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Parakeet
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Parakeet
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America stands for freedom and justice. George Bush is a great president.

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Zebra
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Zebra
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A
Massively
Egotistical
Record in
Imagining
Complete
Authority.

That's what it stands for.

And the fact that George Bush has little influence on his country's policies any longer, attests to just how 'great' he is....

"Bush's "Active/Negative" Presidency

Recent events provide an especially good illustration of Bush's fateful - perhaps fatal - approach. Six generals who have served under Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld have called for his resignation - making a strong substantive case as to why he should resign. And they are not alone: Editorialists have also persuasively attacked Rumsfeld on the merits.

Yet Bush's defense of Rumsfeld was entirely substance-free. Bush simply told reporters in the Rose Garden that Rumsfeld would stay because "I'm the decider and I decide what's best." He sounded much like a parent telling children how things would be: "I'm the Daddy, that's why."

This, indeed, is how Bush sees the presidency, and it is a point of view that will cause him trouble.

Bush has never understood what presidential scholar Richard Neustadt discovered many years ago: In a democracy, the only real power the presidency commands is the power to persuade. Presidents have their bully pulpit, and the full attention of the news media, 24/7. In addition, they are given the benefit of the doubt when they go to the American people to ask for their support. But as effective as this power can be, it can be equally devastating when it languishes unused - or when a president pretends not to need to use it, as Bush has done.

Apparently, Bush does not realize that to lead he must continually renew his approval with the public. He is not, as he thinks, the decider. The public is the decider.

Bush is following the classic mistaken pattern of active/negative presidents: As Barber explained, they issue order after order, without public support, until they eventually dissipate the real powers they have -- until "nothing [is] left but the shell of the office." Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all followed this pattern.

Active/negative presidents are risk-takers. (Consider the colossal risk Bush took with the Iraq invasion). And once they have taken a position, they lock on to failed courses of action and insist on rigidly holding steady, even when new facts indicate that flexibility is required.

The source of their rigidity is that they've become emotionally attached to their own positions; to change them, in their minds, would be to change their personal identity, their very essence. That, they are not willing to do at any cost.

Wilson rode his unpopular League of Nations proposal to his ruin; Hoover refused to let the federal government intervene to prevent or lessen a fiscal depression; Johnson escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam while misleading Americans (thereby making himself unelectable); and Nixon went down with his bogus defense of Watergate.

George Bush has misled America into a preemptive war in Iraq; he is using terrorism to claim that as Commander-in-Chief, he is above the law; and he refuses to acknowledge that American law prohibits torturing our enemies and warrantlessly wiretapping Americans.

Americans, increasingly, are not buying his justifications for any of these positions. Yet Bush has made no effort to persuade them that his actions are sound, prudent or productive; rather, he takes offense when anyone questions his unilateral powers. He responds as if personally insulted.

And this may be his only option: With Bush's limited rhetorical skills, it would be all but impossible for him to persuade any others than his most loyal supporters of his positions. His single salient virtue - as a campaigner - was the ability to stay on-message. He effectively (though inaccurately) portrayed both Al Gore and John Kerry as wafflers, whereas he found consistency in (over)simplifying the issues. But now, he cannot absorb the fact that his message is not one Americans want to hear - that he is being questioned, severely, and that staying on-message will be his downfall."


from here

Last edited by Alexandra; 02/28/07 09:46 AM.
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Wolf
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Wolf
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Originally Posted By: Jim Colyer
America stands for freedom and justice. George Bush is a great president.


Americans love democracy in America and autocracy in other countries.

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M
Jellyfish
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Jellyfish
M
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Yes, many people associate people living in a certain region or religion to be terrorist. I think that there are terrorist in Iraq but it does not justify waging war on them. But then again, that was not the main reason for the War on Iraq in the first place.


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Wolf
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Wolf
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But the result is devastating Iraq. Who will pay for the destruction of that society?

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Parakeet
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Parakeet
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George Bush is the first great president since FDR. There was never any guarantee of finding Bin Laden. Bush had to go after the Muslim with the highest profile after 9/11. That was Saddam Hussein. Saddam was justly hanged by the Iraqi people as a result of George Bush's actions. The Iranians may hang Ahmadinejad before it is over.


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Parakeet
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Parakeet
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28,500 troops coming to Baghdad.

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Parakeet
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Ahmadinejad needs to think twice.

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Wolf
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Wolf
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Does the CIA not know of whereabouts of Bin Laden? Pl. say yes or no.

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Parakeet
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Parakeet
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Yes! Bin Laden is on planet Earth!

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