Terry >Started under Clinton and Rubin. Do you see why I dislike him even more that GB? I never cared what he got in the oval office, but could not stand what he was doing to the US.
I always believed Clinton, like most Democrats, was a socialist --- but with a few tricks. As I saw it, his plan was to drive the economy (not production but services) and keep the dollar strong to have cheap imports and attract foreign investment --- and then tax the wealthy, or relatively wealthy, as much as possible. With that revenue he then instituted as many social services as possible and, in this way, hoped to capture as many votes as possible. I don't hold what he did against him. He was simply a politician doing what politicians do (screwing everyone) and, what's more, he was the man America wanted. He was also lucky --- I mean with his, "It's the economy, stupid". The bull trend lasted and lasted, the market went up and up and he rode it --- and took the credit for it.
Clearly, the financial bubble which he began had to pop sometime and it did so --- and the shit fell all over GWB.
Poor George W Bush --- arrived just in time for the bear market and within quick time presided over an America which transformed from a virtual Utopia in which most people were rich and happy into I'd rather not say. In fact, never in my whole life have I seen an American administration as widely disliked, even despised, as his. Never before have I seen so many protestations from Americans that disliking one's government does not mean treason or a lack of patriotism. And, never before have I seen so many non-Americans proclaiming that dislike for the American government and its policies does not mean anti-Americanism or dislike for America, itself.
Whether GWB likes it --- or even knows it --- he has, in fact, split both America --- and the world. Whether he has his war in Iraq or he doesn't there is no doubt that the whole world has undergone a paradigm shift under his administration and will not be the same again. Friend will fight friend. Brother will fight brother. Things will take a long time to come right. |
