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President striking out with public
You know the president's in trouble when he doesn't throw out the first pitch of baseball season
Date published: 4/6/2007
IF THERE WAS any doubt that the Bush administration has lost favor with the American public, it should have been dispelled this week.
The week began with students at Brigham Young University circulating a petition asking that the conservative Mormon school rescind an invitation to Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at graduation.
Then some students at American University lay down in front of Karl Rove's car following the presidential adviser's speech there.
There was no violence and no arrests but the students had to be forcefully removed.
Most disturbing of all, however, was that President Bush, for the second year in a row, declined to throw out the first ball to start the Major League Baseball season. One reported reason was that he was afraid of being booed.
Presidents have traditionally thrown the first ball since William Howard Taft made the initial ceremonial toss to Walter Johnson in 1910. None, save perhaps Richard Nixon in 1974, were afraid of being booed.
It is sad for our country to have a leader who feels he is so unpopular that he can't even mark the start of baseball season without being embarrassed.
But then, Bush has fallen so out of favor with Americans that monthly popularity polls are not even published anymore. Perhaps they are also too embarrassing.
Almost every poll that has anything to do with the Bush administration comes up decidedly negative. The president has passed the stage of being a lame duck. It seems that these days he has no political legs whatsoever.
What about that picture of Dick Cheney standing all by himself out in the White House shrubbery while Bush was holding a press briefing the other day? Has the vice president been literally banned to the bushes or was he hiding out just to make sure Bush didn't say something he wasn't supposed to say?
Strange!
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to Syria this week to seek help in resolving the war in Iraq.
Shouldn't that be the job of the Bush Administration? Shouldn't Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice be handling that task or have foreign leaders just given up trying to work with this White House?
Date published: 4/6/2007
Most recent reader comments:
No great surprise for an illegitimate leader
(posted by
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
Any enterprise based on lies is doomed to failure, and that goes back to the botched election in Florida in 2001 which everyone discounts these days. Dumbya shouldn't have ever really been in the Oval office, but his brother and that reptile Katherine Harris had to go to great lengths to get him just enough votes fraudently for the little dunce to squeek by - sad state that is reflected with the absolute disdain that most Americans have for these cretins. American democracy derailed floating up again.
Fair game
(posted by
toadrana
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
I hope this "report" is on the editorial page, and not pretending to be "news". It is a newspapers responsibility to be clear about expressing opinions vs. facts.
That said, let's vote them all OUT! in the next election.
decider
(posted by
alabamian
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
I really enjoy reading Donnie Johnston's columns. Keep them coming. I would rather have 535 people looking out for my grandson, who will be entering the military soon, than one lone decider that has the best interests of himself in mind. At least the 535 are thinking of the toll this war has taken on the military and their families.
Striking Out
(posted by
Ranko
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
This president has been striking out with the public for a very long time now. I can't believe he won't bend to what the public (voters) demand. I wonder if Bush can look himself in teh mirror or does he need another peson like Chaney to assure him that he's "The Man".
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