It's not stupid at all... If politicians were actually capable of thinking for themselves you would have a point. But since they vote & act based on their party alliance & public opinion, this is irrelevent.
the dude was arguing that bush had failed by not convincing his own party to help him out with the social security reform. i dont consider it a failure to not be able to convince your party of something. i consider it a success when you take the right stance on something, even if you cant get any support for it. the original statement i called stupid was "If you can't get your own party onboard, something is wrong" there are plenty of fantastic policies that i can favor that neither party would like. and not because of something wrong about me.
It is a failure of leadership when you can't get your own party to pass your legislation. I never thought you were this naive ... guess I could be wrong about you.
Not when the issue is social security. Like martin said, Bush doesn't have to worry about getting re-elected, but all those republicans in congress do. And the party leadership has to concern itself with not losing control to the democrats. A social security fix is going to tick off a lot of people, particulary the ones who vote (baby boomers being a prime example). The politicians who facilitate the fix will shoulder the blame. Therefore, it is a good idea to steer clear of addressing the issue. Bush shouldn't be blamed for not being able to gain the support of the republican party on this issue. As a matter of fact, he should be commended for stepping outside the boundaries of the party to attempt to address the issue. Blame the parties - both of them, but don't blame the president for this one.
Ok, name any big domestic programs that Bush pushed through Congress that you are thrilled with. I can only think of one ... tax cuts. What else?
Not sure if you define homeland security as a domestic program, but I am pleased with the results up to now. I like his two judges too. He was slow coming around to immigration, but he is getting there. And those tax cuts - they are a big one. A bunch of good stuff flows down from tax cuts.
Ok, I can include homeland security on that list, although putting FEMA underneath it proved to be a really bad idea. But overall, a good program as far as I can tell. Bush is coming around on immigration because the polls tell him we are fed up with this problem. It's been long overdue. I just expected a ton more to be done in 5 years when the republicans controlled both the White House and Congress. Specifically, I wanted a much smaller government, but we now have a bigger one. Not exactly the republican party I signed up for.
