posted on May 15, 2004 03:43:13 PM new
The latest polls show a reversal of the 2000 election where Gore got the majority Female vote and Bush the Male vote- Now women are supporting Bush {not this one)more than the men are- I thought it was strange until an encounter with a female stranger standing in back of me on line gave me a clue- She looked at the headlines in the papers and said " I feel so sorry for Bush- He is trying to do a good job-it's a hard job and no one else could have done it better- I said I didn't feel sorry for him I felt sorry for the rest of the world- She was so taken aback that anyone could not be synpathetic for this man whose lack of inrelligence and leaderaship ability is destroying what's left of our world-
posted on May 15, 2004 05:25:36 PM new
Besides feeling sorry for him, I believe that a number of people identify with his uninformed or dumb persona.
There is a very good article about his attitude toward education here.
Excerpt...a dedicated fool
This Oedipally induced ignorance expresses itself most dangerously in Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. Dubya polished off his old man's greatest enemy, Saddam, but only by lampooning 41's accomplishment of coalition-building in the first Gulf War. Bush led the country to war on false pretenses and neglected to plan the occupation that would inevitably follow. A more knowledgeable and engaged president might have questioned the quality of the evidence about Iraq's supposed weapons programs. One who preferred to be intelligent might have asked about the possibility of an unfriendly reception. Instead, Bush rolled the dice. His budget-busting tax cuts exemplify a similar phenomenon, driven by an alternate set of ideologues.
As the president says, we misunderestimate him. He was not born stupid. He chose stupidity. Bush may look like a well-meaning dolt. On consideration, he's something far more dangerous: a dedicated fool.
posted on May 15, 2004 08:15:41 PM newA more knowledgeable and engaged president might have questioned the quality of the evidence about Iraq's supposed weapons programs
Now who might that be.
[ edited by Libra63 on May 15, 2004 08:16 PM ]
posted on May 15, 2004 09:09:09 PM newBush is falling further behind among women—and it could cost him come election time
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
May 14 - It's not surprising that the latest Bush campaign television ad has Laura Bush speaking on camera. A new Pew poll reveals a 12-point gender gap for Bush, enough to sink her husband in November. "Women are sick of Bush and all the macho strutting; it's gotten pretty old," says a Republican strategist.
If the First Lady were the candidate, the Bush campaign might have a better shot at arguing it stands for compassionate conservatism. Laura Bush is so muted and so reserved, that she's a welcome antidote to Bush's guns-blazing style. Still, she's got an impossible task when it comes to selling her husband's education and health policies.
Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation is so unpopular around the country that state legislatures are voting to reject its provisions. It imposes higher standards without the promised funding, and the result is a lot of schools labeled as failures and the overcrowding of schools that have worked hard at being a success.
Bush's prescription-drug program for seniors is both a public-policy and a political disaster. Senior women are most skeptical. They're experts on the cost of drugs and they know it's a scam when consumers get to choose a discount card once a year while the drug companies get to raise prices whenever they want.
Women are the crown jewel of the electorate. It's their vote margin that could elect John Kerry just as it did Bill Clinton. In 1996, Republican Bob Dole beat Clinton among men by a single percentage point; women voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. The wave of prison-abuse photos made public over the last two weeks confirms the doubts women have about Bush's policy in Iraq. But Bush was falling behind among women even before the graphic images hit the airwaves.
Surveys taken in March showed women disapproving of Bush's job performance by 47 percent to 39 percent, while men approved 54 percent to 38 percent. The numbers in battleground states mirror the national scene. In Ohio, Bush's job approval among men in March was 53 to 45 percent while women disapproved 56 to 40 percent. In Wisconsin, one poll has Kerry leading Bush 50 to 42 percent with a wider margin of 54 versus 35 percent among women. In Oregon, a 1-point Kerry lead expands to 9 points when women are polled.
Ann Lewis runs the women's vote project at the Democratic National Committee. A longtime political operative, she was communications director in the Clinton White House and a key player in Hillary Clinton's Senate race in New York. She says of the Bush team, "I didn't think they would do education well, or health care, but I thought they would make war well. It's stunning that they have messed this up." Increasingly, women know someone who is in the Reserves or Guard, and they're getting first-hand information, which is mostly negative and contributes to the sense of unease.
posted on May 15, 2004 09:16:51 PM new
Libra asks, "Now who might that be."
Oviously not George W. Bush.
A second, more damning aspect of Bush's mind-set is that he doesn't want to know anything in detail, however important. Since college, he has spilled with contempt for knowledge, equating learning with snobbery and making a joke of his own anti-intellectualism. ( "[William F. Buckley] wrote a book at Yale; I read one," he quipped at a black-tie event. ) By O'Neill's account, Bush could sit through an hourlong presentation about the state of the economy without asking a single question. ("I was bored as hell," the president shot back, ostensibly in jest.)
Laura Bush "George is not an overly introspective person. He has good instincts, and he goes with them. He doesn't need to evaluate and reevaluate a decision. He doesn't try to overthink. He likes action."
posted on May 16, 2004 05:28:48 AM new
What I find funny about Bush is when he is giving a speech, and says something that is getting some applause, he seems to shift his eyes in disbelief and grins that people really like what he is saying.
True Americans do not exclude anybody. They recognize that everyone should have the same rights. Bigotry, intolerance and hatred are cancers of the mind.
spelling edit
[ edited by yeager on May 16, 2004 05:29 AM ]
