Bush Advice: Get on Board or Get Out of My Way

Oh-dear-oh-dear! What a short memory the man has. The last time he voiced that particular sentiment, the world said, Screw you, Mister. Back then, our gormless President went his way virtually alone, bombed the bejesus out of Iraq, and on May 2, 2003 crowed that his mission had been accomplished. Not hardly. Nineteen months later, 1,124 US soldiers are dead, tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead, 8,111 US soldiers have been wounded and maimed, war costs are over $151 billion, our deficit is soaring into the stratosphere and we are no closer to a resolution of our occupation of Iraq than we were on the first day of George Bush’s holy war on March 19, 2003. But yesterday the newly-elected President Bush once again stood before the people of the United States and the world and said, Follow me or you’ll wish you had. Old Never-learn George. The entire planet despises the US because of the Bush administration’s mistakes. One-half of the United States thinks President Bush is a lying cheating idiot. And he picks this moment to gloat over his election, and to say if the Democrats don’t rubber-stamp his initiatives they will be left behind. And, as if that weren’t the political gaffe of the century, he added that he would only reach out to people who think the way he does. The biggest problem with Bush’s jacked-up rhetoric at his first press conference after the election is not that the Republican majority in Congress is far from being solidly behind him. The major problem with Bush’s overly confident elation is that his keepers have not warned him off making pie-in-the-sky promises he can’t keep. Or...can it be? Maybe they have warned him and his inflated feelings of self-esteem won’t allow him to listen. In any event, the president’s ambitious agenda is not going to be an easy sell as it stands. His own Republican party is cranky and on the verge of revolt. And the Senate elections coming up in 2006 have Republicans in need of placating their constituents not giving them reasons to jump ship. The Prez has a rocky row to hoe. His advisors need to rein him in. And finally, Bush’s advisors must insist on his submitting to the medical check-up he refused to have before the election. If there is some physical or mental condition that is causing President Bush to act grandiose at a time when he faces horrendous troubles, we need to know about it.