Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Where Pepe, AI, and AA meet

the extremes touch.
Posted by at

6 comments:

Arelcao Akleos said...

It is not a question of personal contempt for Bush [except for Pepe, who is by an Aristo's Nature bound to spit on any Ricain without the proper submissive spirit], it is simply that he failed to do a good job at a time when what hit this country was so awful, and great in scope, that not to do a good job was dangerously close to a mortal error. These last four years were fucked up big time by his administration, and as he was the captain of that administration he heas to take responsibility for it.
Bush is akin to a Kerensky, a Castillo, a von Schleicher... the one who simply could not meet, by understanding or will, the challenges of a monstrous era. And what follows will be far worse.
It is hard, it is wrong, to praise him. To refuse to praise is not the same as to Damn. It is, simply, to Judge.

11/05/2008 6:43 AM
Mr roT said...

A typical AAian comment. Totally empty of content but larded with a mess of historical minutiae as far as anyone else can tell completely unrelated to the subject at hand.

Where was the big fuck-up again? Katrina? What's a president's role in such an occurence?

Look, there was one hard decision in the whole second term. It was the surge. It was NOT what you and AI were asking for through almost all of the first term.

It did have a modest component of troop level increase, but the main doctrinal change was a hearts-and-minds like thing, not a daisy-cutter bullshit a la Westmorland.

That was Bush-Petraeus. Got it? Not you. Not Kerry. And not Ralph Peters. Avoid I-told-you-so when you're wrong, ok?

The economy stuff is a mess, but how it is Bush's is beyond me. Seems there was no way to cut out the real culprits besides hoping hard for the AIDS to hit your good congressman of Brookline unless you're an uptick-manic.

What else looms? Bush going to mosques and making nice? Bush not bombing Jeddah? How do you think that would've played yesterday with an American electorate ready to surrender?

Say something before going all poetic, AA.

11/05/2008 8:42 AM
Tecumseh said...

It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.

Sad, but true. Now, JJ, don't fall in the same BDS trap as the pinkos, and paint everyone with the same brush. There are nuances here. I for one have been less critical of Bush than AA, though I grew much more disenchanted with him lately -- especially in the past 2-3 months. Couple of concrete things:

* I strongly opposed his initial choice of Harriet Myers for the Supreme Court (which you supported). I think Alito turned out to be much better. This is how loyal opposition is supposed to work, and I think the system worked pretty well in this instance (relatively minor, granted).

* Yep, Katrina really sunk Bush -- irreparably so, turns out. Life is a bitch, no fair -- I'll grant you everything you want. But ultimately, the buck stops here, and his performance there was just extremely poor. Let's not make excuses for that -- if Republicans loose the aura of being the competent party (vs the bumbling, flower-children pinkos), we're done.

* Finally, the Wall Street meltdown: yes, I hold Bush responsible in big part for that. Again, there are many, many others to blame (Alan Greenspan, Fuld, Freddie and Fannie, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, etc, etc) but it was W who put his economic and financial team in place, and these guys were supposed to watch out, not be asleep at the wheel. How come they only woke up after Lehman imploded? I've been willing to give W a pass on many, many things, but this one was (and is) inexcusable. And ultimately, it was what totally sunk any chance McCain had. (I for one, essentially tuned out of the campaign after Lehman went bankrupt -- it was 100% clear it was all hopeless after that.)

11/05/2008 9:15 AM
Mr roT said...

* I strongly opposed his initial choice of Harriet Myers for the Supreme Court (which you supported). I think Alito turned out to be much better. This is how loyal opposition is supposed to work, and I think the system worked pretty well in this instance (relatively minor, granted).

I'll go along with that. The rest is empty as far as I am concerned. You tuning out the election after Lehman is not the same as blaming Bush.

11/05/2008 12:22 PM
Pepe le Pew said...

I didn't say it.

11/05/2008 7:08 PM
Tecumseh said...

Lehman is nothing, says JJ. Oh yeah? That bankruptcy (which Paulson allowed), has cost something like $10 trillion (that 10^{13}) the global economy, and sent the whole world into the closest approximation to the Great Depression since, well, 80 years ago. That's just peanuts to you?

11/05/2008 10:39 PM

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