Nita Chaudhary of MoveOn.org, in an email today wrote:
Here's the situation: John McCain and Sarah Palin are repeatedly deceiving, manipulating, and flat-out lying. And polls are showing that some of those lies are convincing voters.Bob Woodward's story of the Bush White House handling of the wars over the past two years is continuing in the Washington Post. It is notable that he has consistently reflected confidence in public that the United States was "winning" or more recently "succeeding" in the wars, while telling his staff that he needed more information to know what was happening and implying that he lacked confidence in the conduct of the war.
Palin says she opposed the "Bridge to Nowhere"—when in fact she fully supported it. McCain says Obama wants sex-ed for kindergartners—when he voted for a bill to protect them from sexual predators.1 And Swift Boat style groups are literally accusing Obama of consorting with terrorists.
McCain too seems to be telling the public what he thinks telling them will do him the most good, rather than trying to tell the truth.
Woodward writes this about his last interview with President Bush:
By his own ambitious goals of 2001, he had fallen short. He had not united the country, but had added to its divisions and had become the most divisive figure in the country. He acknowledged to me that he had failed "to change the tone in Washington." He had not rooted out terror wherever it existed. He had not achieved world peace. He had not attained victory in his two wars. Bush himself has noted this, declaring in a Sept. 15, 2007, speech that success in Iraq "will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement beyond my presidency."I think it is clear that if the nation elects John McCain president, he will continue this legacy. In fact, given his admitted lack of understanding of economics and that of his running mate, it may well be that his conduct of domestic economic policy will be worse than his conduct of foreign policy.
2 comments:
John, The best thing I have read recently about the campaign was from Dan Balz - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/10/the_politics_of_polarization.html#more
Tomorrow is Sept 11. Bush could have been one of the greatest presidents of all time, if he had chosen to bring Americans together. But after 9/11, he exploited the tragedy to drive his agenda. I don't thing McCain would have done the same thing. But now, McCain has shown that he will do anything to win. But I think that if McCain wins, there is very little chance that he could unite the country. Even if he wanted to. Part of the problem is all the promises he made to the Republicans on the right. If he compromises, they will be furious. If not, it will be gridlock.....So, I think Bush's legacy will have been to divide the country - well beyond his term....
I think you are right that 9/11 was and was correctly perceived by the Bush administration as a great opportunity to move the country, and I think you are right that a great president would not only have brought the nation together but would have done so to move us in the direction of promotion of peace and human rights. I also agree that the Bush administration failed to live up to that opportunity.
I don't know what McCain would have done, and I suppose it is unfair to tag him with counterfactual speculation as to what he might have done.
It was said of FDR that he was a man of "great temperament" and maybe at times "that try men's souls" we need leaders of great temperament. Sometimes our ability to think through challenges fails, and we must fall back on temperment to do the right thing.
The Kennedy administration had brains galore in the person of Robert McNamara and great temperment in the persons of Robert Kennedy and Harris Wofford as it confronted the problems of the Cold War and Civil Rights. I think I prefer the great temperament.
It is hard to tell in advance, but I think it more likely that an Obama administration would have the right temperament to face future challenges than would a McCain administration. McCain has great personal courage, but seems willing to surround himself with people trained by Karl Rove, lobbyists, and ultraconservatives -- people whose temperament I distrust. Obama seems to be leading a team with a respect for the common man and an understanding of the difficulties of bringing progressive change.
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