Bush could be a one-termer

[diplomats]

This is in today's N.Y. Daily News. Is Michael Kramer a conservative or liberal? Either way, it's a good article.

President Bush could lose the 2004 election. Before now, I didn't think that was possible. Considering Bush's general popularity, political skills that dwarf his father's and the prospective Democratic alternatives, I thought Bush would win reelection - and probably easily.
What's changed? The prospect for a major scandal involving the administration's arguments for going to war against Iraq and, specifically, the President's cavalier, even arrogant, responses to the charge that he and his aides distorted or exaggerated the intelligence on which the case for battle rested.
This story, only now unfolding, is getting uglier every day.
Right now, the focus is on Bush's assertion, made in his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, that deposed dictator Saddam Hussein had tried to develop a nuclear weapons program by buying uranium in Africa.
The intel on which that claim was based, relying as it did on forged documents, has now been shot down.
The key question is this: Did the administration know the intelligence was bogus when the President used it to help justify toppling Saddam?
Over the past week, the White House position has shifted. At first, the Bushies pointed to the careful way in which the President had said it was the British who had uncovered the uranium evidence.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/100436p-90699c.html

[daleenyc]

1. help to bush

someone please help the bush administration check on what the definition of the word "is" is.

[msanger]

2. draft McCain

Who should the republican's run, since bush is a goner? McCain? Clark?

I think we should all encourage the republicans to find an "honorable" candidate as soon as possible.

[mitchtv]

3. Clark????

.

[Nashyra]

4. Not a Repug

Clark is not a Repug. If he runs it will be for the Dems.

[bandy]

6. If Clark is a repug...

well, I will not eat my shoe... but, I don't believe that! If he isn't indep. he is demo. and that is that. Not repug. I have seen the fire in his eyes. He does not like this people or their policies.
If he is repug, well, he lost a vote by this reformed repug!

[flamingyouth]

5. From your mouth..

...to the Goddess's ears.

[DemPopulist]

7. Kramer...

is a classic wishy-washy moderate. I remember he was fairly pro-Clinton in early '92, but his (ex?)wife Kimba Wood was proposed and then dropped as AG nominee after it turned out she had a nanny problem like the previous nom Zoe Baird. From then on, he was fairly tough.

[InMarin]

8. Kramer also repeats RNC talking points

"...Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is exuding the most energy on the Democratic side, yet he is the most left-leaning of the major wanna-bes."

This is pure hog wash.

[mourningdove92]

9. Until 9/11

Bush was a definate one term "pres". The only thing that saved him was the loss of thousands of American lives. See the below article for a scary scenario. I tried to post it as an original post, but the sytem keeps telling me I haven't responded to enough posts, therefore cannot start a post myself. Argh.

AUTHORITARIANS GONE WILD
Tue Jul 8, 8:01 PM ET Add Op/Ed - Ted Rall to My Yahoo!


By Ted Rall

Whether, Not Who, is the Question About the 2004 Election


Ted Rall



YORK--He has canceled elections in Iraq (news - web sites). He will probably cancel them in Afghanistan (news - web sites). Will George W. Bush put the kibosh on elections in the United States next year?


Frightened by Bush's rapidly accruing personal power and the Democrats' inability and/or unwillingness to stand up to him, panicked lefties worry that he might use the "war on terrorism" as an excuse to declare a state of emergency, suspend civil liberties and jail political opponents.


People who have spoken out against Bush are talking exit strategy--not Alec Baldwin style, just to make a statement, but fleeing the U.S. in order to save their skins. "Do you or your spouse have a European-born parent?" is a query making the rounds. (If you do, you can obtain dual nationality and a European Union (news - web sites) passport that would allow you to work in any EU member nation.) Those whose lineage is 100 percent American are hoping that nations like Canada and France will admit American political refugees in the event of a Bushite clampdown.


To these people, whether or not the 2004 elections actually take place as scheduled is the ultimate test for American democracy. At Guantánamo Bay the United States is converting a concentration camp into a death camp where inmates will be executed without due process or legal representation. Never before in history has a U.S. president contemplated the denaturalization of native-born citizens-thus far even people executed for treason have died as Americans--but Bush has drafted legislation that would allow him to strip anyone he calls an "enemy combatant" of their citizenship and have them deported. By any objective standard he has already gone way too far, but for many it would take the cancellation or delay of the elections to confirm that we are trading in our wounded democracy for a fascist state.


Lincoln considered suspending the 1864 election because of the Civil War, but ultimately tabled the idea. To date nothing has ever prevented an American presidential election from being held on time.


It's easy to come up with a scenario in which canceling the 2004 election could be made to appear reasonable. Imagine that, a few weeks before Election Day, "dirty bombs" detonate simultaneously in New York and Washington. Government, media and political institutions and personnel lie ruined in smoking rubble and ash; hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered. The economy, already teetering on the precipice, is shoved into depression. How could we conduct elections under such conditions?


Republicans have already floated the don't-change-horses-in-midstream argument. After Democratic presidential Sen. John Kerry criticized Bush recently, GOP National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot took him to task not for his specific remarks, but rather for "daring to suggest the replacement of America's commander-in-chief at a time when America is at war." The White House website's "frequently asked questions" section indicates that the "war" is expected to continue well beyond 2004: "There is no silver bullet, no single event or action that is going to suddenly make the threat of terrorism disappear. This broad-based and sustained effort will continue until terrorism is rooted out. The situation is similar to the Cold War, when continuous pressure from many nations caused communism to collapse from within. We will press the fight as long as it takes."


The Cold War lasted 46 years; does Bush intend to remain in office that long?


Our boy president has plenty of reason to worry about his election chances. A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll says that only 50 percent of Americans would vote for Bush over a generic unnamed Democrat--the lowest number since 9/11. Two-thirds say that Bush lied about or exaggerated the threat from Iraq's WMDs, and a steady flow of body bags from Afghanistan and Iraq has made 53 percent aware that the occupations are going poorly. Pollsters report that most people trust Democrats to rescue the sinking economy--and few believe that Bush's tax cuts will help them.


Bush may be the kind of guy who sees 99 percent odds as 2 percent short of a sure thing, but I bet he'll look at his $200 million campaign war chest and decide to let the people decide. He'll surely want to win legitimately in 2004--albeit for the first time. Though they're capable of anything, Bush's people probably know that Americans wouldn't stand for two putsches in four years. Still, you have to hand it to him: The fact that Democrats are terrified of ending up imprisoned by an American Reich is the ultimate tribute to Bush's artful bullying--and sad confirmation of the impotence of his would-be, should-be opponents.


(Ted Rall is the author of "Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan," an analysis of the underreported Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline project and the real motivations behind the war on terrorism. Ordering information is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.)
mourningdove



:wtf: