Posts Tagged ‘George Bush’
November 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
Either the Greeks should pull out of the Euro or the Europeans should kick them out.
That is how I look at the current debt crisis that has hit the financial markets.
I had the opportunity to peak behind the scenes of thinking of leading European institutions in the year 2000, just as the Euro was transitioning to become the leading currency on the continent.
I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in a European Union Fellowship, and I got a chance to spend some quality time in Brussels and Strasbourg.
I worked for Speaker Hastert at the time, and I left days after the Bush-Gore election, which still had not been decided (and wouldn’t be for the whole time I was in Europe).
The Europeans were nervous about Bush. They wanted Gore to win. The Vice President shared their perspectives on global warming (this was especially of interest to the Danes and the Finns), and they didn’t think that Bush had the intellectual curiosity to be President. Read more...
Tags: Al Gore, Bailout, Euro, Financial Crisis, Franc, France, George Bush, Germany, Greece, Mark
Posted in Theory | No Comments »
September 9th, 2011 by John Feehery
It was back to school night in the Feehery Household, so I missed the President’s address to the Congress.
Bummer.
I knew the President was giving a big speech because all the roads around the Capitol were closed, complicating my effort to find parking at Back to School Night (my son’s school is about 4 blocks from the white domed building).
I can’t say I was that disappointed to miss the speech. In my Congressional career, I saw plenty of joint sessions where a President makes this or that speech. I remember when George Bush the first gave an address to Congress where he tried, in vain, to shift his attention to the fascinating things that were happening in the rest of the world to a domestic agenda back here at home. But Bush didn’t have much of the “vision” thing, and he ultimately lost. Read more...
Tags: America, Americans with Disabilities Act, Back to School Night, Barack Obama, Bill Daley, Blacks, budget deficits, Bush tax cuts, Civil Rights bill, Clean Air Act, Congressional Republicans, Dodd-Frank, George Bush, Government, high unemployment rates, Hispanics, John Boehner, medicare, Native Americans, Obamacare, Osama Bin Laden, Persian Gulf War, Politics, President Obama, President’s address to the Congress, Republicans, Sam Skinner, short-term economic stimulus, Social Security, state and local unions, Supercommittee, TARP, taxes, The Obama speech, Unemployment, White House, Women
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Media, Politics, Promises, Theory, Unemployment, health care, housing crisis, speeches, spending, taxes | No Comments »
August 15th, 2011 by John Feehery
I caught some of Michele Bachmann’s appearances as I drove down to Florida on my family vacation. She was doing one of the Sunday talk shows after her Ames, Iowa victory, and she sounded articulate and smart enough to hold her own.
The Republican Party of Iowa has already had an outsized influence on the GOP primary process. By elevating Bachmann and the Libertarian Ron Paul over Tim Pawlenty, the Straw poll voters knocked out the former Minnesota Governor.
Tim Pawlenty made an attractive candidate on paper. He had a good record. He is a nice guy. He is plenty conservative. What he didn’t have was a compelling message. He wasn’t crazy enough to appeal to either the Bachmann or Paul supporters (or the Herman Cainers either), and he wasn’t establishment enough to attract Mitt Romney type money.
I believe and continue to believe that if he portrayed himself as a warrior for the middle class, he could have made a bigger dent in the campaign. Instead, he kind of wandered from one message to another, at one point warning the party that it was becoming too isolationist, at another, claiming that he was a reformer with results, ala George Bush. Read more...
Tags: America, Ames, Ames Straw poll, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, election, George Bush, Governor Rick Perry, Iowa, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Obama, Politics, President Obama, Presidential election, Red Staters, republican party, Republicans, Ron Paul, Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty, White House
Posted in GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, election | No Comments »
August 9th, 2011 by John Feehery
Barack Obama just turned 50 years old. He is still a young man (by contemporary standards). He still plays basketball regularly, he likes to golf, he enjoys spending quality time with his daughters.
I have an idea for him. He should announce that he is taking a break at the end of next year from politics. Instead of running for re-election, Mr. Obama should tell the country that he is going into private business.
He has plenty of time to run again should he discover that he still has some work he wants to finish as President.
He can always run again. He can pull a Cleveland. Grover Cleveland was the only President to win in two non-consecutive terms, although he lost to Benjamin Harrison in between. Obama can take the high road and leave while the leaving is good.
The President needs some real world experience. Imagine how much better he would do with the experience of having to meet a payroll or worry about the P&L Statement. Imagine how much more sympathetic he would be if he actually understood how his health care law would make it harder to hire people. Imagine if he actually understood that by “spreading the wealth around,” the government actually makes it harder for the economy to grow. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Benjamin Harrison, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, election, George Bush, Government, Grover Cleveland, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, medicare, Obama, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, spending
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, health care | 1 Comment »
August 8th, 2011 by John Feehery
Democratic spinmeisters have concocted a nice little phrase to describe the actions of the Standard and Poor’s Ratings Agency, which was used to little effect over the weekend: The Tea Party Downgrade.
Nice try. That is kind of like blaming the fire department for not putting out the fire fast enough.
The S&P believes that we spend too much as a nation and that we don’t have the political will to stop spending. The Tea Party was formed primarily to send a message to Washington that America needs to stop spending money we don’t have.
The Tea Party won’t get the blame for the debt rating downgrade. President Obama will get the blame and it will hurt him with the American people in the next election.
This 30-second ad takes less than 30 seconds to create. A picture of the President hanging out with his Democratic colleagues fades in and fades out. A screen shot fades in: “The first President to ever lose America’s AAA credit rating. Had enough?”
The President’s men know this is a bad hit. That is why Tim Geithner is attacking the S&P so harshly. That is why the spinners are trying to pin the blame on conservative Republicans. But it won’t work. Read more...
Tags: AAA rating, America, American people, Barack Obama, Bush administration, Congress, Congressional leaders, Conservatives, debt limit, Democrats, election, FDR, George Bush, George W Bush, GOP, health care law, impson-Bowles deficit commission, JFK, Media, medicare, Politics, President Obama, Presidential election, recession, reform, Republicans, Senate, spending, Standard and Poor’s Ratings Agency, tax increases, taxes, Tea Party, Tim Geithner
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, bad news, election, health care, medicare, national security, spending, taxes, war | No Comments »
July 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
John Boehner is doing an exceptional job as Speaker under extraordinarily tough times.
When I first started working in Congress, Tom Foley had just taken over from Jim Wright as Speaker of the House. Unlike the dictatorial Wright, Foley ran a decentralized process that gave too much power to Committee barons like Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Brooks and John Dingell.
Foley could never quite get the Chairmen to work together enough to overcome their jurisdictional squabbles, and Democrats faltered under the House Bank scandal, the Post Office debacle and a series of other damaging revelations about a Congress that was out of control.
When Newt Gingrich came to the Speaker’s Office, he leap-frogged over the gentlemanly Bob Michel (my former boss) who unfortunately announced his retirement before he could see the promised land of a Republican majority. Gingrich learned the lessons of the ineffective Foley, centralized power in his chambers, and bull-rushed an ambitious Contract with America legislative agenda. Along the way, Gingrich alienated some of the new Freshmen, his committee Chairmen, and some key members of the leadership, so much so that a few of them launched a failed coup against the embattled Speaker. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bob Michel, Congress, Conservatives, Dan Rostenkowski, Democrats, Denny Hastert, Dick Armey, George Bush, GOP, Government, Grand Bargain, House Republicans, Jack Brooks, Jim Wright, John Boehner, John Dingell, Mark Foley scandal, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, President Obama, Republican, Republican Conference, Republicans, Speaker of the House, spending, taxes, Tea Party, the Iraq War, Tom DeLay, Tom Foley, White House
Posted in Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Promises, Reviews, Scandals, Theory, election, speeches, spending, taxes, war | No Comments »
June 15th, 2011 by John Feehery
It took awhile, but the Cold War consensus is finally shattering.
The Cold War consensus centered around a basic proposition: America was going to both pay and provide the military might to insure the national security of the free world.
America founded NATO as the alliance to promote that security and Congress paid for a national security establishment that guaranteed the dominance of American troops.
That Cold War consensus obviously started at the conclusion of the Second World War, survived both Korea and Vietnam, teetered a bit during the Carter years, and then came back strong during the Reagan years. After the Soviet Union fell apart, it took a while for the Cold War consensus to gain its bearings and its true raison d’etre.
The collapse of Yugoslavia gave the Cold War consensus a shot in the arm, as NATO rushed to the rescue of the Serbian Muslims. George Bush browbeat the alliance in helping with the War on Terror, as the Cold War consensus stretched beyond its natural life.
The war on terror is winding down. We will be out of Iraq before the next election and we may be out of Afghanistan if Congress has anything to say about it. Read more...
Tags: afghanistan, America, American troops, Cold War, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economy, election, foriegn wars, George Bush, Korea, NATO, Politics, Reagan, Republican, Ron Paul, Second World War, Secretary Gates, Soviet Union, spending, United States Congress, Vietnam, war, Yugoslavia
Posted in Education, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Promises, Theory, election, middle-east, spending, taxes, terrorism, tragedy, war | 2 Comments »
June 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
It is great to be here in New Hampshire.
I am not going to kid you. I need to win New Hampshire if I have any chance of winning the nomination to be President.
I have no chance in Iowa. Believe me. I know. Those folks hate me. I sprinkled that state with millions of dollars the last time I ran, and they weren’t buying what I was selling.
So, I have to win here.
I am not going to pull a Guiliani and wait until Florida. What an idiot! I hear he is back up here, nosing around. I hope Rudy runs. I hope he brings his third wife too. That plays well with the family values crowd.
I hear Sarah Palin is visiting the state too. I really hope she runs. She will get all of those tea-party votes that I will never get. I would rather she split the crazy vote so Pawlenty doesn’t win.
The Tea Party doesn’t like me very much. Well, screw ‘em. These guys don’t have the balls to call themselves Republican anymore. Most of these Tea Party organizations are run by flim-flam artists who are trying to find get rich quick schemes. Read more...
Tags: Americans, Barack Obama, Bible, Democrats, Dick Armey, George Bush, medicare, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan Medicare plan, preseidential election, Republican, Rudy Guiliani, Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, Tea Party, Tim Pawlenty
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Religion, Theory, election, health care, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
May 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Dwight Eisenhower, the last general to successfully run for President, said that, and as the man who was responsible for the Normandy Invasion, he knew something about war.
I was thinking of Ike and war in the context of Memorial Day and the upcoming Presidential election.
Unless Ron Paul magically wins the Republican nomination, the Presidential election of 2012 will pit two contenders who have no military experience whatsoever.
The last time that happened, Herbert Hoover ran against Al Smith in 1928.
From the end of the Second World War until 1992, every one of our Presidents had significant military experience. And then an interesting thing happened. Military experience became a liability. Every loser –George Bush, Bob Dole, John Kerry and John McCain – had significantly more military experience than the eventual winners. (Al Gore and George W. Bush basically tied, and they had basically the same military experience).
Those who saw significant military action, who saw first hand the stupidity, brutality and futility of war, could not overcome those who saw war through the glass darkly. Read more...
Tags: Al Smith, America, Barack Obama, Bob Dole, Conservatives, Democrats, Dwight Eisenhower, election, George Bush, Herbert Hoover, John Kerry, John McCain, Memorial Day, Presidential election, Presidential election of 2012, Republicans, war, World War II
Posted in Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, election, national security, war | No Comments »
May 5th, 2011 by John Feehery
America loves conspiracy theories. Franklin Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened. The CIA killed Jack Kennedy. George Bush blew up the Twin Towers. The Trilateral Commission runs the world. Elvis has not left the building. Jim Morrison is still alive.
Our current President is particularly good at spawning conspiracy theories. He is a Muslim. He hates America. He is a racist. He worked with Bill Ayers to overthrow America. He wasn’t born here. He never actually went to college. He is the Manchurian candidate. He is actually a space alien.
Conspiracy theories are fun for the whole family. It gives a purpose to all things. It means that somebody has a plan somewhere.
There are a number of good conspiracy theories that will come out of this Osama Bin Laden assassination. First, of course, is that he is still alive. No matter if those photos are released or if they are not released, some percentage of the population will believe that Mr. Bin Laden is still alive.
Another conspiracy theory is that Bin Laden has been dead for months and that the President finally revealed this today because he wants an excuse to pull our troops out of Afghanistan and to prop up his popularity ratings. Read more...
Tags: CIA, Conspiracy Theory, Franklin Roosevelt, George Bush, govenment, Jack Kennedy, Muslim, Osama Bin Laden, Pearl Harbor, President Obama
Posted in Foreign Relations, Fun, GOP, Government, History, Humor, Media, Politics, Religion, Scandals, Theory, corruption, just made up, middle-east, national security, terrorism, war | No Comments »
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