Hell_Toupee wrote:
How can you blame Bush for 9/11 and an inherited recession? Not that I'm
blaming Clinton for the recession, because it's all of us not listening to
Greenspan. But Clinton DID get the security agencies to not share
information. That was in the 9/11 report.


Also noted was the fact that while Clinton held almost weekly meetings
with his anti-terrorism task force, Bush's taks force, headed by Dick
Cheney had their first meeting on September 4, 2001, more than eight
months after the start of Bush's administration. He also stopped the
Predator surveillance of bin Laden in the spring of 2001.

On Sept. 10, Diane Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee
briefed on July 5th, asked Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby
when
the administration would start focusing on these terror threats which
had
so pre-occupied CIA's Tenet, the most severe in decades - she was told
it
would have to wait another six months.

If you close your eyes long enough, your enemies will take advantage of
it. Bush and the Christian Right were more concerned with fighting
pornography and medical marijuana than they ever were about terrorism
until 9/11. After 9/11, they did start to focus on terrorism, but after
such an event, anyone would have. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

As for the recession, there was a tech bubble, and the effects would
have been shorter and lighter if 9/11 hadn't occured. The current
situation wouldn't be as bad if we were not engaged in a pointless war
in Iraq, completely unrelated to 9/11. Oil prices would be lower, and
we would be saving more than $100 billion per year. Add to this a
record of deficit spending that has set new records, a feat which will
have an impact on inflation and interest rates for years to come, and
you have to give some of the "credit" to George W. Bush.

But you're obviously a Republican, so despite Republican control of all
three branches of the government, it must all be Clinton's or the
Democrat's fault. It must be, because despite their shrill rhetoric
about personal responsibility, Republicans are going to try to dodge
responsibility for their actions, much like their leadership dodged
Veitnam, all while they loudly supported the Veitnam War. Do I sense a
pattern here ?

How can I blame Bush ? It is very easy. I hold a person responsible for
their actions, or lack thereof. Of course, Republican's still can't
understand how anyone could hold Ken Lay responsible for Enron. He was
only the CEO. Obviously people in charge get credit for the possitive
things, but we can't expect them to take resposibility for their
errors, can we ? YES, We can, and I do. Bush is the President, many of
the decisions were his, or at least signed off by him. He gets the
credit and the responsibility.

Dean G.