"Source of Bush political success: claim that he could protect Americans"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

End of the Bush Era

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005; Page A27

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091201433.html

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

The breaking of the Bush spell opens the way for leaders of both parties to declare their independence from the recent past. It gives forces outside the White House the opportunity to shape a more appropriate national agenda -- for competence and innovation in rebuilding the Katrina region and for new approaches to the problems created over the past 4 1/2 years.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. He's gotten more of them killed than any president since Johnson

and more killed on our soil than any president since the civil war...

[calimary]

3. And we're as divided as a nation now as we were then.

Under the "leadership" of Mr. "I'm a uniter, not a divider."

Sigh...

Just. Another. Lie.

Here's what I sent to the aol chat address at the bottom of Dionne's column:

Re E.J. Dionne's "End of the Bush Era"

I hope TO GOD that this IS, indeed, the end of the Bush era!

Considering the five-year track record that this White House has compiled - for negligence, incompetence, cronyism, indifference, ruthless partisanship, blame-shifting, and generally remaining asleep at the switch whenever serious, credible warnings arrive - I'm not sure we can afford, or risk, sticking with this guy and his ideas and his policies and his attitudes for another three years.

I certainly don't feel safe with him on duty. Not in the least! What I DO feel is sympathy - for all those well-meaning voters who TRUSTED this president when he assured he, and not the other guy, would keep them safe, and have now been BETRAYED.

If you had a guy like this running YOUR office or YOUR department or YOUR business - would he still be working after YET ANOTHER calamity happened ON HIS WATCH? It's time Bush did the best and most honorable thing for the whole country and not just his party and his personal legacy: Resign or be IMPEACHED. Allowing "Brownie's" head to roll when the guy who installed him and publicly hailed the "heck of a job" he did - changes nothing. It solves nothing. And it improves nothing.



IMPEACHMENT NOW!!!

[praisethelowered]

2. I thought it was Diebold?