
That being said, I think we must now clearly see our job as Americans to hold the Senate Republicans to the fire...no waffling in face of the media scrutiny to give in to Zero’s demands.
No, we need to stop supporting old RINOs and clean our own house.
I agree. Did you notice that Chris Shays of CT got voted out. He bent over so many times for the democrats and in the end it still wasn’t wasn’t enough for them. Yet it was way too much for the Republican voters. There must be at least 15 or 20 up there. I glad he’s gone. Maybe in 2 years time they can find a decent candidate.
To name a few: John McCain (yes, him--remember his anger at "torture" at Abu Grahb and Guatamano and giving the media sound bites to hit Pres Bush with?)
Don't forget these items:
March 2002, Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, aka McCain-Feingold-Thompson, passed the House and Senate. Seven years in the making, it was McCain's greatest legislative achievement and had become, in the words of one biographer, "one of the most famous pieces of federal legislation in modern American political history."
McCain and Lieberman wrote the legislation that created the 9/11 Commission ...
he and Fritz Hollings (yeah, the one that tried to hang Sarah) co-sponsored the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that federalized airport security under what became the Transportation Security Administration.
In May 2003, McCain voted against the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, the second round of Bush tax cuts which served to extend and accelerate the first (which he had also voted against), saying it was unwise at a time of war.
In November 2003, after a trip to Iraq, McCain was publicly questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq War, saying that "All of the trends are in the wrong direction" By December 2004, (at least he waited until President Bush won re-election) McCain was bluntly announcing that he had lost confidence in Rumsfeld.
He is one of the most difficult senators on Capitol Hill. He repeatedly fought the republicans and stonewalled them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
With regards to McCain, the lesson here is that you cant win an election by trying to get people to vote AGAINST the other guy, you have to give them someone to vote FOR. I voted form McCain, but if I am being as honest as I can be, I was doing it to stop Obama, not because I had any great affection for McCain.I agree. Four years ago, John Kerry's problem was that Democrats did not like him that much.
YES! One of the reasons I am no longer around here much.
If Sarah was not picked, he would have gone down in flames.
Just.Exactly.Right!
Meandog and Norman Bates are to blame. I sure they would like to blame Sarah Palin but the RINO lovers are the problem.
I believe that President Bush will be the last of the truly decent Presidents we have for a long time.
So true!
Bush should have been stumping hard for MCain...
If he had been more popular, it might have made the difference...
Even the Clintons stumped for Obama...
Half heartedly, but they did it...
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