Paul Mulshine: Bush repeats a Nixon mistake, without Nixon's skills

[mac56]

(A little too complimentary to Bush for my tastes, but still an interesting take.)

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4706480.html

Nixon posed as a conservative on social issues but governed like a liberal Democrat. We're seeing something similar today with President Bush.

If a Democrat had advocated spending $500 billion on a prescription drug plan or $200 billion on nation-building in Iraq, conservatives would have been screaming. But all he has to do is denounce cloning while waving the flag at a NASCAR race and they fall into line.

(snip)

The hard facts are that he's gotten more than 600 Americans killed and he's tied up our military for the foreseeable future. The benefit for America is theoretical at best. If war can be compared to a chess game, Bush has gotten his queen stuck in a corner while trying to take a pawn.

(snip)

Tricky Dick would have seen a move or two ahead. He was a student of politics. And every student of politics knows that in every bureaucracy there are dozens of guys like Richard Clarke, experts who devote their lives to one issue.

There was also, no doubt, an expert who warned constantly about the threat of an inadvertent Russian missile launch, another who obsessed about the danger that the Chinese were ready to invade Taiwan. But the Russians didn't launch any missiles, and so far the Chinese haven't invaded Taiwan. So those guys are busy boring their wives and friends with tales of their brave struggles in the unmovable bureaucracy.

Al-Qaida did destroy the World Trade Center. So the guy who was obsessed with Al-Qaida gets to tell the whole world about his heroic struggle in the bureaucracy.

The bozos who advise Bush have decided to take the bureaucracy's side.

[dfong63]

1. tricky dick was head and shoulders a better pres than the chimp

[Kahuna]

2. I saw this commentary in my paper. Mulshine is very..

"conservative." When Mulshine begins to expose bush, it's pretty near to the beginning of the end.

[mac56]

3. That's what I thought too.

The foundation is starting to give way.