I know the polls indicate Bush has remendous popularity. I am however of the firm belief that President Bush will not be re-elected if the right candidate comes along.
As a republican I am not happy with:
* out of control deficit spending
* tax cuts when our states are in crisis situations
* expanding the federal governement with the Homeland Security Agency, when we have agencies that should be doing this job.
* the "No Child Left Behind" education plan which basically says test the children, test the children, test the children and provides little or no resources to improve the problems in education
* the loss of the world's goodwill after 9/11
* the problem with North Korea
* the inability to prevent 9/11 and the failure to investigate the shortfalls that led to 9/11
* the loss of cantury old allies
* the disrespect shown towards our allies
Soooooo where does that leave me?
Not a single Democrat on the slate so far excites me.
I think I may have found my candidate. Gen. Wesley Clark. He was on Meet the Press this morning.
Here is a clip.
MR. RUSSERT: There is an article in The Washington Post today, General. It says that part of the reason that France and Russia and Germany and others are giving the United States such a hard time about Iraq is they disagree on the views but also it?s a payback for the heavy-handed and bullying tactics of the last two years of the Bush foreign policy. Do you agree with that?
GEN. CLARK: I do agree with that. I think that?s exactly what they?ve seen and felt in Europe from this administration. It?s an administration which really hasn?t respected our allies. And, frankly, there are a lot of differences and perspectives with our allies in Europe.
One thing I learned in the Kosovo campaign is that if you?re going to have allies, the unfortunate thing is they have their own opinions. And if you really want allies, you got to listen to their opinions, you?ve got to take them seriously, you?ve got to work with their issues. Every one of our allied leaders is an elected leader, at least in Europe. And that means they have domestic politics and political factors at home and economic factors at home that influence their opinions. And those have to be respected just like we would expect them to respect us for our political system in the United States.
If we deal with our allies on a basis of respect, if we give them the opportunity and the evidence and the arguments and the analysis that?s needed to help shape their public opinions, then we can expect them to go along with us.
MR. RUSSERT: You have written extensively about Iraq: an article in Time, Let?s Wait to Attack; an interview with The Washington Post, A General?s Doubts. I want to go through some of your points. This is how The Post characterized it: ?Clark fears that the new dangers generated by a war in Iraq might outweigh any gains from disarming Saddam Hussein. Clark cites three tests that the administration must meet before going to war. ...Are you sure you won?t destroy the international institutions you say you are supporting, and thereby undermine the war against terror??
Are we destroying the institutions we are supporting?
GEN. CLARK: Well, we?re shaking really strongly right now. We?ve put both NATO and the U.N. on the block here and demanded they support us. So as we?re moving ahead here, we?ve got to be careful and not just use brute force against these institutions. We?ve got to provide the arguments, the analysis, the evidence, the time, the sense of responsibility. We?ve got to allow opinion to come along to our side on this.
SO who would you most like to see run for President in the next election?
As a republican I am not happy with:
* out of control deficit spending
* tax cuts when our states are in crisis situations
* expanding the federal governement with the Homeland Security Agency, when we have agencies that should be doing this job.
* the "No Child Left Behind" education plan which basically says test the children, test the children, test the children and provides little or no resources to improve the problems in education
* the loss of the world's goodwill after 9/11
* the problem with North Korea
* the inability to prevent 9/11 and the failure to investigate the shortfalls that led to 9/11
* the loss of cantury old allies
* the disrespect shown towards our allies
Soooooo where does that leave me?
Not a single Democrat on the slate so far excites me.
I think I may have found my candidate. Gen. Wesley Clark. He was on Meet the Press this morning.
Here is a clip.
MR. RUSSERT: There is an article in The Washington Post today, General. It says that part of the reason that France and Russia and Germany and others are giving the United States such a hard time about Iraq is they disagree on the views but also it?s a payback for the heavy-handed and bullying tactics of the last two years of the Bush foreign policy. Do you agree with that?
GEN. CLARK: I do agree with that. I think that?s exactly what they?ve seen and felt in Europe from this administration. It?s an administration which really hasn?t respected our allies. And, frankly, there are a lot of differences and perspectives with our allies in Europe.
One thing I learned in the Kosovo campaign is that if you?re going to have allies, the unfortunate thing is they have their own opinions. And if you really want allies, you got to listen to their opinions, you?ve got to take them seriously, you?ve got to work with their issues. Every one of our allied leaders is an elected leader, at least in Europe. And that means they have domestic politics and political factors at home and economic factors at home that influence their opinions. And those have to be respected just like we would expect them to respect us for our political system in the United States.
If we deal with our allies on a basis of respect, if we give them the opportunity and the evidence and the arguments and the analysis that?s needed to help shape their public opinions, then we can expect them to go along with us.
MR. RUSSERT: You have written extensively about Iraq: an article in Time, Let?s Wait to Attack; an interview with The Washington Post, A General?s Doubts. I want to go through some of your points. This is how The Post characterized it: ?Clark fears that the new dangers generated by a war in Iraq might outweigh any gains from disarming Saddam Hussein. Clark cites three tests that the administration must meet before going to war. ...Are you sure you won?t destroy the international institutions you say you are supporting, and thereby undermine the war against terror??
Are we destroying the institutions we are supporting?
GEN. CLARK: Well, we?re shaking really strongly right now. We?ve put both NATO and the U.N. on the block here and demanded they support us. So as we?re moving ahead here, we?ve got to be careful and not just use brute force against these institutions. We?ve got to provide the arguments, the analysis, the evidence, the time, the sense of responsibility. We?ve got to allow opinion to come along to our side on this.
SO who would you most like to see run for President in the next election?
