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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: LindyBill who wrote (65311)1/10/2003 4:45:29 PM
From: tekboy  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500
 
I agree with you entirely (although I'd add to your definition of Character the caveat that the decisions are indeed good, truly public-spirited decisions). I just don't feel I have enough to go on yet in determining whether Bush passes that test.

Look, calling a spade a spade shouldn't be out of bounds. Everything I said about Bush could have been said about Harry Truman, and the same questions could have been raised--hell, were raised--about him. He was a know-little haberdasher and machine politician who few people thought was up to the job when he had it thrust upon him. And yet in the end, because he had precisely the qualities you mention, he turned out to be one of the greatest presidents in history, and the man who presided over the creation of the stable, benign, dramatically successful international order we're still living in today. If Bush turns out in practice to be another Truman, there'll be nobody happier than yours truly.

tb@we'llsee.com



To: LindyBill who wrote (65311)1/10/2003 7:57:52 PM
From: Rascal  Respond to of 281500
 
Hey, everybody has a 50/50 shot.
You need to worry when the actor begins to believe he can affect the outcome!

Rascal@ just flipthecointuntil1/04.com



To: LindyBill who wrote (65311)1/10/2003 8:39:37 PM
From: Nadine Carroll  Respond to of 281500
 
What I want in a President is Character. The ability to make a decision and see it through, even when being screamed at by the media and the opposite party

I agree. But the dividing line between "character" and "mule-headed stubborness" is thin, and is usually a function of whether the policy worked out in the end. Victory has a thousand fathers, yada yada...