"The Bush Era did not begin when he took office, or even with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It began on Sept. 14, 2001, when Bush declared at the World Trade Center site: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were lucky to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat. Very nearly all of us rallied behind him.

If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept. 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an extreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Security as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...le/2005/09/12/AR2005091201433.html

Uh oh, ANC, you spoke too soon on that other forum, dude.  

But reading the article, I agree with it completely.

[Edited 2005-09-13 16:57:17]

Quoting Falcon84 (Reply 1): Uh oh, ANC, you spoke too soon on that other forum, dude.

Son of a ...........

Quoting Falcon84 (Reply 1): Uh oh, ANC, you spoke too soon on that other forum, dude.

Perhaps, but I'm duly impressed . . . coherent thought, makes a point, no capital letters, no incessent .............., no ranting. Well Done Smitty.

I have to say... either this isin't the REAL RSmith, or a couple months off did him really well  

We had an era?

I thought we just had two bookends of failed presidencies by father and son at either end of 8 years of general prosperity combined with softcore porn at the White House.

Oh there's an era alright, just not one you'd want to brag about.

The 'GW Bush' era is comming to the beginning of it's end, even though it is only 9 months into his 2nd term. The policies he encouraged that may have made it easy for the events of 9/11 to occur. His decisions as to Iraq and the middle east are well documented for their dishonesty. His slow reactions as to Katrina may have hurt his creditability further. His lack of ability to think quickly on his feet along with his low level (like many Americans) of intellectual interest, his lack of interest in the news (he brags he doesn't read the newspapers, rarely sees TV news), his practical rejection of some science, and his overreliance on God all make him look like a fool. Worse, he has surronded himself with yes-men/women, whom are afraid to tell him the truth, and worse particularly the neo-cons with the most access to him have pushed him in directions of a chosen, corporate few.
I can't wait for January 2009 for a Democrat to take back the White House (but NOT Hillary Clinton!).

Quoting LTBEWR (Reply 7): I can't wait for January 2009 for a Democrat to take back the White House (but NOT Hillary Clinton!).

When are people going to understand that things are not much different when a donkey is in the white house. They're all owned and operated by the same people whos mission is blinding greed and wreckless self interest at the expense of everyone else.