|
|
|
|
All News & Blogs
E-mail Alerts
Political food for thought at the Thanksgiving table
|
|
RICHARD AMRHINE Richard Amrhine's archive E-mail Richard Amrhine |
By Richard Amrhine
Nevertheless, the Bush administration has always behaved as though it won by a landslide. The wingnuts on the right have overly influenced his policies, while his "politics of inclusion" included only those to the right of center. He failed to feel the pain of Katrina, and has pursued an odd new concept: Republican spendthriftism.
He has contaminated his party to the degree that any GOP presidential candidate with a viable message--we're still waiting--will have to survive the Bush plague, which is a much more dire condition than Clinton fatigue.
What have we learned?
Iraq has taught us that it's what happens
after
"mission accomplished" that is the hard part. How we treat other diplomatic tests--Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, North Korea--Defense
for a reason.There is a difference between being the world's leader and the world's indoctrinator. Mexican President Vicente Fox recently labeled President Bush as "quite simply the cockiest guy I have ever met." Maybe that's because Bush thinks you can force-feed democracy to nations with centuries of unique cultural and religious history behind them. Well, maybe you can't.
Richard Amrhine is a writer and editor with The Free Lance-Star.