Mr. Bush came to my little 'ole hometown yesterday. I live in Niles, Michigan and Mr. Bush started his two state bus tour here. He held a townhall meeting on my highschool gym floor. The same highschool where I spent 4 teenage angst years 20 years ago. It was very surreal. Anyway, as many problems as he’s made for himself, I witnessed in person (about 15 feet away actually) why he will win. Because he has style and carries himself like a president. Say what you will about Iraq, health care, the economy etc etc…but he looks like a Vegas act next to John “cardboard cut-out” Kerry. Bush was genuine, kind, funny, empathetic and generally happy to be in our presence. There were about 1200 in attendance so it was a very small group. In fact he ran 15 minutes long. The Head of Secret Service said he only remembers one other time that Mr. Bush ran long and not nearly this long. And he had 2 more stops to make for the day. As was brought up on another thread, I think that the president will shine thru in any debate against Kerry.
Say what you will about Bush, but I don’t think our country can afford to lose the momentum we are starting to gain. The economy is starting to roll and would take a giant step backwards with a new administration.
I know many people have issues with the President. I do to as well. But I think he is the best thing we got going for now. In any event, to be 15 feet from the most powerful man in the world for 75 minutes was truly a thrill I will never forget.
He may carry himself like a president, but I think he is seriously lacking in charisma. Not charm, but well worded, articulate charisma. The stuff that shows up in our TV or soundbite world. Maybe I am jaded (I am a Republican, btw) but I think your perception may most likely only occur and trump charisma in up-close environment?
I look forward to debates to compare Kerry and Bush on this topic.
Watch Journeys with George. it is a great documentary made during his Presidential campaign. Very non-partisan, and you can see his charm come out.
That sounded like a really cool experience and you’re probably right. I am no Bush fan, and certainly not a Kerry fan. I think the attitude of many, many Kerry voters can be summed up by the name of this website:
To support Bush in this day and age is to reveal a major character flaw or a mighty bad case of spite at all the “facts” of his many failures that have “conspired” against Bush and his cronies. Don’t be a sucker for a well-orchestrated photo op. Silly fellow American, Bush is not for us.
Don’t get me wrong. Mr. Bush is certainly not the most polished speaker I have ever heard. With all of the educators in attendence, I’m quite sure he wasn’t even the smartest person in the room. But maybe 10% of the people in this country care about “well worded, articulate charisma”. The rest of the voting population wouldn’t recognize it anyway. The fact is: he’s likeable (for whatever reason). If Richard Nixon were the current president facing the very same issues…he wouldn’t have a prayer.
i seriously doubt the economy would suffer if bush isn’t re-elected. economic cycles are much bigger/longer than any presidential term–i think of it as almost a geological time frame. i think president’s get far too much blame/credit for when the economy tanks and when it starts going well and i don’t think any economic stimulus packages passed by a president have any more than a marginal effect. bush is not some sort of economic genius with innovative or new ideas that would be totally undercut by someone else.
furthermore, as great as the economy is apparently going, the hiring rate isn’t changing that much…
Don’t get me wrong. Mr. Bush is certainly not the most polished speaker I have ever heard. With all of the educators in attendence, I’m quite sure he wasn’t even the smartest person in the room. But maybe 10% of the people in this country care about “well worded, articulate charisma”. The rest of the voting population wouldn’t recognize it anyway. The fact is: he’s likeable (for whatever reason). If Richard Nixon were the current president facing the very same issues…he wouldn’t have a prayer.
No, I didn’t get you wrong.
I just haven’t been paying enough attention to all of Bush’s photo opps etc. to gather that people would picture him as an affable person. I figured it would take longer exposures (and a predisposition) to think that.
just why I think he will win and what it was like to be close to him for an extended period. Up until the event yesterday, all I had to go on were tv sound bites and State of the Union addresses. I was hoping that he wouldn’t be an accident waiting to happen (like Quayle). And I was hoping that my small town neighbors wouldn’t embarass themselves or our town with an outburst or some stupid question (in front of 50 cameras). None of the above happened. Bush handled himself very well as did the residents of Niles, MI. I read that he really enjoyed the stop. Even though it’s obvious he has my vote there is no need to ridicule me for doing so. I’m not attempting to influence anyone here. Just trying to put my experience into words.
totally…everything negative we are dealing with today is definitely clinton’s fault. what i am really surprised is how he can get a pair of decent shoes to fit onto his cleft hooves, with him being the devil and all…
rolling back of the clean air act and other significant environmental legislation…must have been clinton.
huge budget deficit…undoubtedly clinton.
tax cuts for the wealthy…i’m not sure how, but it must have been billy boy.
You sound like a well-educated person with a good head on your shoulders. It sounds like you’ve really done a lot of research into this matter. Keep up the good work and keep on sharing the knowledge you’ve acquired!
That whole 7 minute mile thing was based on a 5K he ran 12 years ago. I would hope someone who runs a fair amount could do that, and that’s no major feat. Now I’m sure you’ve seen his longer distance times (10K, whoopeee) and they hover around 10 + minutes per mile, that’s worse than Clinton. You got tricked by the hype machine again, silly fellow American.
Yeah I guess getting a “hummer” in the west wing is far worse than declaring a useless war in the west wing, informing a Saudi Arabian Prince in west wing before your own secretary of defense and sending hundreds of young men and women to die for Halliburton (from the west wing). Yeah, a hummer is really bad. You’re right, that really was inspiring. keep sharing the knowledge!
There are a few more things that Bush did, but which the republicans will never admit to. Why? Because the party has lost the ability to take responsibility for its actions.
Bush didn’t manage to see terrorism as a substantive issue before 9-11. Richard Clarke, a republican, said so. The result? His own party set out to destroy him.
Now the party can get to work on Paul Bremer. Did anyone hear Bremer’s comments from 2001?
Bush fed the American people a baseless set of reasons to attack another nation, something only really screwed up nations do.
2.a.) And when we didn’t find WMD and had our second MAJOR intelligence failure in two years, no one lost their job. At the very least, you would think that Bush would at least act angry about that and can George Tenet. But the CIA director is still in office. He must some incriminating pictures of GWB somewhere.
3.) Bush destroyed our credibility on the international stage and needlessly damaged long-standing alliances, ones that it will take another president to repair. And one result is that no one is going to help us in Iraq. They are going to let us mire in our mistakes.
4.) Bush had no plan for how to manage Iraq after the invasion, and now we are seeing the results of our lack of preparation.
5.) Bush still has no plan to get us out of Iraq, and little does it matter to the apologists who will defend him at any cost.
What’s beautiful about the Republican monopoly on our government is that they own this whole freaking mess. And day by day, the American people realize that we have anything but “momentum” going for us right now.
Wow, that was almost an argument, so many near-facts. “Mr. Clinton had several opportunities to send a Tomahawk their way, but was too busy cheating on his wife and getting a hummer in the back office.” Its interesting you named a specific missile, b/c ironically thats the exact missle Clinton did fire into afghanistan (against Al Qaeda targets) after the bombing of the US embassies in Africa. So many in fact, that the fleet that was launching them actually fired a good portion of their entire stockpile, and needed to rearm themselves sortly after, well over 200 cruise missles, the main one being the Tomahawk. Clinton also was nice enough to warn the incoming president (bush) that Al Qaeda was a threat, and planning actions against the US (this was all over the news a month ago). As for the economy, I see very little of that having to do with a president, a lot of it has to do with interest rates (set by the fed, which despite its name is not under the jurisdiction of the president), and private investors. I would say im being pretty unbiased on this last part seeing how the Clinton Administration, started with recession his frist few years in office, which later switched to unprecedented growth, seemed to favorably affect the economy (even with the lag of which you speak, because that suggests it takes 4 years for policies to take effect, and he was in office for 8). Yes, Clinton did all that, while getting a hummer, a true multi-tasking president.