Tuesday, May 23, 2006

On Bush the WYSIWIG President

Blogger "The Anchoress" has posted a thoughtful, timely analysis of the G. W. Bush presidency, worth reading in full. In sum, she notes that Bush (a) has accomplished an awful lot in 5.5. years; (b) because of personal conviction still stands where he always has on every issue; (c) deserves more credit and support from the right wing of the Republican party, who in an imperfect world should be, as Reagan said, content to have received 75% of what they wanted.

In sum, with Bush, what you see is what you get. And if you look, it's been pretty good.

We continue to expect that the skilled professionals who have led the Bush political operation (yes, Evil Genius Karl Rove and his mutant henchmen) will by November make clear reality of the political situation, bringing out the base and rallying the middle to vote again for their convictions which remain firmly with the Reagan-Thatcher center right. The Anchoress has articulated this reality nicely, and it's only May.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I mostly agree with the post here, but on immigration, he was totally out of step with the right, and in fact with the majority of our nation. And so his subsequent sidestepping to the right over the course of the last 2 weeks has been very disappointing. The audio clip I heard (making a defense for the wall) was frustrating too - because he had the tone of someone who was weary of trying to convince people of what he believes in, which is laughable, because his position is only days old and it was the nation that convinced him, not vice versa.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

Since the country's attention on immigration is about 10 days old, we forgive our gentle readers for not remembering Bush's 2000 campaign discussions of expanded guest worker initiatives and other elements of an approach to immigration that we continue to find informed and enlightened, not to mention consistently articulated throughout his presidency.

Last-minute modification to positions is what politicians do to get bills passed.

But what a pity for our commentators that Bush is less than perfectly in line with their POVs.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

Enough to bring the republic to the threshold of collapse, to hear some tell it. Not enough even to affect marginally the employment rates of citizens and legal residents, to hear others tell it.

I suppose that no one knows, as illegals aren't amenable to being counted.

But stipulating the worst, the Bush record is still in that glorious 75% range.