Posts Tagged ‘George W Bush’
August 31st, 2010 by John Feehery
Photo via the NY Times
The President said he wanted to turn the page on Iraq.
I wonder how that makes the Iraqis feel. My guess is that they are saying, “wait, this chapter isn’t done yet!” About the only Iraqi who wants us out is that Sadr character, who is just looking for a way to grab power for himself.
It was nice that Mr. Obama called former President Bush today, and that he mentioned that conversation in his speech tonight. I wonder if the current President acknowledged that the former President was right when it came to the surge. I doubt it.
Mr. Obama has been pretty consistent that he didn’t like the Iraq War and that he wanted to spend the money that we spent in Iraq on bigger government to “help the middle class.” The irony is that most middle class voters are clamoring for smaller government, lower taxes, and less meddling from the Feds, not for more help from Mr. Obama.
Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, George W Bush, Iran, Iraq, Oval office
Posted in Bad Decisions, war | No Comments »
August 23rd, 2010 by John Feehery
I was on the treadmill this morning, enjoying my vacation, when I saw the DNC ad on the television. The Democratic National Committee, incredibly, has decided that the last two years of presidential leadership from Barack Hussien Obama has no bearing on the upcoming midterm election. They have decided to run against George W. Bush.
They are spending a lot of money to cast this election as a contest between George Bush and Barack Obama. So, I have to ask the question: If George Bush were to run against Obama right now, who would win?
The DNC seems convinced that Obama would win in a landslide. That is why they are so confident in their strategy. But is that true?
A recent poll showed that in the 40 most competitive seats held by Democrats, Bush is more popular than Obama. This poll was conducted by a Democrat, by the way.
Obama won a convincing victory against John McCain two short years ago. But there were a couple of things turning in Obama’s favor. First, the financial crisis reared its ugly head just two months before the election. Second, the Iraq War was just starting to turn around, not enough to help McCain. Third, McCain ran one of the worst Presidential campaigns in history, and was one of the most disappointing candidates in history. Fourth, after 8 years of President Bush, the American people were ready for a change. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, George W Bush, Republicans, White House
Posted in election | 4 Comments »
August 19th, 2010 by John Feehery
US Soldiers in Iraq
I was talking to my good friend Alex Mistri, a man who spent a year working for the military and the State Department in Iraq, and I asked him what he thought about departure of combat troops from that beleaguered country.
He told me he was deeply ambivalent. He wished that the president had a just a little more patience to give the Iraqis a chance to get their coalition government together. On the one hand, he was happy to see that our policies over there have worked and that many of our troops are coming home knowing that they did a good job. On the other hand, he is deeply apprehensive that the cake isn’t ready yet, and by leaving, we give extremists a chance to destabilize the country.
I share Alex’s deep ambivalence. I share Alex’s pride in the job our combat troops did in battling terrorists and stabilizing large sections of a country that has been in constant turmoil for almost a decade. But this thing is not over, and I hope that the president didn’t rush this for political reasons. Read more...
Tags: Alex mistri, Barack Obama, Democrats, Economy, George W Bush, Iraq, Republicans, war
Posted in Politics, Theory, war | No Comments »
August 16th, 2010 by John Feehery
Former President George W. Bush signing a tax cut law.
So, George Bush has been out of office for close to two years and Barack Obama has been President for close to two year. So, why are Republicans getting sucked into a debate about the Bush tax cuts? The debate should be on the Obama tax increases, not the Bush tax cuts.
Sure, it was Bush who signed tax legislation a decade ago that is set to expire at the end of the year. But Bush is no longer President. Obama is the President, and he is the one who seems more than willing to allow tax increases to spring immediately into place.
Republicans need to center this discussion on the broader tax debate. And here is the debate. Do you think the tax code should be recreated to allow for more long-term job creation, greater productivity, greater economic growth and improved American competitiveness or do you think the tax code should remain status quo, with tax cuts only going up on rich people? Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, George W Bush, Republicans, Tax cuts, taxes
Posted in taxes | No Comments »
August 4th, 2010 by John Feehery
It is unclear whether the paddy wagon got its name from the Irish who were hauled off in police wagons in the late 19th century or from the Irish cops who threw them in there in the first place.
What is clear is that when the Irish descended upon America starting in the 1840’s, it created social disruption, political chaos, and a crime wave for a generation.
My great great grandfather on my father’s side was one of those Paddys who came to New York fleeing a desperate potato famine in the 1840’s, and while I don’t know for sure if old Tom Feehery ever ended up in a paddy wagon, I know for sure that some of his friends probably did. Tom Feehery was a legal immigrant, but old Joe Hurley (my mother’s grandfather) probably wasn’t.
The No-Nothing Party was founded as a reaction to the Irish masses. It didn’t do much to stop them though, and pretty soon the Irish were running the big cities, dominating the police forces and fire departments, and making in-roads into the Democratic party North of the Mason-Dixon line. Read more...
Tags: America, Arizona, Economy, George W Bush, illegal immigrants, Immigration, Woodrow Wilson
Posted in Economy, Foreign Relations, GOP, Government, Theory | No Comments »
June 8th, 2010 by John Feehery
Nikki Haley, South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2010
I have a theory about the differences between a Republican primary and a general election. To win a Republican primary, you have to win a majority of white men. To win a general election, though, (and this is in Senate seats and in politically competitive House seats), you have to win a majority (or at least get fairly close) of white married women.
The gender gap has long been the bane of the GOP. Women in general have turned against the Republican Party, especially African American women, and younger single women. While the GOP has consistently done very well with white men, winning that demographic overwhelmingly for as long as I have been voting, the gender gap has kept the GOP from achieving the dominance that some have long predicted.
The soccer moms played a crucial role in propelling Bill Clinton to two triumphs in the 1990’s, just as the security moms played an equally crucial role in the two Bush victories in 2000 and 2004. White women proved to be the critical voting bloc for Barack Obama in 2008, as John McCain’s cowboy-themed maverick just didn’t click with the chicks. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Carly Fiorina, DeDe Scozzaffava, election, George W Bush, Government, John McCain, Meg Whitman, Nikki Haley, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle, Tea Party
Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, election | No Comments »
April 12th, 2010 by John Feehery
The Republican Party has traditionally been seen as a party of two parts: a moderate wing and a conservative wing. But that view has become less and less relevant as the moderate wing shrinks to a party of basically two people (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins).
It would be easy to then make the conclusion that the Republican Party is chiefly a conservative party – now that the moderates have fled – and that its views are monolithic and homogenous. Of course, nothing can be further from the truth.
Indeed, the conservative movement speaks with many voices. Here is a rundown of the many strains conservatism:
Sarah Palin Conservatism: Palin is an anti-intellectual conservative, as Richard Hofstadter, the left-wing historian, might have put it. Although she may not know it, she inherits a proud legacy of populist conservatives, those who disparage the East-Coast elite, who gain more energy by attacking the media, who don’t need to read books (other than the Bible) to gain wisdom. In many ways, she is a conventional conservative in her embrace of traditional values, of gun-owner rights, of smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulations. But what makes her unique is her ability to garner media attention, no matter what she says or what she does. And the more the media attacks her, the more support she gains. Read more...
Tags: Bill Kristol, Conservatism, Dick Cheney, election, George W Bush, George Wallace, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Teddy Roosevelt
Posted in GOP, Theory, election | No Comments »
March 8th, 2010 by John Feehery
It wasn’t as exciting as the first time that Iraq held democratic elections, but it was probably more significant.
I asked my friend Alex Mistri, who spent a year in Iraq working at the highest levels of the American government, what these elections mean to him.
He told me two things.
First, Iraq is slowly but surely becoming a model of democracy in the Middle East.
Second, that having Iraq become a model of democracy is actually a threat to the Iranians, even if the Iranians have some influence on some of the political parties today.
As Alex puts it: “The road ahead in Iraq no doubt remains uncertain. But the Iraqis have once again demonstrated – not through word but action – their appetite for representative government. Increasingly, it must enter the international consciousness – if it hasn’t already – that Iraq is becoming the most democratic nation in the region.”
As it turns out, President Bush might have been on to something with his crazy belief that a place like Iraq could handle democracy. Alex asked the question, “Might the ‘quixotic’ aims of the previous administration still be within reach?” Read more...
Tags: Alex mistri, democracy, George W Bush, Iran, Iraq, middle-east, Persian, Saudi Arabia
Posted in Foreign Relations, Government, Politics, election | 3 Comments »
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