Link: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/May-06-Fri-2005/news/reid.html
So our Senate Minority Leader thinks Bush is a loser? Tell you what, given your party's track record lately and the fact that you got your job because your predecessor lost his bid for re-election (too many votes down for the electoral fraud in Shannon County to kick in like it did in 2002), I think I'd be holding my tongue.
It's an amazing thing. I see a lot of very vocal people who think Bush has done this wrong or that wrong or the bad economy in Michigan is all his fault or he started a war for oil, but when 52% of the voters went his way in 2004 and his re-election brought the GOP Senate and House majorities upward, you kind of wish he'd keep being a "loser."
And this is not from the perspective of a Bush slappy. In 2000, I actually was a Forbes supporter until he dropped out. And I only voted for Bush in the primary to assure McCain wouldn't win. Plus I certainly do have objections to some of his policies:
- He is not doing nearly enough to address the problem of illegal immigration. I do not think the idea of guest worker passes will be anything other than amnesty for those who flouted the laws to get here and do little to assimilate themselves into the culture once they arrive.
- Bush's "No Child Left Behind" is a problem; not from the usual perspective of the teachers' unions, who don't like the accountability aspect of the law, but from the Tenth Amendment perspective that schools should be governed by the individual states. All NCLB does is increase the stick of losing federal funds for the carrot of limited school choice - you can get out of a bad school, but what if there's no good schools nearby?
- He has yet to wield the veto pen for any bill, let alone a pork-laden spending bill. This means we have the largest budget ever this year, with most of it being items that would be managed much better if he would stand up to Congress and tell them "pass this bill without (fill in the blank)."
On the other hand:
- It takes a lot of courage to fight terrorism and make the hard decisions to send our troops off to a war on terror. I support both our troops and their mission.
- The tax cuts he got through a split Congress got us back from the recession that started at the end of Bill Clinton's term and was refueled by the tragedy of 9-11.
- Social Security has needed reform for awhile, and his idea of personal accounts may be the beginning of seeing Social Security finally "wither on the vine," to be replaced by a system where saving for your retirement is a choice, not a mandate.
And I shudder to think what we would be like under a Gore or Kerry presidency.
It's going to be very difficult for whoever wins the GOP nomination in 2008 to run far from the ideas Bush has enacted, because there's overwhelming support for them anywhere you find flyover country. Even here in our blue state the counties of the Eastern Shore went unanimously for Dubya.
So, far from being a loser, Bush is keeping above the fray. The biggest loser is Harry Reid, bitter at being saddled in the minority for the foreseeable future and watching as his big-government ideas are deluged by a red conservative tide sweeping the country, especially among the youth. Maybe they're "South Park" conservatives, but they're conservative nonetheless and I look forward to the best and brightest of their generation running the country. Meanwhile the true losers will bitch and complain in the few liberal bastions remaining, pining for the good old days of the Commander-in-Heat, Bill Clinton.
