A question to ALL Americans out there!!!

[CFK]

As some of you already know I`m from Europe. I was able to watch your president Bush speaking to the nation. After that I was thinking about many things. Now I have two questions to you.

1. What do the Americans think of their president? Do they like

him? In my opinion he is a very charismatic, smart guy, but I

can`t really say if this is reallly the truth. You know your pre-

sident much better, so I hope you can tell me something about

his style of politic.

2. What do you think of the war? Do you think it`s the right de-

cision. For me, I must say I`m no fan of war but I don`t see

another solution anymore. It`s a lot easier for me to say that,

cause your guys will go out there and fight. So what`s your

opinion.

After that I really want to say that I have a lot of respect for the population of the United States. In many ways other countries could learn a lot from you!

/I hope you understand the most, my English is only sub-par/

[fansince62]

1) he's turning out to be much more adept politically than his opponents anticipated

2) he does appear to be driven more by conviction than polls

3) he may be out of a job if the economy doesn't improve. we will then be led by democrats who need a body count of Americans before they will act in the national interest.

[Art]

CFK,

Our President has a reputation from the elite left that he's a rather dim person. It is funny to hear you saying you think he's "smart" because the biggest critique of our President is he's a bit dim. I think he's smart like a fox and for a guy who had great trouble speaking in such settings he has certainly come to be measured by the oratory he's been able to consistently deliver in his speeches of import.

Bush is a charismatic figure. He's also a very shrewd operator. What he seems to do is lay out a position very early on, and then give bashers a chance to chew it up. He then responds, point by point, in answer and it's amazing to watch him play the political game, knowing he's won so much, even prior to 9/11.

What is different about this President is he believes the words he says. He is honest, and has a certain comfort being the President I don't think he had early on. He has a clear direction and he moves the nation toward his vision, whether polls reflect well or ill of any particular policy. That's a bravery behind his leadership that is refreshing after eight years of leadership by Gallup.

The possibility of military action in Iraq does seem to have reached a point where little else is possible. At some point this country has to act to force Iraq to abide by the terms of its surrender. If they won't act, we must and the President certainly was very powerful on that point.

[NavyDave]

He's wily, who doesnt come off as disengenious as our previous C.I.C.

I personally think if not obstructed by congress that his policies could have the effect on the country and world as J Gibbs did in the 80's with the skins and skinsfans.

While he isnt as great as Reagan he has the potential to be one of the best Commander In Chief in history.

The military action will proceed successfully and the european countries currently in opposition because of varying personal interest ie oil deals will come aboard so they have a foot in the door when the new regime comes in.

[The Evil Genius]

I voted for the guy, but I still can't shake the feeling that he is merely a puppet president - doing only what his top advisors tell him to do. Which isnt a bad thing - or an unprecedented thing for a President. Reagan did it mostly in his last four years as President.

One wonders how much stroke the Dick Cheneys and Ari Fleischers of the world really have.

That said, he has so far done a better job that I imagined him to do. But like fansince said, if the economy still sucks in a year or two and the Dems put up a unified effort - then Bush could be in trouble.

For the ever growing list of Bush's speaking follies - try this link. http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm

But if this is his major gaffe as a President, much like Ford's falling down all the time, its no big thing.

[redman]

1. Bush is very smart and is very good in dealing with people in small groups. I also agree that he's someone who's driven by convictions - however well-placed or misplaced some might say they are - rather than what's popular. This has coincided quite positively with the nation's angry response and cry for justice following 9/11.

Though he's improved in the last couple of years, he's not very good at speaking to large audiences, and unfortunately he's not very articulate. His critics have chosen to interpret the latter limitations as being signs of stupidity rather than as simply areas in which he's not as polished as some politicians, like Bill Clinton for example.

For me, his strength comes from his convictions, and from the highly organized way in which he runs the Presidency. He focuses on a few policy goals, and he pursues them with more vigor than his opposition can muster. This makes for excellent use of the Presidency as opposed to some other branch of government where it's harder to find a single spokesperson who can articulate the party's position. By contrast, one of Clinton's failings IMHO was that he spread himself too thin by pursuing too many (often ill-conceived) ideas and policy goals.

The bottom line is that Bush, the supposedly feeble-minded political outsider from Texas who was trying to ride on his daddy's coattails into the Oval Office has instead turned out to be a political and policy force to be reckoned with. I happen to think that he watched and learned well from the hard lessons his father was taught during his one term in the Presidency.

2. I agree. There is unfortunately no other viable option besides war to disarm Iraq before we begin to lose the military initiative. We can't wait until the Iraqi's have re-armed themselves to the point that there's no doubt to the general public that they have the very chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons that they claim to have destroyed. But the Iraqi's have brought this situation onto themselves.

[gbear]

Feelings on Bush

1) I agree that he tends to act on his convctions. I just wish his convictions matched mine a little more closely;)

2) He's got some decent spinners. He gets away with a lot politcally. I havent' heard much when he has taken unpopular stances. Even when he has taken stances against most reason like taking condoms off the government web pages as a way to prevent the spread of AIDS, his opponents haven't been quick to capitalise. In that sense, he seemingly could say the world was flat and get a free pass.

3) He's tied too closely with big business and the religous right. The example above is just one example of the religous right. The faith based initiative has the potential to undermine much of our founding principles. THat said, I think he's politically savy on that one in that he'll get the stuff inacted, have it struck down in court, and be able to say "I tried."

4) I think it's entirely possible that he's willing to play good cop bad cop internationally with us as the big bad cop while Europe plays good cop. It might be a mistaken impression on my part, but I'm aware that we would never have inspections in Iraq without the troop buildup.

I also wonder how much of him taking stances so differing from Europes is to get more in negotiation (example polution). Just like in our government, if you are for a centrist position, and others are far to the right, it behoves one to take a leftist approach and bargain so that the ending position is closer to your true opinions. There are times where I wonder if that isn't an overriding policy under this administration. I also don't know if that's good or bad. It might make us appear the blood thirsty go our own way bully. However, it might give us more leverage internationally too.

[The Evil Genius]

He has come a long way since 1989.

"You know, I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office."

George W. Bush, 1989

[Art]

Gbear,

The faith-based initiatives have the promise of proping up our founding principles, not undermining them. Unfortunately too many on the left think there's a separation of church and state in the Constitution and that simply is wholly untrue and without merit.

The founding principles of our nation have always been to support the free expression of religion. Not to establish any, perhaps, but, to allow for all in all settings, and not to take from anyone the right to express that religion as they deem appropriate. It makes sense to encourage faith and our communities to replace government in our communities, because that's the model our founders intended.

[riggins44]

CFK,

I feel that Bush has brought back dignity to the office of President.

I believe too many people sell him short in regards to intelligence.

To me he is a modern day statesman, in that he doesn't lead based on polls.

In regards to war, he's between a rock and a hard place. If he

does nothing and Iraq develops then uses weapons of mass

destruction, how will history remember him? If he goes to war

then how will history portray him?

I'm behind him 100%. I believe the man is a straight shooter

and is doing what he feels best for not only America, but the

rest of the world as well.

[Riggo-toni]

The President the George W most resembles is Truman. Truman was ridiculed by the media for his supposedly weak intellect and being little more than a lackey riding on FDR's coattails. But Truman had great instincts, and strong convictions. He ended segregation in the military even though he knew it would hurt him politically and he was approaching re-election. Truman always believed even a bad decision is better than no decision, and never waffled the way George H. Bush or Bill Clinton did. It's funny, but many of the greatest presidents of the 20th century - Harding (my personal favorite), Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan were all belittled by the media elite as being stupid, dim-witted, etc. And many of the most intelligent, intellectual Presidents have been awful - Nixon, Carter, Hoover, and Wilson.

My main bone of contention with George W. is that like his father, he makes no effort to keep federal spending under control. His father doubled the deficit in 3 years, despite deep cuts in military spending. W has let the congress increase discretionary spending at levels that would've made even the 80s Democrats blush.

As for Iraq, we have inspectors back in thanks to W's aggressive policies. I'm not entirely sold on the war, primarily because I don't think we have a viable post-war strategy to implement,; but I'm not a vocal opponent of it either. I am annoyed, though, by the absolute hypocrisy of people who gave Clinton a free pass to unilaterally threaten Haiti to force a regime change, and again never voiced any opposition to the idiotic and pointless bombing campaign he carried out in Serbia without any UN approval, and now are suddenly screaming that Bush cannot attack Iraq without UN approval first, or who are suddenly appalled by the thought of the US acting unilaterally. Where were these people before? Hmmm. If it were Slick Willie threatening Iraq, would they be making the same noise? Why didn't Sean Penn offer to become a human shield in Sudan to keep Bill from bombing any pharmaceutical factories

[codeorama]

I don't like Bush, but I honestly haven't liked a US president since Regan.

Regan was cool... old, but cool. He had fire and you could tell he was smart.

The first Bush was an old crusty grumpy grandpa.... I voted for him the first time but learned to dislike him quickly...

Clinton was the head pimp in office.... One thing I can honestly say, he seemed more real than any of the other presidents in my life time. I liked him somewhat, but I don't think the moral issues were that big a deal, hell, he got impeached for getting a BJ and lying about it.... Who here among us hasn't lied about a BJ....:laugh:

Again, I don't like Bush, but, I didn't like Gore either... so go figure...