The real reason Dems hate Bush

[angus]

I just got a big piece of red meat and a cheap bottle of some gritty cote-du-rhone.  I intend to cook the piece about 30 seconds on each side and devour it.  Any catholic who has as high an iron content during Lent as I do will surely burn in hell.  I'd like to know, honestly, mark, wouldn't you love to see it be 269-269 bush kerry and go to the House?  Man, any junkie who loved the six-week-long election nite last time is gonna love this one!

quid pro quo, I'll answer the open question you posed above, as I spent my very early formative years in Galveston and my later formative years in Boston, then as an adult lived in both those areas.  So, at least anecdotally, I think I'm as qualified as anyone to answer.  I think the answer is neither, or both.  Don't you??

[MarkDel]

Angus,

No, I would definitely NOT want to see a 269-269 tie. In fact, I hope to never see another close election in my lifetime after what happened in 2000. If Bush were to win a close election in 2004 where Kerry won the popular vote I would have to listen to four more years of the god awful whining from the leftist friends...wait a minute...come to think of it, I no longer have ANY leftist friends...

As for the Texas/Massachusetts debate, put me down in the "Texas Camp"

[classical liberal]

We should end all forms of welfare.  If people want to do stupid things then that is their prerogative, as long as they don't come crying when they're screwed.

[JohnFKennedy]

Heh, i got a good story about a couple of your average teenage girls who were from Texas and this is actually true:

Ok, one of my friend's from school, her brother I think it was, was marrying this girl who had relations in America, they were her cousins I think, called Courtney Britanny and something else, I forget the last one's name, anyway they were driving around London and saw one of those broadcasting masts, it is called the Crystal Palace tower and it is this reasonably big broadcasting mast and one of them just shouted out "Oh My GOD! I can See the Eiffel tower from her!!!!!"

I love that story, it would be funnier to you if you were British probably.

[MarkDel]

JFK,

Yes, we do have more than our fair share of ignorant people here...

[classical liberal]

JFK-

stupid people live all over.

[JohnFKennedy]

I know they do, I am just rather fond of that story, I like it, it is surprising how many people over here think all Americans are morons and it really does piss me off a lot and the idea that we are superior, it is really aggravating, my friends don't pay such close attention to American news and politics and only really do when somebody does something stupid so basically to them, you guys are all morons.... Just stereotypical and hypocritical bullsh**t really.

[MarkDel]

Rightwingnut,

This is true. I mean that girl didn't know where the Eiffel Tower was, but I bet her teeth were straight...LOL...sorry JFK, just a little "dental" humor we use against you Brits...LOL

[JohnFKennedy]

yes yes I know all about it, my teeth are actually perfectly straight except for one that is the slightest bit off and I have never had a brace.

[angus]

a really sexy israeli woman I met when I was working in Amsterdam introduced me to the phrase "geopolitical bigotry" a few years ago.

Behind every joke there's a modicum of truth.  No?  When JFK writes what he writes (and such a young intelligent mind is certainly a blank slate, what do you want to write on it?), I'm reminded that the buzz on Republicans is that we're elitist, racist, amoral pigs.  But you don't believe that or you wouldn't be a republican, if I may be so presumptive.  There's no "representative" america.  Maybe Edward's is right.  Maybe there are two.  Rich/poor.  I don't want to fan those flames though (yeah, right.  he he)  I get that "left-coast" elitist thing thrown in my face at every at every opportunity.  Did anyone ever ask?  No.  I'd just caution against judging Kerry too harshly because somehow there's more nobility, say, in an impoverished black missippian than a waspy yalie snob from Boston.

[MarkDel]

Angus,

Your last post is one of the more intelligent things I've read on this forum...makes a lot of sense.

[JohnFKennedy]

Were you calling me a Republican there angus? lol

I am not a Republican, at least I don't see myself as one, I just have the ability to empathise with people and see things like they do and I try to be more centrist than extreme, it attracts people from both sides, it is a good thing for a politician to be and makes me more objective.

[MarkDel]

JFK,

No, he's referring to me.

[JohnFKennedy]

ah ok, no offense to angus, but I find his posts a little hard to follow.

[MarkDel]

JFK,

Yes, like Joyce...LOL

[JohnFKennedy]

yeah heh. You a reader of Joyce then?

[MarkDel]

JFK,

Not anymore. I had to read Joyce in high school and college...definitely did NOT enjoy the experience.

[JohnFKennedy]

heh, I haven't ever read his works, he is supposed to be a good writer though, what is your favourite book and who your favourite author?

[MarkDel]

JFK,

Actually it's nothing spectacular. It's "Dune" by Frank Herbert. It's actually quite genius, but is often dismissed as silly science fiction. Dune actually could tell us a great deal about the current situation in the Middle East.

[JohnFKennedy]

Heard of it, but never read it, Herbert your favourite author also?

[angus]

mark, dune rocks.  you made an interesting suggestion about its applicability that I haven't heard before though.

Silly me.  It's all right there.  excellent analysis.  

by the bye, joe bob hunter (real name, not joseph robert) from Longview, Tx turned me on to that intriguing piece of literature.

[angus]

We should end all forms of welfare.  If people want to do stupid things then that is their prerogative, as long as they don't come crying when they're screwed.

That's what we call compassionate conservatism

yes, mark, I'm being a tool.

Hey rightwingnut, do you agree that mccain-feingold is totally illegal?  Particularly as regards soft money?

and ncjake, I think you just got the answer to your original question.  I think.  paz y amor

[angus]

crees que es la verdad?  disafortunadamente si.  digame homeboy.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The real reason Democrats dislike Bush is that he's a complete screw-up.

[angus]

The real reason Democrats dislike Bush is that he's a complete screw-up.

I respectfully disagree.  That's exactly the reasons republicans dislike bush, but the question is why do democrats dislike bush.  

My impression is the same as yours, more or less, in your original analysis ncjake.  But as a serious republican, well, as a US citizen whose 42nd president was William Jefferson Clinton, let me take a moment to address your comments about Mr. Clinton.  To wit:

No, his taste in women (either Hillary or Monica) is a little bizarre and doesn't recommend him to me on that merit, but you can't hold that against him.  I hope you don't think national security is affected by who's blowing him at the moment.  And he is missed.  You understand that.  Not the general lies (no I don't know whether perjury is impeachable, that's a question for the resident authority on constitutional law), not the general transition from a 38 to the 50+ hour workweek, not the consummerist free-for-all, McDonald's lifestyle, and attendant gaudiness and waste, not the continuation of UN sanctions against Iraq (though you and I may disagree here), and not the general buffoonery.  But I was reminded today before I went on my bicycle ride through the barrio of his words in 1996 when Iran met the futbol team of the Great Satan on the championship field.  Bear in mind that this was big for Iran too because the Ayatollah Khomeni had been pretty hard on soccer and caused the team's decline over the years.  (yes, I'm a typical gringo and played and bet on and study baseball closely, but have no idea how to play that weird kicking game that cubanos do.)  He recognized that it was weird and he reminded us that it was a time to put aside the differences between our two great nations.  That this was an opportunity to meet in sportsmanship and honor on the field.  He suggested that a brighter future lay ahead.   This is what we all miss now.    Of course the state-sponsored TV celebrations depicting frequent burning of the star-spangled banner belied the sore winner's frustration with our government's imperial follies perhaps.  And perhaps Mr. Clinton's optimism was a bit misplaced.  

The circumstances are different now.  It's nobody's fault.  It's everybody's fault.  We have seen our buildings in flames, we no longer have the innocence of a 70s LSD-dropping flower child who knows no better.  We saw our commander-in-chief in George Walker Bush after September 11, 2001.  A steady hand and a calm voice.  A man who passed the test of crisis and united the nation.  I don't know whether foreigners, or most yankees either, fully appreciate the extreme anguish, and later determination to act, that Mr. Bush must have felt then.  I'm not sure I do.  But I must say I saw in my President a Leader among men.  Not a megalomaniac with a megaphone and a slick silk jacket, but a committed head of state in time of confusion and mystery.  I do not deny that he was a failed business man and a spoiled frat-boy.  Some Nader voters have said it makes no difference.  Some have said Gore would had 90 percent approvals for weeks.  No one knows, really.  I have no illusions that the election wasn't a tie and we just got luckier, don't get me wrong.  But we have a known and and an unknown quantity.  True, the known is a screw-up, but an honorable and tested one.  If you decide to vote for Mr. Kerry (or Mr. Brown, or Mr. Buchanan, or Mr. Nader or whomever), on the basis of simple bigotry against Mr. Bush, I'd ask you to free your mind instead.  Fracture yourselves.  Split the opposition.  

--You will all be assimilated