Posted 8:55 PM by steve

The BIG reasons Bush is damaged goods, and is one that John Hawkins didn't cite...

Back when Bush was riding high in the polls, one of the things that people liked about him was his black-and-white view of the troubles facing us. There was no gray, people "were either with us or against us". He had a rather dismissive attitude towards the idiots at the United Nations. He said America should decide on what's best for America, not some bureaucrats in one or another European capital. Nor did he mince words about what he wanted to do; even while he was sometimes garbling the message, he managed to make sure everybody knew what he wanted to do, as evidenced by his pledge to get Bin Laden "dead or alive".

But then he changed, he started backpedaling and wavering and talking out of both sides of his mouth. He did it with his ill-advised decision to impose tariffs on steel imports, after depicting himself as someone firmly in support of free trade. He did it when he signed the campaign finance bill after saying not only that he was opposed to it but that he thought it unconstitutional. He did it when he presided over the biggest expansion of non-discretionary spending, after portraying himself as a conservative on spending. He did it with his reckless Medicare drug bill, where he not only added hundreds of billions of dollars to the entitlement pie but was forced to have his henchmen on the Hill play games with the voting rules in order to gain a majority.

And, worse of all, he stopped being the examplar of consistency and fortitude on matters of national security. He wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of American servicemen chasing the holy grail of democracy in Iraq. He did nothing while North Korea continued its mischief, and did so after blasting the Clinton Administration for getting us into the mess by, drum roll please, doing nothing. And he has done nothing to confront Iran... not over their nascent nuclear program.... not over their support for the terrorists in Iraq who are killing American servicemen... and not over their support for terrorists elsewhere in the world. And while he's admittedly been a better supporter of Israel than the Palestinian-terrorist loving boobs in the Clinton Administration, the American people see him putting pressure on Israel to back off, to appease, to surrender to the terrorists who are merely using the Israelis as an appetizer for the violence they would bring to us as soon as they could do so.

How else can one view him? He goes on and on about how setting a timetable in Iraq would mean dishonoring those who have died so far in combat... and yet is reportedly pressuring the Israelis into a ceasefire in Lebanon. He goes on and on about how stopping before the job is done in Iraq would mean a victory for the terrorists... and yet is reportedly forcing the Israelis into a ceasefire and withdrawal from Lebanon.

Back in the day, even people who disagreed with Bush on many of the specific components of his anti-terror policy could still appreciate the consistent focus he brought to the matter. But he's been losing those people with all of his wavering... leaving him with only people who disagree with him... and no respect.