Boomers suck as politicians

ARTICLE: Senate Allies of Bush Work to Halt Iraq Vote, By CARL HULSE and THOM SHANKER, New York Times, January 31, 2007

ARTICLE: Choice for No. 2 at State Dept. Defends Bush’s Stance on Iran, By HELENE COOPER, New York Times, January 31, 2007

The resolutions should be blocked, serving their primary purpose of signalling to Bush that the Dems plan on following through on what the public signalled in the Nov election.

But Bush-Cheney just seem intent on ignoring that message and that of the GOP establishment as signalled by Baker's ISG.

Listen to the CSPAN Senate coverage: you're hearing member after member from both sides calling for a regional dialogue at least on Iraq. I mean, come on! How can the White House blow off the election, the new majority, its own party elders, its own party members on the Hill, and the ISG?

To me, that's way beyond any self-destructive behavior I saw with Bill Clinton, and frankly, I'm amazed to say that.

I'm just really beginning to believe that while the Boomers have had world-shaking accomplishments in economics and technology, they simply suck as politicians.

Comments

[Mark_in_Texas]

I have yet to hear any coherent plan for Iraq from the any Democrat other than Dennis Kucinich and John Murtha. For the rest of them, the instantaneous shift from "We need more troops" to "No escalation" as soon as Bush announced more troops indicates to me that the party who put a man who doesn't know Sunnis from Shiites in charge of the House Intelligence Committee does not take anything except domestic politics seriously.

Of course, watching the Republicans scurrying around like Kent Brockman welcoming his new ant overlords makes me resolve to vote straight Libertarian ticket in 2008 unless something changes between then and now.

[RTO Trainer]

Well. We won't be going back to WWII leadership. And I've got the impression that you won't care much for our Gen X style.

[Lou]

I feel as though the Drug culture of the 60's and 70's ruined this country. This is coming from a 25 year old.

[ry]

Oh I dunno why they would think that you could just blow off messages sent by election, Doc.I mean, some people have been doing that for 6 years and calling it the new fashion of being patriotic.

Yes, it's tremendously hidebound. But it also seems absolutely the way things are done in DC. Just ignore people who don't agree with you(or call them funny names).

Is holding a regional security pow-wow even worth doing if you can't, for whatever reason(whether domestic politics or the problem of allies) bring Iran in? What can we offer up to Iran(nucs is off the table. I know you hate that and think it's dumb, but I don't think the genpub is going to go for that.) to get them to play ball?

I think there's some sticking points as to why the Pres isn't going to talk to Ira. One of them being domestic politics. Look how his opponents went into blood in the water mode after he said mistakes were made.So it falls to his successor who won't be bound like he is by the domestic politics. That seems to be the hand we've got.

[Thomas Pamelia]

We don't know what our Gen X style is going to be yet!

I voted in the midterm and I didn't see anything on my ballot that asked directly what I wanted my government to do in Iraq. To use the shift in power as signal that the American people are largely against our troops being in Iraq - is unjustified. There was no talk of a troop surge at that time. To talk about the "signal" created by the change in power is speculation at best.The Dems haven't procured a legitimate counter-plan to bring to the table. I don't think they could agree on one as a whole even if they wanted to.I have no problem agreeing that more diplomacy could be used - however, that's an open ended statement.If the Dems call what John Kerry is doing in the middle east "diplomacy" then godbless the Dem Party Nominee - their little non-binding resolution will create a whole lot of new liberatarian and republican voters.

[Anonymous]

Thomas P: i agree with you that we don't know what Xer style is going to be yet...

and that's pretty much it ;-)

but seriously, the fact that your vote didn't reflect on our Iraq policy does not contravene all of the votes that did. do exit polls and campaign issues and abysmal presidential ratings (etc) count for anything?

[Michael]

I don't know that it's a matter of Boomer politicians stinking so much as the electorate and political class sleeping. We went into the voting booths in 2000 voting more as a partisan exercise than to select a leader. In 2004, we started to wake up to reality, but didn't quite know how to deal with it (we need a leader! hey, he was in the army. . .). On the plus side, if any of the major presidential candidates are clunkers, I haven't heard about it (yet; heard about Biden's gaff today). Maybe we're getting (a bit) better at reality.*shrug*

[Michael]

D'oh! Navy, not Army. Someday, I'll have to learn not to Write While Tired:P

[RTO Trainer]

Exit polls don't count for much. I know large numbers of people who refuse to participate. For my part I actively lie to them.