Angry Campaigns End on an Angrier Note – washingtonpost.com:
“‘As you go to the polls, remember we’re at war,’ (President Bush) told thousands of GOP supporters in Pensacola, Fla. ‘And if you want this country to do everything in its power to protect you and at the same time lay a foundation for peace for generations to come, vote Republican.'”
“I think, frankly, people don’t believe the president anymore” when it comes to the war, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, echoing other party leaders, said in an interview. “We are telling people if they want to stay the course, vote Republican. If you want a change of direction, vote Democrat.”
President Who Sees in Absolutes Awaits Voters’ Definitive Answer – washingtonpost.com:
“The president and his staff were offended by the last-minute snub by Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The White House scheduled the stop here in the conservative Panhandle as a favor to Jeb Bush entirely for Crist’s benefit. But Crist decided to go elsewhere in the state.”
Bush’s stump speech the past few weeks has underscored a with-us-or-against-us worldview. Democrats and some Republicans opposed warrantless surveillance of telephone calls of people with suspected ties to terrorism, objecting to unchecked executive power and arguing that officials should still get warrants from a secret intelligence court. Likewise, Democrats and initially some Republicans opposed redefining Geneva Conventions protections for prisoners and permitting harsh interrogation, preferring more traditional practices.
In the version Bush offers campaign audiences, that boils down to the Democrats not wanting to fight terrorists at all. Democrats, he said in Missouri, “oppose listening in on terrorist conversations” and “oppose letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists who might know what those [next] plots are.” As for Iraq, he said in Texas, if Democrats get their way, “the terrorists win and America loses.“
What Bush would do then becomes the next question. He arrived in Washington promising to be a uniter, not a divider, but the political polarization in the country is worse than when he took over. As recently as last month, his spokesman said that if nothing else, Bush wants to use his last two years to “detoxify” Washington — and then Bush headed out to the campaign trail to warn that if Democrats win, “America loses.”
How would he reconcile these competing instincts? The desire to be a healer and the surety that his way is the right way? The decider will have to decide.
Send a message…Tell the President and the rest of Washington which direction you want the conversation to go. Hell, tell them you want a conversation and not dictation. Tell the CEO President that the shareholders are holding him accountable for the direction he has taken this “enterprise” during his tenure as CEO. Go…Cast your vote onto these troubled waters and see if the CEO has the presence of mind to read the tealeaves for the next two years.
