This is NOT an entry about the kook assserton of extreme leftists (or Democrats willing to lie for political advantage) that President Bush went to war in Iraq to enhance the personal oil related fortune of his family and/or Dick Cheney (Halliburton, you know). It is NOT about the even more kooky conspiracy theory that president Bush has conspired with the Saudis because of business relations with the Bush family (including being soft on bin Laden because of connections between the Bush family and the bin Laden family--a Michael Moore leftiist KOOK "theory"). However, this entry IS about why President Bush has few defenders left.
It is not a matter of stupidity. President Bush is not a stupid man. It is a matter of inflexibility of mind, and tunnel vision (a special kind of stubborness having little or nothing with unwillingness to admit "mistatakes").
One item of news today was that President Bush RELUCTANTLY signed the Congressional legislation suspending purchases for the strategic oil reserve for six months. But President Bush did so only while still insisting he is right that such legislation is short sighted, and will not reduce tlhe price of gasoline. President Bush gave in, as he did on Iraq (by changing course--not be getting out) after the 2006 election results, ONLY after he was basically hit over the head with a 2 by 4 (a vote so large that no veto would stand. To me, this is tunnel vision.
Is the point of suspending purchases for the strategic oil reserve that it will "solve" the gasoline price problem? Not on your life. The point is that it is STUPID to continue to purchase oil for the reserve AT THESE PRICES. In fact, you almost can't get any more stupid. President Bush should have been PUSHING for FLEXIBILITY to do this ever since Katrina. My brother--co-owner of a trucking company--has been virtually foaming at teh mouth since then about how the Federal Government has insisted on continuing to purchase oil for the reserve at ever HIGHER prices. You want to add to the reserve during DIPS in price, and not when oil is reaching new price records. This kind of tone deafness/tunnel vision by President Bush has caused my brother to consider him the worst Presdient in 50 years (even though my position is that Bush is onlly the 4th worst President in my lifetime--ahead of Johnson, Carter, and Nixon, but behind Clinton).
As I say, President Bush is not a stupid man. But he ends up in stupid positions like this because he is inflexible of mind, to the point of tunnel vision bey9ond anything I have ever seen. As I said at the time, in this blog, President Bush made the SAME speech on Iraq for probably 2 years after it quit making sense. There was no excuse for President Bush not altering course in Iraq (toward the Petraeus strategy) after the 2004 election, and certainly no later than the beginning of 2006. Giving the SAME speech over and over again cost the Republicans the 2006 election (along with Republican inability to give voters any reason BEYOND Iraq t vote for them--also partially Bush's fault on immigration and other issues like spending). There, too, Bush had to be hit by that 2 by 4 to replace Rumsfeld with Gates, and turn things over to General Petraeus. It was TOO LATE (if not for Iraq, at least for Republicans and Bush credibility).
Let us go to spending. President Bush NEVER vetoed a spending bill during his first term. He has NO credibility on spending (as Republicans in general no longer do). That means that President Bush has little credibility, or influence on spending, even when he is right. Earmarks? President Bush and the Repubican Congress did nothing about them. Now President Bush has threatened to VETO a VETO PROOF farm subsidy bill (along with outageous spending bill in a number of ways). TOO LATE again. Even though farmers (bet youd did not think I would get there)--especially big farm operations--are in a postion to make major money in the free market (as the cost of food rises, even though farmers get only a portion of that and have increased energy related expenses). If big farmers cannot compete in the free market NOW, when will they ever be able to? But how can President Bush suddenly act like an old style conservative opposing ridiculous Federal spending? He has no crediblity on that, becasue of his tunnel vision in the past ("new tone" and unwillingness to "fight" Congress on spending).
It has even been WORSE than that. President Bush recently proposed a farm subsidy bill for THIRD WORLD FARMERS (really, I can't make this stuff up). No matter how good an idea that actual bill may be (not very good, in my view, although maybe the details are better than the Bush SPEECH trumpeting it), the tone deafness/tunnel vision is breaththaking. My MOTHER (who has this fixation on the Great Depression she lived through as a child/adolescent) compares President Bush to Herbert Hoover, who she believes promised to help everyone in the WORLD except the people at home.
Then there is Bush's hard headedness on illegal immigration--insisiting on bring up the McCain Kennedy bill AGAIN, after DEFEAT of the previous attempt at a similar "comprehensive bill". Even though the bill was primarily a Democratic bill (Harry REid BRAGGED that he delievered the DEMOCRATIC votes for the bill), Harry Reid was RIGHT that it was President Bush who INSISTED on bringing the whole thing back for another try--a sneaky, back room deal try. In the process, Preisdent Bush INSULTED conservatives (as did McCain).
WHO is left to defend President Bush. The media likes to try to USE the ubiquitous, useless "polls" showing "record" unpopularity to advance their own agenda. What amazes ME is that ANYONE "approves" of the job President Bush is doing. The Prsident has burned all of his bridges by a turly astounding tunnel vision, and he has pretty much brought the Republican Party down with him. John McCain threatens to finsih the job (especially as to conseratives).
I don't regret voting for President Bush in 2000 and 2004. I just can't see Al Gore or John Kerry fighting the War on Terror (Iraq or no Iraq). However, I would NOT vote for President Bush again, even if he could run for a third term. He has totally worn out his welcome with conseratives like me (not to mention people like my brothers, who are conservative is a less ideological way than I am).
Have I explained why I consider President Bush, at the present time, almost a saboteur/mole within the Republican Party (certainly within the conservative "movement"). I hope so.
President' Bush's inabality to see clearly the insanity of adding to the strategic oil reserve at ANY PRICE is conclusive evidence on this point.
Segue to China and India (not to mention the rest of the world). Since it is crucial to his business, he keeps up with the oil/fuel "market" more than I do. What is one of the present "analyst" explanations for an ever rising oil price, in the face of apparently adequate supply? It is that India and China are HOARDING OIL, at any price.
Well, what have WE been doing by continuing to purchase oil for the strategic oil reserve at any price?
Q.E.D. If ALL of the countries of the world followed our previous example, and what President Bush evidently thinks we should still be doing, it would EXPLAIN why the oil "market" has spiraled completely out of control!!!
Talk about TUNNEL VISION.
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