What a treat watching O'Reilly was last night. Mediocre questions followed by obscure responses. Fair and Balanced indeed.
Choice bits only, due to time constraints.
BUSH: I also saw a poll where it said, by far, the vast majority of the Iraqis believe the world is getting better. And that's positive.
In other words, people are beginning to see progress. Electricity is better, schools are opening, hospitals are running. I think when it's all said and done, the Iraqis are going to look back and say: "Thank God for America."
O'REILLY: How long is it going to take before that happens, do you think?
BUSH : You know, as soon as possible. Now, I think the elections are going to have, you know, a very positive effect, and they take place in January. Look, the people want to vote.
Iraqis don't have electricity, they're combating a rise in hepetitis cases, death from above and they believe the world is getting better....they're true optimists. riiiiiiiight. They're still holding on the "thanking God" part though but they'll get to it ASAP. Ingrates.
O'REILLY: But can they vote when people are being blown up...
BUSH : Yes.
O'REILLY: ... and these guys are threatening them?
BUSH: That's when you're supposed to vote. You've got to stand tough with these terrorists. You cannot allow the terrorists to dictate whether or not a society can be free or not.
Gee whiz Wally. Shouldn't someone tell Cheney?
BUSH: I think that the government of Iraq, Allawi, did a good job in Najaf with Sadr. In other words, they now control the shrines, and they did so in a way that he, Allawi, thought would be best for the political process. In other words, there's a dual track here. There's a political process going forward and a security operation going forward. And the two must be parallel. And Allawi made the decision that the best operation in Najaf would be the way we handled it. And if they're saying that maybe last fall we should have moved on Sadr, it's a judgment call that history will have to look back on.
O'REILLY: Fallujah: Should we have crushed it when we could have?
BUSH: Well, there again, there was a dual track with a political process going forward. A lot of people on the ground there thought that if we'd have gone into Fallujah at the time, the interim government would not have been established. And if the government would not have been established, we wouldn't have been able to transfer sovereignty.
I happen to think the transfer of sovereignty is a key moment in the history of a free Iraq. The reason I believe that is that the Iraq people are going to follow Iraqi leadership, not U.S. leadership. And Prime Minister Allawi's been there for about two and a half months, nearly three months. He's getting his feet on the ground. He's establishing a government, they're training police, they're training army, they're beginning to move out in, in places like Samarra (search) and Najaf in order to make the place a more peaceful country.
In other words, thank goodness we met the June 30th handover date or we wouldn't have the Allawi patsy we're touting today. That and the pesky dual track of politics and security running in parallel. Please ignore the rhetoric that seems eerily similar to Vietnam logic. We turned this puppy over so as to deflect critique, next question.
O'REILLY: The "mission accomplished" statement in May 2003, if you had to do it all over again, would you not have done it?
BUSH: Well, first of all, the statement said: Thank you for serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thank you for being on one of the largest, longest cruises in our nation's history. Thank you for serving our country. And we've still got tough work in Iraq.
Now, I'm going to go and thank our troops every chance I get.
As long as I don't have to acknowledge the ones coming home in body bags. The message is still lost on them.
O'REILLY: Would you do it again?
BUSH: You mean have the sign up there?
O'REILLY: No, no, but go in there with the flight jacket,
BUSH: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: You would.
BUSH: Of course. I'm saying to the troops, on this carrier and elsewhere: Thanks for serving America. Absolutely.
On behalf of the American voters, I too would like to see a repeat performance of the codpiece strut. grrrrr, ruff ruff.
O'REILLY: Iran said yesterday: Hey, we're going to develop this nuclear stuff, we don't care what you think. You ready to use military force against Iran if they continue to defy the world on nuclear?
(...)
BUSH: No, we've made it clear, our position is that they won't have a nuclear weapon.
Dear Iran, once we clean up this, Iraq place and have our military bases installed, you're next.
O'REILLY: Every year, 3.5 million illegals come over. Why can't the federal government control that?
(...)
BUSH: It's working a little better. They're doing a pretty good job down in Arizona, which is the main border crossing. But I was trying to get my words here for a minute. I was trying to give you some facts. I think there's a thousand more border patrol agents along the border, we're modernizing border techniques, we're using better surveillance methods to stop crossing at the border. Now, look, people are coming up because they want to work. You know, family values don't stop at the border.
Six years as Governor of the state with the largest boder with Mexico, four years as President and he's searching for words on immigration? What a CEO! Wish he could wax as eloquent on the economy, international law and the environment.
And the scary part is it seems like another four years.
Posted by: Jonathon F. at September 29, 2004 06:38 PMPerhaps the liberal/Democratic theme song can be "It's the end of the world as we know it" by R.E.M. if Bush wins?
Hate and fear run rampant on both sides of this political campaign. And each side accuses the other of using hate and fear as tools to win the election. Each side wants the voters to believe that the other side will bring about the downfall of democracy and will surely end our way of life as Americans.
Reality check. It's not scary if Bush wins. It's not scary if Kerry wins. Both have two other government branches to keep them in check. Contrary to what the liberals would have me believe I still believe that even with the PATRIOT USA act that my constitutional rights are sound. Contrary to what the conservatives would have me believe, Kerry isn't going to tax my every last dollar in order to join a world order of nations and provide health care to every last poor person in the world.
This year, more than ever, the focus has been on the doom and gloom of the opposing viewpoint and not how both sides really serve to make this a democracy second to none.
FWIW: Am I better off than I was 4 years ago? Yeah... but not because of or in spite of the government. Am I safer than I was 4 years ago? I think I'm no safer nor in any greater danger than I was 4 years ago. How different has my life been under Bush than it was under Clinton than it was under Bush than it was under Reagan? I make more money, have a larger family, own my home, and so on .. but these are all things that have come neither because of nor in spite of whatever mushmouth dummy or longwinded intellectual resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Posted by: Andy at September 29, 2004 08:04 PM