"You sir, are no Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton...(MUST READ)

[SoCalDem]

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=526262.html

You, sir, are no Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton
Nuala O’Faolain NYT
Wednesday, June 23, 2004


Bush visits Ireland

President George W. Bush is scheduled to make an overnight visit to Ireland this week for a two-hour summit meeting. On Friday, he’ll fly into Shannon, an airport whose use by the American military during the Iraq venture has been highly controversial here. Substantial protests are planned, but the protesters will, of course, be kept far from the president. He won’t even hear their chants. No doubt American television will show the president and his wife surrounded by harp-playing colleens and little girls in ringlets stepdancing in a medieval castle — this is an election year, after all, and there is an Irish-American electorate. In fact, the president and the Irish won’t encounter each other at all. The loss is ours, but it is America’s, too.

Bush is coming to a country that has been passionately pro-American since America took in our people after the Great Famine in the 1840s. Presidential visits have been a gift from that diaspora. John F. Kennedy came and assuaged some of the pain of all the farewells in our history. Richard Nixon came; I remember running almost three miles to the obscure graveyard in which an ancestor of his had been providentially discovered, beside me a couple carrying a plump 3-year-old between them, hoping to show the child an actual U.S. president. We didn’t make it, but we cheered when we saw the presidential helicopter take off over the bog.

Ronald Reagan came and protesters against American actions in Central America landed in jail, but on the entertainment side, he was the perfect partner in genial, Oirish leprechaunery. It was also believed that he leaned on Margaret Thatcher to bring her to negotiations with us on the future of Northern Ireland. That’s what has mattered most in modern Ireland’s relationship with America. Its friendliness to us has often been the power behind our dealings with Britain.

The Clinton administration and both the Clintons went further. They put a lot of time and effort into installing a political structure in Northern Ireland that will work, however long it may be delayed by local malice. When Bill Clinton visited the republic the place was brought to a standstill. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. If Clinton came back today, we’d find some way, even in the post-Sept. 11 world, to welcome him. But even in that world, is security the only consideration keeping Bush and the Irish people apart?

snip...
please read the rest,....it's well worth it

[glitch]

1. beautiful article - thanks for posting nt

[Eloriel]

2. Thanks!

Looks good.

[NNadir]

3. Lovely. Thanks for that.

The author posits that the American people, unlike the person occupying their White House, are still loved. I doubt such love will long survive should we elect this criminal the office he has usurped though.

BUSH MUST BE DEFEATED.

[SoCalDem]

4. If he "wins" again, all bets are off..

The rest of the world knows he cheated his way in, but if we allow it to happen again, they will have nothing but disgust for us.

[question everything]

5. Yesterday, when the news mentioned that Bush flew to Shannon

I recalled our trip to Ireland last fall. From Shannon we took a bus to Gallway where Kennedy made a speech in August 1963. That place is now dedicated to him with a plaque.

When we took a bus tour in Dublin we were shown the store where Hillary Clinton visited and where she agreed to meet with the tour bus while she was there.

And it was clear to me that, indeed, Bush is no Kennedy nor Clinton.