If Sept. 11 had not happened

what would Bush's presidency have been like? Would we be living in the extreme-right America we're experiencing now? I know there were some extreme positions Bush took prior to 9/11 (sanctions on North Korea, stripping most environmental oversight and permitting state-affiliated religous charities to discriminate). If society had not fallen to Bush's level would we loathe him any more than other Republican Prezes (Bush 41 or Nixon). Would we detest Bush as much as we do now if the events of 9/11 had not happened?

...without 9/11 the r's would have told HIM that he wasn't running for a second term. In the early months, when some rethuglicans still had spines, many were doing things that the white house was opposed to. This was a clear sign that the rank and file did not respect **.

Without 9/11, he'd have been GONE, and thousands of people would be alive today!

He was doing nothing during his first 9 months but vacationing, which is why 9/11 happened in the first place. He didn't see the signs and what he did see he didn't care about. So here we are

He's one sick son of a bitch.

the whole vote thing was collapsing around his ears in late August.

He has no carrot
and before September 10,
he had no shtick either.

September 11 solidified the power of the neo-cons,
and like Hamman,
they have now built gallows for the rest of us.

he is nothing without 911

Let's see, eggs were thrown at his inauguration, his confidence numbers were in the toilet, the stock market was crashing (which was not his fault) and he was going to have to weather the announcement of Enron's bankruptcy. Ouch.

So, if he had not been transformed into a global crusader against evil-doers, he would have limped out his miserable presidency as... what was that he ran on?... oh yeah. The Education President. The Compassionate Conservative. The Uniter-not-a-divider.

Imagine.

I particularly liked, "killin and regime change got us into this, and killin and regime change will get us out."

"Whatever it takes." (or did that go out with Abu Ghraib?) Okay then, "Stay the course!" (Or will that go out when the dollar tanks?) Well, then, "God appointed him!" because Crusades never go out of style... for long.

He's built his presidency on the foundation of 9/11. Just like his "pep rally" on the smoking ruins of the WTC.

no political capital. no soaring approval rating. it would all be about domestic issues.

By September 10th, *'s approval ratings were at 50% and headed south. The incompetence of his mis-administration was becoming apparent and he was well on his way to becoming the laughingstock we all knew he was. If 9/11 did not occur, the mid term elections would have gone a more traditional route of losses to the incumbent party, and we would more than likely had a Democratic president elected this year. In addition, while the debt would have been worse, it wouldn't have had the added boost of homeland/war spending. Without 9/11, * wouldn't have had a chance.

I am the proponent of the idea that the plus side of another four years of * will eventually be a good thing for the country in that this feckless, feckless little man will come close to ruining the country. Close, but hopefully, not quite. If he is half as bad as we think he is, the fact can't be hidden much longer and it will be time for the pendulum to swing back. When that day comes, we can see some real changes in congress and a populous willing to consider progressive ideas to save us. Universal health care, progressive taxation, the checking of the military industrial complex's power, and everything else that will take to make us a sane society again.

You know that's a happy thought. But, it's starting to look like the pendulum is broken along with all the checks and balances. Looks to me like the pendulum has flown off the right's deep end, and nothing - not weeping, gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair - is gonna bring it back with the country we once knew and loved still intact.

Just thought I'd share my boundless optimism! I'll be off now.


:hi:

I think this was the one nuclear bombshell that would have decimated the rank and file of the red states.

Imagine if the voice of Bush could be heard over and over gloating about how he got to raid social security because of 9/11 coupled with the sick howling and laughing of his Republican audience. Why wasn't this point pursued?

for bush and his cronies. We could have nominated a ham sandwich and won the election this year had it not been for that attack. The rw was afraid a terrorist attack would have affected the outcome of this election -- it did on 9/11.