Two Americas

[qwerty]

Rudy Giuliani was on Don Imus this morning, and he said that with all of Kerry's different stances on issues, we need two, maybe three or four Americas!

[Jake]

There is already at least four americas.
Upper class
Upper middle Class
Middle Class
Poor

[Wakie]

I wonder if Rudy has looked at some of the Bush flip-flops.

ON BASE CLOSINGS
In 1990, Bush supported his father and Dick Cheney's decision to close several military bases.

In 1997, as Gov of Texas he hired a team of lobbyists to battle against base closings.

In 2002, as President, his administration has signaled that more base closings are planned for 2005.


ON GRAD SCHOOL QUOTAS
His administration filed a law suit against the U of Michigan for its racial quotas.

When the suit was defeated in the courts he praised the defeat of it as a great victory for civil rights.


ON STEEL TARIFFS
In 2002, shortly before the Congressional elections Bush imposed tariffs on foreign steel saying, 'An integral part of our commitment to free trade is our commitment to enforcing trade laws to make sure that America's industries and workers compete on a level playing field'.

In 2003, after a grab the money and run fundraiser in Pittsburgh, Bush eliminated the tariffs and declared himself a firm believer in open trade.


ON HYBRID AUTOMOBILES
In 2000, Bush mocked Al Gore's suggested tax credit for hybrid cars.

In 2003, Bush proposes investing $1.2 billion in hybrid car research.


ON A 9/11 COMMISSION
Initially Bush opposed an independent inquiry into 9/11, arguing it would duplicate a probe conducted by Congress.

Later Bush cheered the creation of an independent commission.


Face it.  George W Bush is a flip-flopper, just like his old man.  "Voodoo economics" anyone?  How about "No New Taxes"?

[Defarge]

Nothing's worse than flip-flopping from a "war president" to a "peace president"

And how about why we went to war?  Flip-flopping on that is cause for concern, no?

[ATFFL]

Base Closings:

Not a flip, he only opposed closing bases in Texas, not on general principle.

AA Quotas:

A bit of a flip, but the ruling was not as clear cut as you make it out to be.

Steel Tariffs:

Not a flip, but only because of very carefully chosen wording in the initial announcement.  They knew full well the world court would oppose the US action so worded an out for when that happened.

9/11 Comission:

Oh yeah, this is a definite flip for him.

[qwerty]

There is a big difference between changing your opinion over a few years then a few months or days as Senator Kerry has.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Yet John Kerry voting for $87 billion, then deciding, we should have a more responsible way to pay for this, and casting a mere protest vote is 10x worse than all the Bush flips combined.  I swear, that vote is all I heard from republicans last night.  

[khirkhib]

The whole flip-flop arguement is just stupid.  Senators have been accused for flip-flopping when they didn't vote on legislation that they themselves wrote but somebody put a rider in the bill that ruined it.  Politics is complex.  Circumstances change the needed responce.  A person that cannot change their mind is a burro.

[khirkhib]

Unhappy Workers Should Take Prozac --Bush Campaigner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A campaign worker for President Bush (news - web sites) said on Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones -- or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?" said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

The comment was apparently directed to a colleague who was transferring a phone call from a reporter asking about job quality, and who overheard the remark.

When told the Prozac comment had been overheard, Sheybani said: "Oh, I was just kidding."

While recent employment growth has buoyed Bush's economic record, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) has argued the new jobs are not as good as those lost due to outsourcing in recent years.

Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001.

[classical liberal]

There is no such thing as flip-flopping.  That being said, one of Rove's three good ideas in this campaign has been branding Kerry as a so called "flip-flopper"

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Unhappy Workers Should Take Prozac --Bush Campaigner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A campaign worker for President Bush (news - web sites) said on Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones -- or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.

In other news, a Kerry campaign worker was quoted as saying "All those religious a**holes need to get laid so they're not so uptight."

Campaign workers are not known for their level-headedness or tact.

[MarkDel]

It's really funny that the Democrats are playing up this "Two Americas" theme, all the while saying that Bush is trying to divide the country...LOL...not big on logical consistency in the modern Democratic Party...LOL

[Lunar]

It's really funny that the Democrats are playing up this "Two Americas" theme, all the while saying that Bush is trying to divide the country...LOL...not big on logical consistency in the modern Democratic Party...LOL

I don't see what you mean.  Edwards is/was arguing that Bush encourages a system where the rich have one system, and everybody else has another.  Edwards is always arguing that we should make it one America.  I don't agree with him, but it seems consistant to me.

[MarkDel]

By talking about "Two Americas" you are engaging in the very CLASS WARFARE that you are accusing Bush of utilizing. Edwards is very cleverly and deceptively using this speech as a way to tap into class resentment...ie....dividing America...

[Lunar]

I see what you mean.  Interesting irony.

[MarkDel]

I see what you mean.  Interesting irony.

Lunar,

Thanks. I guess that's why you're an Independent...LOL...most Democrats would have reflexively told me that there was somehow a difference and that I was hideously biased and thus had no clue what I was talking about.

On a non-biased note, I do understand what Edwards is driving at, and it need not have sinister connotations...but it DOES with the way he and the Dems are using it.

[classical liberal]

There is a big difference between changing your opinion over a few years then a few months or days as Senator Kerry has.

Where has Kerry "flip-flopped" rather than changed his opinion?

[??????????]

It interesting that Edwards "Two Americas" idea is a ripoff of the 1948 Socialist Workers Party Convention speech.

[khirkhib]

By talking about "Two Americas" you are engaging in the very CLASS WARFARE that you are accusing Bush of utilizing. Edwards is very cleverly and deceptively using this speech as a way to tap into class resentment...ie....dividing America...

By idenifying the problem you are encouraging.  So if you didn't aknoledge that thei was two standards in medical care, education, retirement etc. etc. etc.  that it would just go away by itself.

It's like a doctor who notices that a patient has cancer.  Now he's got to be careful because well if he tells the patient she has cancer than he is actually encouraging the cancer to grow and they are going to have to some difficult complicated measure to stop it but if he chose not to tell  the patient that she had cancer; well there is a chance that the cancer will just go away.

[Storebought]

It interesting that Edwards "Two Americas" idea is a ripoff of the 1948 Socialist Workers Party Convention speech.

John Kerry's motto, "Let America Be America Again" was lifted from a Communist anthem composed by Langston Hughes.

[English]

Funny, I see the two Americas thing as being more a gulf between the progressives and conservatives, rather than rich and poor. From what I can gather places like Vermont & RI have very little in common with Texas & Arkansas. New England has more in common with Canada.

[Akno21]

Funny, I see the two Americas thing as being more a gulf between the progressives and conservatives, rather than rich and poor. From what I can gather places like Vermont & RI have very little in common with Texas & Arkansas. New England has more in common with Canada.

True. Sometimes I feel like I live in a different country than many of my neighbors to south or west. But then after 9/11, I felt just the same as everybody else. Unfourtantly, the President squandered that unique moment of national unity, for his own political gain.

[zorkpolitics]

After listening to the DNC

It seems a bit odd that Edwards is running because there are Two America's, but Kerry and Obama are running because there is one America?

[minionofmidas]

Of course there are two Americas:
North America
and
South America

[MODU]

You beat me to it, Laloo.

It's easy to say there are two America's though, from the point of view of any political party.  If there wasn't, we'd all be suffering from some form of mass group-think.  Having divisions in our society is a good thing, even economically.  We see how well the dispertion of wealth in the USSR worked out.  People were poor, the country was poor, and it eventually collasped.

Funny . . . Edwards always talks about the top 2% of the population being the richest.  He never mentions that they pay over 40% of the taxes either . . . leaving 98% to pay the remaining 60%.  Yeah, I think we should penalize the top 2% even more.  They're not carrying their fair share.  HAHAHAHA