Newsview: 3 Crises Define Bush Presidency

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - It's August in Crawford, Texas, and President Bush is on vacation. His poll ratings are slumping. He hears warnings of a looming crisis that will soon change the course of his presidency.

Is this August 2001? Or August 2005?

The answer is both. Historians will ultimately judge Bush's presidency based on his leadership through two tragedies — the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, plus a conflict of his own design: The war in Iraq.

Katrina's lethal aftermath revealed that the Bush administration didn't learn valuable lessons from the 2001 attacks about responding to disasters. As for the president himself, since the Sept. 11 terror strikes, Bush seems to have lost his touch for connecting with an anxious public.

"This is someone who has staked his presidency on strong leadership through crises, and now he has faced three major challenges," said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor. "Sept. 11 fundamentally altered what this administration is going to be remembered for, which is the response to terrorism, the Iraq war and now obviously Katrina and the aftermath."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050914/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_crisis_of_leadership

[VegasWolf]

1. Should be, "Inability to handle crises define Bush presidency!" nt

[Vincardog]

2. Should be, "Inability to handle ANYTHING define Bush presidency

The total incompetence is showing.

[DBoon]

3. they are very competent at looting and pillaging

leading a democratic nation, however, is not their strength

[glitch]

7. Indeed. I wonder if the Corporate Media will ever report on their looting?

I mean in terms the "average" american can understand.

[Inland]

5. If by "Crises" they meant "disasterous fuckups"

it makes sense.

Iraq isn't a crisis. There's a crisis coming as the ability of the US to stay the course fails, but right now, it's just a fuckup.

Katrina isn't a "crisis". It's a natural disaster. The crisis comes when the fuckup tears the social fabric of the US.

[Inland]

6. If by "Crises" they meant "disasterous fuckups"

it makes sense.

Iraq isn't a crisis. There's a crisis coming as the ability of the US to stay the course fails, but right now, it's just a fuckup.

Katrina isn't a "crisis". It's a natural disaster. The crisis comes when the fuckup tears the social fabric of the US.

[fshrink]

4. There's more!

This Idiotic presidency also wasted 2 historical opportunities to make America a moral leader.

[MrTriumph]

8. Wasn't most of the response to 9-11 written in the Clinton administration?

Having read Richard Clarke's book, the decisive response to 9-11 was easy. It was written up and ready to go. All they had to do was blow the dust off the paper.

[cliss]

9. Interesting concept.

This administration didn't learn valuable lessons. They have no learning curve.

They're untrainable. Kind of like a 10 year old dog who pees indoors. It's pretty hard to retrain them.