Bush Sr: War malaise may hurt re-election hopes

Snip from The Times
From Roland Watson in Washington



PRESIDENT BUSH used his country’s Memorial Day yesterday to laud American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to argue that because of their courage “two terror regimes are gone forever”.

But shortly before he spoke his own father, the first President Bush, cautioned that Iraq could become a significant barrier to his son’s reelection this November, adding that a national depression similar to the one that contributed to the defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980 was beginning to set in. “The country is doing pretty darn well, but the war in Iraq is a large problem, ” the elder Mr Bush told Time magazine. “There’s a lot of what Jimmy Carter called ‘malaise’ around.”

Mr Bush said that his son had his “total support, without any reservation”. But comparing his administration to the Carter era is a long way off message as far as the President’s re-election campaign is concerned.

Mr Carter and Mr Bush are members of a very small club, presidents who failed to win re-election after their first four-year term. Mr Carter was swept from office by Ronald Reagan in 1980 amid a fuel crisis and a botched military attempt to rescue the US hostages in Iran. President Bush also faces a foreign policy crisis and soaring oil prices. Bush Snr touched on another source of discomfort for his son. The US economy is picking up speed, but the recovery has yet to give Mr Bush any lift in the polls.
More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1129894,00.html

Bush Sr: "Son, I told you so"
Bush Jr: "But Daddy, I wanted that oil and unca Dick said I should"

When his own father is comparing the Dim Son's re-election hopes to Jimmy Carter's. I think Carter's wonderful man, but it would have taken a miracle to have seen him re-elected, the way the world was in 1980. What's Poppy thinkin'?

But it didn't trend quickly enough to get Carter his plurality.

Republicans made it out to be a crushing defeat for Carter and a mandate for King Ron. When the very people who disinformed us about the results of that one are now comparing GW to Carter ... whew.

Carter/Reagan

Paris...Iran hostage deal.

seems to me, everyone says that Carter's uttering the word malaise hurt him. So wouldn't that be true here too?

Too simplistic of course, but it's what I keep hearing.

here's the "Malaise speech" and you're right, the word is not in it.

Also interesting, Carter says he "feels our pain", ten years before Clinton said it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html

Sounds French, in fact.

Despite being a peanut farmer from Georgia, Carter was also an educated man.

we have ever had. Certainly up there with the best of them.

I'll bet he got a reaming from Babs.

What “two terror regimes are gone forever" are you talking about?

When ahole said 50 million people were now living free, I asked the dh, "Who would that be?"

re-election. By the way,...God told me that s/he does not approve of BFEE or the neocons or the Falwell/Robertson gang and that s/he intends to send the whole lot of them straight to hell. *ahem*

Well, I guess for you, it certainly is. There are several million people who have lost their jobs under your boy's stupid economic policies who might disagree with you. But then, I suppose they could always sign up to be Halliburton mercenaries if they wanted to earn a little scratch. And if they didn't mind the red taint on those dollars.

and father of blunder government.

Note to Poppy: Your sons are all pieces of shit. Nice job.

With Memorial Day being over, and with the "greatest generation" having been feted, Poppy can now go stuff it.

Huh

He is just plain stupid and childish with his Saddam trophy pistol. Taliban is NOT gone--Bin Laden is NOT gone and he actually enabled terrorism in Iraq by invading, taking their stuff and killing thousands of innocents. Now he says the terror regime is gone forever.

I don't blame him for giving it a try given the stupidity of those who would vote for him -- they would never have the intelligence to think that one through. All they would do is make a connection between Saddam and terrorists which is exactly why this lying fool uses language like that.

Sorry. That was bleak. I think the real accomplishment of the Iraq war was winning a few seats for the fascist party in the mid term elections of 2002.

Binary brained buffoon.

It's just a family tradition! Meet the one-term Bushes! Butthole and Butthole Jr.

Its some serious bad ju ju when a Republican president is compared to Jimmy Carter.
The Chimp does not even deserve his FIRST term, much less a shot at a second one.

You know Bush the 2nd is in peril when Republican office holders begin to distance themselves from him.

Are we going to have to put up with Bucky Bush and Jeb Bush next? How many one-term wonders from this dynasty can the world handle?

The Bush administration has cause a malaise in the country!

No shit sherlock.

This country is in a major depression, it started 12/12/00. Mine will lift on 11/2/04 when John Kerry takes back the White House from the squatter. In all of my 40+ yrs. I have never felt such anguish over the direction of this country.

...when dead soldiers eclipse 1000? If 800 is malaise then we would probably reach a general despondence?

Again, the only word I can use when talking about our friends across the aisle is...


GEESH...

Doctor! Some kind of Oedipus paranoia seems to be afflicting the elder Bush. Who knew?

If America would wake up and realize that Bush went to war totally on bogus material, then he would be, well, never mind. My imagination would get DU shut down.

...by Bush Sr. making comments like this publicly. He did so before the Iraqi war started, if you'll recall.

What's his motivation? To impress upon the American public that he can be unbiased even if his son is president? A public rebuke to his son in order to humiliate him? An exercise in reverse psychology, wherein he hopes his statements will somehow make those who follow Jr. more loyal?

I don't know, but he can keep on making them, as far as I'm concerned, because I think they really do hurt Bush Jr.

He makes a few noises here and there to deflect attention to the fact that he's spending his days carrying bulging money bags from the Treasury to his personal piggy bank.

yourself...just go off gently into that good night - your moment in history has passed.

Really? Tell that to the people in Afghanistan. Bush is dittohead... I think the word he was searching for was not 'malaise', it ANGER.

This site requires registration and 'threatens' to send you a bunch of their email advertising (something I DON'T need).

to Rupert Murdoch copyright scam co...):

<snip>
In an emotional Memorial Day address at a rainswept Arlington national cemetery, the US President paid tribute to the valour of those who had served “in places like Kabul and Kandahar, Mosul and Baghdad”.

He said: “We have seen their decency and brave spirit. Because of their fierce courage, America is safer, two terror regimes are gone for ever and more than 50 million souls now live in freedom.”

But he avoided any direct reference to the rapidly rising death toll in Iraq, or the recent prisoner abuse scandal.

Four more US soldiers were killed yesterday. More than 200 US troops have died in Iraq in the past two months alone. The death toll now stands at 810, of which 672 were killed since Mr Bush announced the end of major combat operations last May.

The statistics mean that the Iraq conflict compares to some of the smaller wars in US history. It has produced more overall casualties than the 1898-1902 Spanish-American War, and more wounded than the War of 1812 with Britain and the Mexican War of 1846-48, though fewer deaths.

It also emerged yesterday that the US Army is investigating at least two dozen cases in which soldiers have allegedly assaulted or stolen from Iraqis during routine patrols and household and checkpoint searches.

Civilian Iraqis have filed complaints that they were robbed of money, jewellery or property without issuing receipts, apparently under the pretext of confiscating goods from suspected insurgents. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command is also examining at least six cases in which soldiers allegedly kicked, punched or beat civilian Iraqis.
<snip>

of Junior's turf war in the Mossad snakepit of Iraq.

His dad is out of touch with the times and the son is out of touch with reality.