…George Bush emerged from the 2004 presidential election victoriously. I’ve been giving him a hard time lately, but between him and John Kerry, I still think the better man won.
When I’d gone to bed in the early morning hours of November 2, 2004, I was very excited. At the time I was still at the day job, a non-profit organization heavily stocked with liberals. On the Metro that morning, it was as though someone had died. At work, it was worse: as though two people had died. I didn’t gloat or even mention the election, but I don’t think I would’ve been extended the same courtesy had John Kerry won.
Nine percent of voting D.C. residents voted for Bush, but I didn’t see any that day, judging from the faces of people on the street. I didn’t see one smile the whole day other than the one I saw in the mirror when I powdered my nose. 
George Bush can’t be all men to all people. He’s only one man, doing what he thinks is best, I suppose. I hate his amnesty-for-illegal-aliens plan, but I’m glad he’s in the White House screwing up instead of John Kerry.
(AFB photo)
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Who is in the Whitehouse does, and will not, make a difference in my opinion. The world is a complete mess, and the only frustration is the attempt to bring order to this chaos. I’m military, so at times I try and turn a blind eye to the politics. More often than not I have to chuckle, in my opinion nobody is right, and nobody can come up with a plan. Once you alleviate one problem there will be two more to replace it.
Thanks La Shawn for this. It was really nice and actually puts into perspective what is going on (there is no such thing as being all things to all people or making everyone happy).
La Shawn:
Nov 2 should be a day of celebration for Republicans:
1 The “Valerie Plame” flap is OVER. NO “pressure” was put on intelligence gathering, as demonstrated by the 911 commission. Plame was not “outed” by Libby, but by her own CIA. With every day that passes, it becomes more obvious – the CIA was against Bush, and they officially authorized leaks by their own – Joe Wilson and Micnael Scheur. There is no “Scandal in the White House”. It’s OVER.
2 The war in Iraq is going as well as it can be, in the real world. In the make believe world of Leftists, it can never be “good enough”.
3 “World opinion” is on our side. Few Euros are complaining, now that they are victims of the same radical Ialamic terrorists.
4 Our economy is as good as it has ever been.
5 Bush is selecting good conservative candidates for the Supreme Court, and WINNING.
And please don’t forget those conservatives appointed to district courts – some believe these courts are even more important than the Supreme Court, because most important decisions occure there; most never get to Supreme Court.
ths list goes on. Yet Leftists gloat over “failure of Bush Presidency” – not in the real world, but in “their world”.
LaShawn, what would you propose instead of the illegal immigrant amnesty program? I agree illegal immigration is a major problem and have written very pointed letters to my representatives about stopping this situation, but what is the answer? I think amnesty is the only viable option. We can’t round up at gunpoint the millions of illegals already here. We have to follow the money and that is jobs in most cases and crack down on employers among other things. As far as the criminal element, they need to be prosecuted. I am really angry about this situation and have written to both my senators. We ALL need to keep the pressure on to get something done. In the meantime, I’m really interested in what you think the alternative is?
#8 Dianne
I would like to piggyback on your remarks. The only way we can deal with the sheer numbers of illegal aliens is to do a national sweep at all law levels and put them into internment camps until we short them out. I do not think the country has the stomach for this. As you point out, it would require incarcerating millions of people, some with babies who are American citizens because they were born on American soil.
But the fact of a porous borders where the problem grows worse every day is challenging enough in its own right. I think most Americans agree that the borders should be greatly tightened and that President Bush has done little in confronting the issue.
I still believe that “illegal” means a law has been broken. If the law is meaningless, then change the attitude toward the law or dump the law.
There are millions of productive, skilled, hopeful people around the world who want to get into the USA but can’t. It makes a mockery of them to turn a blind eye to so many illegals.
If amnesty is the only “best” solution, then so be it. But it is only a temporary solution so long the borders are not attended to.
I’ve met those “productive, skilled, hopeful” people who’ve had or are having visa problems here. They would only be an asset to our nation, but our government doesn’t care about quality.
Now everybody is angry about the way things are going in Iraq and so wants to attack the reason that in the first place that took the country to war. If the intelligence reports are cooked up to attack Iraq just for the sake of personal gains then it is a horrible thing to do which even God detests. But if they are cooked because they certainly believed with all their heart that Saddam is a threat to United States and Iraq is a potential safe heaven for Al Qaeda then they had acted in the interests of the country. But we know now that it was a sheer mistake in the war against terrorism because in the hindsight we are all seeing that they have miscalculated and failed to predict the repercussions after the end of actual war. When I raise these questions to myself about the premise of going to war then I remember reading in the days before war in Iraq that even the Russians agreed with the US intelligence and so did many other reports from other countries. What was that all about? Of course everyone knows that British intelligence agreed and Tony Blair became part of the war. What is the truth? The truth is Saddam a perpetrator of ghastly acts against his own people along with his gang from the Bath party is gone and it is time we recognize that Iraqi’s who once lived in fear of Saddam for decades are out of his shadow. After over 2000 soldiers are dead and more than 15,000 injured it is not the time to look back and blame the reasons and demoralize the troops but look forward and stand with the brave troops and look for ways to clean up the mess. If you are on the side of finding fault with the Bush government then you haven’t lived in the world of fear where you would be shot down because you stared at the leader. The fruits of freedom are for everyone to enjoy and not for just some specific race and if you are part of the effort to stretch the freedom to people who haven’t enjoyed it for decades then I see no fault in your thinking or your motives.
What a roller coaster ride that day was! When I left work that afternoon, I thought it was quite likely that Bush was going to lose, and that Kerry Haters was going to become a major-league blog. I can’t tell you how happy that blog became worthless.
Aaahh…
all these memories
The nation is blessed to have George W Bush as President.
I just have to mention, LaShawn, as I become more and more aware of what Democrats are doing to Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland, as he runs for U.S. Senate–they are calling him the foulest of racist names and doing things like pelting him with Oreo cookies at appearances–it occurs to me that he is the new Jackie Robinson of our times.
The entire nation needs to get behind this man and help expose the base behavior of these hate-filled Democrats and help him ride all the way to the U.S. Senate. I’m donating to his campaign today. Who’s with me??
Well LaShawn, you are defintely in the minority on this (which in itself is not necessarily bad). All the polls show Bush’s approval on the wrong side of 40 and sinking fast. And recently polling also shows that among those who voted Bush in 2004, 6% now wish they had instead voted for Kerry. (Bush won by 2.5% – the lowest margin by an incumbent president in the history of the Republic)
Frank -
1 The “Valerie Plame†flap is OVER.
I don’t think so. Fitzgerald named a new Grand Jury to take over from the recently expired one. It is not improbable that Rove will in fact be indicted in the coming weeks (we’ll see – Rove’s own lawyer even said that the possibility of indictment still stands). The trials of Libby and Rove (IF he is indicted) could bring some very damaging information to light about who in the White House may have ordered the leak. Another key question that might come out during the trial(s) is whether Bush knew Rove/Libby were involved while he was at the same time telling the American people that he wanted to know himself who was involved.
2 The war in Iraq is going as well as it can be, in the real world. In the make believe world of Leftists, it can never be “good enoughâ€.
I don’t think it is that the war can never be good enough for “Leftists”, but that the war has turned out to be much worse than the Neo-cons told everyone it would be going in.
3 “World opinion†is on our side. Few Euros are complaining, now that they are victims of the same radical Ialamic terrorists.
That is simply not the case. There are numerous polls conducted in Middle Eastern countries, for example, that reflect enormous levels of anti-Americanism there, even in countries that are supposedly our closest allies. Previously, a large majority of Egyptians supported the US, and imediately after 9/11, sympathy there for America reached a peak of about 80%. Post US invasion of Iraq, the overwhelming majority of Egyptians revile us. Check it out:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.- article?id=4305
The article states: “Recent opinion polls of six Arab countries show that rising anti-American attitudes in the Arab world are due mainly to American foreign policy, as opposed to American civilization or values. According to the surveys, none of the six Arab countries returned approval ratings of the US above 20%… Most Arabs felt that America invaded Iraq not to democratize the region or remove Saddam Hussein, but instead to secure oil, protect Israel, and dominate the Muslim world…the overall approval ratings of the US ranged between an unprecedented low of two per cent in Egypt and a high of 20 per cent in Lebanon.â€
And approval of the US among European nations is scarcely better.
4 Our economy is as good as it has ever been.
At best, I think the jury is badly divided on that one. While some economic indicators compare favorably with the 90’s, many others show a marked deterioration. In particular, economists are increasingly worried about the unprecedented debt load the US incurring – debt that is owed to nations like China.
5 Bush is selecting good conservative candidates for the Supreme Court, and WINNING.
He certainly won with Roberts. But he stumbled badly naming an underqualified crony with Miers. We’ll see if he will end up “winning” with the Alito nomination.
I have began to realize that it doesn’t really matter if the president is Republican or Democratic.All that matters is that an elected President is given the chance to immortalize his name by his actions.
In the final analysis,no man becomes president to destroy his or her country.
I think that President Bush has tried all that he can, now history will tell if his best was good enough.
Minus party affiliations,America needs a great President always.
Aaron…
the minority is those who read the polls and believe them
Just like the polls that had Kerry winning a year ago
Actually, Renee, the polls a year ago were all showing a very close race – which it was.
Also, the White House gives much more attention to the polls than they let on.
I can see how people like Bush because of his policies. I can’t see how anyone could think he is a “better man.” I know I’m in the minority here, but the most impressive thing Bush has done on his own is get off the wagon. In my opinion, Kerry has more courage and integrity in his little finger then Bush will ever have.
I’m sure I’ll get edited, but so be it.
Aaron:
You are obviously not aware of other polls of “the people” in Arab countries.
In Iran, “the people” love Americans – they want us to rescue them from the mad Mullahs.
Most polls include the “intelligentsia” – journalists and politicians, or they are from the poorest areas. Educated Iraquis don’t want us to leave just yet.
In UK and France and Germany, there is generally silence about “American Imperialism” because terror attacks in Europe have made these people sing a different song.
And why shouold we give a damn if a lot of Euros and Arabs don’g like us? They are trading with us as never before. And their money is the same if they like us or not.
I remember that day well, too. I was on my way home for lunch and heard Paul Harvey announce on the radio Kerry’s succession. Good thing no one was in the car with me or they would have been deaf!
My young daughter says it well, “George Bush may make mistakes, but at least he can make up his mind.”
Looks like exciting days ahead with the Alito nomination.
I personally think that if Kerry merely equalled Bush’s job performance, most conservatives would be yelling for his head.
And rightfully so.
So I’ll actually agree with you: in this way, it’s better that Bush is in office. There is absolutely no way that the poor effectiveness and utter lack of accountability in this government, can be blamed on Democrats.
This one’s all you.
Let’s see how many of you will admit you voted for Bush in 10 years.
I’m betting there will be 120 Americans at most.
Any takers?
Frank – please post the link to these “other” polls in Arab countries that supposedly show support for the US. I’d be interested in seeing those.
http://www.angelfire.com/ky/kentuckydan/CommitteesofCorrespondence/index.blog?from=20051102
One Year Today, Lest We Forget
Theo van Gogh (July 23, 1957 – November 2, 2004)
So lying to get us into war, precipitating over 2,000 unnecessary deaths, having a top aide to the Veep indicted and the Prez’s own top aide still under investigation, “Brownie you’re doing a great job” (at letting poor people starve and drown, the rejection of the Geneva Accords,total obliviousness to world climate change, Harriet Miers, record deficits funded by our principal global rival, China, who may be stockpiling US debt to enable them to blackmail us into inaction when they send the fleet to Taiwan, failed talks with North Korea, no realistic reach out to Iran, notwithstanding the loathsomeness of its leadership, leading to yet another nuclear nation all would have happened on Kerry’s watch? Whatever you think of the man and his proposed policies, I don’t think Kerry in the white House could humanly have screwed up as badly as this President.
At some point, we are going to have to look at the what has become of the world in the last few years. Reflection and self-awareness are the only things which keep our ambitions and the reality of our world in check. In a democracy this task must be taken up by the private citizens as much as the politicians. We are now five years into the Bush presidency -more than halfway- and some reflective questions are in order.
Are we more hopeful or pessimistic? Are there more opportunities for our children or less? Do we feel more secure, peaceful? Is America more prosperous, united, loving as a nation? Are we leaving this place in a better state than when we inherited the world?
I’m afraid I, along with most Americans, would hedge toward the darker pessimistic answers at this time. Facing shrinking personal rights, lower income, higher deficit makes me wonder what was this grand conservative revolution? It certainly was not to roll back freedoms, increase spending, embroil us in war and leave this nation financially, diplomatically and morally bankrupt?
I’m 26-years-old and come from a fairly conservative family. What has happened in the past five years is baffling to everyone I know. The surplus has been squandered, and I don’t mean just monetarily. I mean the goodwill, trust, financial prospects, friendly ties with allies, all have been squandered. Was it to get rid of Hussein? Was it worth it? Was it to defeat the terrorist and if so, have we won? Was it to stop the axis of evil? Have we stopped them? Questions, questions and only more questions pile up along with 2,000 soldiers who lay dead, and 15,000 maimed, crippled and paralyzed American sons and daughters.
I don’t think we, as Americans, have lived up to our promise and ideals. As the human life toll piles up, I wonder when we -Democrat, Republican, Independent- are going to start looking around and asking some questions
Walter, Gov. Blanco also said that Brown was doing a good job about the same time Bush said it. At the time it appeared that Brown was doing a good job.
Ten years from now I will be proud to have voted for Bush. I used to be active in NOW and there still is enough feminist in me to be very happy that the role of women in the Mideast is undergoing change.
The Left is not going to attract many people by the “hate Bush, hate his appointees, hate his associates, hate his policies” approach. Also, they seem bent on convincing voters that they cannot be trusted with national security. They need new ideas–ideas that do not call for them to get more of my money to spend. And John Kerry’s practice of changing his mind on an issue every other week does not qualify as “new ideas.”
Bless you, LaShawn, you’ve said something good about W!
Yes, he’s made mistakes. And yes, all of us have had our disagreements with him.
But fifty years from now he’ll be remembered as the man who brought democracy to the Middle East, the man who did for the Arab world what Reagan did for Eastern Europe. He’s on track for being remembered as one of the great presidents of American history.
I’m grateful to have been able to vote for him.
wow, Aurin, that was a really well written post. Your questions should make evrybody think.
La Shawn, I just put a post up on our blog imagining President Bush standing before Congress, quoting from Psalm 35. Until I read your post I hadn’t realized that it had already been a year since he won the election. Last year for Halloween I wore my Bush/Cheney 04 t-shirt…some found it scary enough.
Have a great day!
If this is VICTORY, may we NEVER win again. Yhe fool won, and we are the fools who will pay the price.
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