LA Times Editorial - A Failed Presidency

[rjbny62]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-bush1nov01,0,5806489,print.story

[Rowdyboy]

1. Sort of a non-endorsement, half-hearted, almost endorsement

Maybe, depending on what your interpretation of what "is" is. That piece took some real editorial guts <<<sarcasm>>>

[KlatooBNikto]

2. A failure in life begets a failed presidency.Highly correlated.

[realFedUp]

3. snip of the text....

If elections were solely a job performance review, President George W. Bush would lose in a landslide. He has been a reckless steward of the nation's finances and its environment, a divisive figure at home and abroad. It's fair to say that Bush has devalued the American brand in the global marketplace.

What keeps this a close race is voter discomfort with Sen. John F. Kerry and the success of Republicans in stoking concerns about Kerry's fitness for office. But the thrust of the Bush campaign message — essentially, you are stuck with me in this frightful time because the other guy is too unreliable — is a tacit acknowledgment that he can't allow the election to be a referendum on his record.

Bush says John Kerry is ill suited to lead American troops and allies in Iraq, given the senator's doubts about the wisdom of going to war there in the first place. The president's strongest moments during the debates came when he pressed this line of attack — that you can't succeed in a mission you don't believe in. Kerry missed a golden opportunity to turn such reasoning to his advantage, for if there is an overarching theme to the Bush failure as president, it's his inherent disdain for the role of the federal government and for the very act of governing. The mission of the presidency is not one Bush believes in. Though he may see himself as the man chosen by a higher authority to protect the nation, Bush spends a lot of time bashing Washington and, by extension, the government he leads.

Try to imagine Franklin D. Roosevelt being so disdainful of government while trying to rally the nation during World War II. It wouldn't have worked. Nor would it have worked if he had starved the Treasury of the resources needed to accomplish the mission. That is what Bush has done with his reckless tax cuts and unabated domestic spending.

continued

[realFedUp]

4. This editorial is strongly worded

against Bush's policies and his character:

snip-

Bush's lack of seriousness — and his stubborn refusal to alter course in the face of altered circumstance — explains his administration's notorious hostility toward expertise of all kinds. Whether it is his own Treasury secretary telling him his tax cuts are no longer affordable, intelligence analysts raising doubts about a supposed Al Qaeda-Saddam Hussein tie, or his proconsul in Iraq clamoring for more ground troops, Bush has a way of freezing out expertise he deems inconvenient. The terribly botched occupation of Iraq — and the lost opportunity it represents according to the president's own assessment of the stakes in that conflict — is the price the United States pays for its president's obstinacy.

[GaryL]

5. This is crap!

Coming close to loosing may make the chimp a better president? This is banal bullshit at it's worst.