More Domestic Wimpyness From President

How can a President so resolute in the War on Terror and the interrelated War in Iraq be so lame on domestic issues? I wish I knew.

If forced to choose in the post-9/11 world, as we were in 2004, I want a President to lead on the international issues. That is his one nearly unopposed stage. At least his power is limited on the domestic front. He must deal with Congress.

President Bush, depsite showing guts and leadership (even if you disagree with him) in our WOT simply cannot find that same skill (leadership? political courage?) at home. Whether it is capitulating to the pharmacies in a future trillion dollar drug benefit plan (he didn't even insist on bulk buying discounts), reversing the conservative trend of making Federal education policy less intrusive, or bailing on us all by giving up any plan for Social Security reform, Bush cannot find the will to take on a domestic public outcry based on ignorance.

So now, in a speech yesterday (in which he did a good job discussing the positive news about our economy), he has ordered a price fixing investigation on "Big Oil." Give me a break.

Neal Boortz noted as follows this morning:

[Bush's speech was p]andering to the ignorance of the American people. Not one sign of leadership. Just a whimpering submission to the softness that is decaying the American spirit. There's George Bush yesterday sounding more like Jimmy Carter than like a president who is leading his country in a war on terror.

Why these harsh words? Because Bush took the easy way out yesterday. He bowed to the demagoguery of the Democrats and some Republicans. He ordered price-fixing investigations of the oil companies in spite of the fact that there is not one single shred of evidence that any collusion or price fixing is taking place. Over the years there have been many of these investigations. Not once -- not one single time has one of these investigations uncovered any evidence of price fixing by the oil companies.

This was a time for Bush to lead. This was a time for him to step in front of the American people and tell the truth. Educate them! Instead of trying to address the ignorance of the American people on the issue of gas prices, he pandered to that ignorance.

Tony Bleckley has also commented.

One of the things that always made me feel good in the morning was waking up and realizing I did not belong to the same political party as Chuck Schumer. It made me feel clean -- even before I took a shower. But now, with my Republican president pulling a "full Schumer," even a series of showers will not help.

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It is ugly to see politicians trying to exploit for political gain the economic ignorance, paranoia of large corporations and petty envy that burden elements of the public mind.

But at least for the Schumers of this political world, they can claim in defense that they have become habituated to such demagogic practices through long usage. They can no longer help themselves. They wouldn't know how to function without constantly reciting gibberish to their gullible base voters.

President Bush is a lame duck. He has crappy poll numbers. He would presumably have the freedom to insist on doing the right thing, insist on educating a dumb public (at least trying) on such issues. He keeps educating us about the WOT. But he gives in constantly on the domestic front. I don't mean compromising on points here and there. I mean giving in.

I know President Bush ran on some of his liberal ideas like his drug benefit plan. We were forced to hold our nost and vote for him anyway because we didn't want Sen. Kerry running this war. But President Bush aslo ran on some conservative issues (like private Soc. Sec. acounts) and promised to be, generally, a conservative.

Pres. Bush wants conservative justices like Scalia and Thomas after all. And now we know why. We need them to vote to overturn the bills President Bush has signed into law and to prevent the intrusion on Federalism that his Attorney Generals makes a weekly practice of doing.

And now we need him to quit acting like a liberal New York Senator.