Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

This Administration Has Failed in Many Ways

Much to my surprise, regret, and great disappointment, I feel that George W. Bush and his Administration has let me down and let the public at large down in serious ways. While no President can score in the high 90’s with everyone, I thought he would with me. My list of his failures is by no means complete, most likely because I haven’t the visibility or recall into all of the machinations that have gone on for six or so years. My complaints are stark and simple:

1. We are not winning in Iraq. In the end, this is Bush’s fault, not the military’s fault. I supported Bush in the invasion, but I wrote many posts criticizing the direction the war in Iraq was taking; notably too few troops to do all that was necessary, too namby-pamby a set of rules of engagement, too much emphasis on winning hearts and minds, and refusal to act as the occupiers we really should have been.

2. We have overspent our domestic budgets every year by enormous amounts, and with large pork add-ons.

3. We did not fix Social Security.

4. We did not fix Medicare and the Health System generally.

5. We did not fix the illegal immigrant problem, or even obtain a good start. Amnesty seems to be the Bush cure, which is a non-winner in my book. The fence is being steadily downgraded to irrelevancy.

6. We did not build up the military far enough to have reserves that could be deployed readily. Bush did not push hard for an augmented force structure from day one, thus restoring the 33% cuts of the Clinton era. War on the cheap is stupid.

7. Homeland Security has not been a solid success, despite the lack of attacks on the US. I credit the Islamic terrorists for perceiving that if they did attack us at home, it would only strengthen our resolve to win in Iraq, so they have lain off.

8. We have made virtually zero progress in educating the public on the threat of Islam to our security and to the world’s security. The Administration has not seemed to be willing to escalate the war of ideas to where it should be by now.

9. Both Iran and North Korea are still in the process of making nuclear weapons. It seems that Bush has caved in to the idea of talk-talk at every turn. Iran, especially, is still at the center of Islamic Jihad, followed closely by Saudi Arabia, our so-called friend.

10. I fail to see that we are making rapid strides towards relative oil independence, hydrogen propulsion, and other large sources of energy. Is this because Bush is an oil man, and is defending the oil industry?

11. Although it is a two-way sword, we did not eliminate the 60% rule in the Senate, thus allowing the Democrats to continue to block vital legislation and appointments to the courts.

12. Bush himself has made some horrific faux pas, including rubbing the shoulders of the German Prime Minister from behind at a state dinner, and selecting Harriet Meyers for the Supreme Court, to name two.

It seems that Bush lost his way a year or so ago, and never found the way back. Or, perhaps, he simply cannot find the handle for convincing the public of his directions. He hasn’t convinced me.

This is not to say that any Democrat could or would have done better. I am convinced we would have been terribly worse off with either Kerry, or Gore in the Presidency, but this is pure speculation on my part— though accurate, I believe. We will be even worse off in 09, if the Democrats win big. They are the party of Leftwing Devil’s Advocates, and everyone knows that constant DA’s have no solutions for their criticisms, except feel-good, catastrophically bad legislation.

Labels: Bush

# posted by Mannning @ 4:54 PM