ANDREW SULLIVAN: Bush wins because people know what he stands for

The Sunday Times ^ | November 10, 2002 | Andrew Sullivan

[Dark Wing]

ping

[The Raven]

When he wasn’t a cowboy, he was a fratboy. When he wasn’t a moron, he was unable to construct a simple sentence. When he wasn’t promoted beyond his abilities, he was a tool of corporate interests. When he wasn’t an unelected president, he was a cipher for the powerful people around him. On and on it went, and Bush didn’t do much to counter it. Why should he?

This burns me when the Dems use this tactic. And that's what it is a tactic...or maybe denial. It also burns me when (as Andrew does here) it's repeated as if it was a statement with any sort of fact or meaning behind it in the first place.

The Dems have no counter to the arrows hurled at their weak ideology other than to dismiss the attacker as stupid.

[ClancyJ]

Thanks for the article.

I expect Bush to continue as he has been - promoting his agenda. I don't expect him to swamp the congress with ultra conservative issues. I expect him to steadfastly do what he thinks is best for America. His moves will be very well thought out and will have far-reaching effects on this country. Many conservatives will complain - but, when they look back at what he has accomplished, they will see the far-reaching moves and how effective they have been for conservatism.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Two years ago Bush should have been buried by an incumbent Democrat vice-president after eight years of unparalleled prosperity.

BULLSPLATTER the unparalleled prosperity clinton and gore had nothing to do with other than destroying it by sitting on their hands and overvaluing the dollar in the marketplace and leaving bush with a faultering and failing economy

[MHGinTN]

The blow 9/11 put on the economy is another rarely connected dot. This is how foreign policy and domestic health for the economy are intertwined. Had sinkEmperor conducted foreign policy effectively, the economy would have faded somewhat but the deep recession we now have (with a too low interest rate designed to fuel consumerism but which takes a bite out of savings empowerment for the little guy) would not have materialized. Democrats cannot see the connections because they've a blind spot in foreign policy. Never forget that it was x42 who first declared war on international terrorism but did zero to prepare this nation or conduct even a shade of effective war on same. Democrat foreign policy is as hollow as clinton's cruise missile messages ... all expensive noise with no useful effect. Thank God for our patriotic military and a man now worthy of their allegiance.

[TLBSHOW]

We won one for the gipper!

[hinckley buzzard]

Why not gloat? Hey--go ahead and gloat. It's great fun.

It's OK for us because we are under the media radar; no one will be quoting us on the New York Slimes editorial page or on the stump by some other democrap hellraiser. We won't be posted on the other team's locker room bulletin board.

But it's a luxury our leadership cannot publicly indulge. And it isn't GW's style.

[Pokey78]

Pinging the Sullivan list.

[Rocko]

Bump.

[Otta B Sleepin]

Would you please add me to the Sullivan ping list? Thanks!

[stands2reason]

I think I gloated enough for both myself and Bush...

[nicmarlo]

On and on it went, and Bush didn’t do much to counter it. Why should he?

The president knew it helped him that his opponents in the media and Congress underestimated him.

Bush is a humble master and Commander-in-Chief. Thank God he is our President.

[ThePythonicCow]

Is the most important thing about a Senatorial candidate his party alignment? Does the GOP only nominate persons who are fit for public office, or at any rate more fit than their opponents?

There were other things that mattered as well. Tim Hutchinson, a sitting Republican Senator, lost, because he had not lived up to his pro-family platform.

But party-lines were a bigger issue than usual this time. Because the Democrats made it so. The Democrat party "leadership" has been hijacked by scoundrels, who are putting their own political future ahead of the nation. I'll take a good Democrat, like say Zell Miller, over a bad Republican. But the current Rat party leadership must be removed from power.

[Pokey78]

done.

[Republic]

Ivan-it really has been a glorious week for everyone over here on this side of the big pond who loves the very foundations of this nation. Who would fight the good fight to preserve those marvelous words that have come to mean so much more since the insidious corruption of the klintonian reign of terror and assault upon our nation and then the horrendous attack upon our nation on 9/11.

And Ivan-I thank God first and with full trust, and hard, hard work on the part of our President and all of the volunteers who supported him in this most MARVELOUS UPSET of historical mid election yr trends.

[MadIvan]

I was here 4 years ago and I remember the black, black days of Clinton's apparently triumph. I remember when Elian was seized and temporarily losing my mind with rage at the images of the seizure. I remember how smug those pompous arses in the Democrat party were.

So right now is rather like a dream. What has involved me in all this is what has offended me - the Democrats simple inability to tell the truth. It feels like the truth is coming back to punish them, and punish them hard. But the fight is neverending - as a friend of mine once told me, evil never dies, it merely goes to hell to regroup. Until Hillary and Bill are done, finished, flushed out of the body politic along with their minions, I don't think any of us are safe.

Regards, Ivan

[terilyn]

Not bad indeed for a stupid bumbling fratboy turned cowboy!

/off sarcasm

At least 53% of the population "gets it"!

[Redbob]

Or you could judge Senate candidates by the judicil candidates they'll give a fair hearing to, and the tax legislation they'll support.

Oops, I think that puts you back to voting by party affiliation!

[SuziQ]

Republicans, now in the majority in both houses of Congress, are already talking about banning partial birth abortion, corporate tax breaks, and the like. Bush should restrain them. The Republican majority in the Senate is still only 51-47 and long-term demographic trends favour the Democrats.

Good column by Andrew Sullivan, but I have to disagree with him on Partial Birth Abortion. Over 75% of the country agrees with the Republicans on this issue. The only reason it hasn't been banned is because when it passed in the 90's, x42 vetoed it. Then when Dubya got into office, and the Dems took over the Senate, they wouldn't let it get to the floor for a vote because they KNEW the Ban would pass and he would sign it! The Repubs. have NOTHING to lose going for this one!