Bush-2 at 100 Days

[MoMo]

Anyone see his news conference?
He seemed to do reasonably well.
But he's not exactly off to a hot start in his second term.
The Social Security thing has fallen flat on its face,
gas prices are way up and even he admits it could take years
to do much about them,
economic growth is slowing,
Democrats are standing together in Congress against a Republican majority that increasingly seems unable to do the same...

Before, Bush has sometimes seemed to let things start to spin out of control before doing what was needed to push on through.

Will he manage this time?

If Social Security continues to bomb and he loses on, say, John Bolton, will it be the beginning of lame duckery?

Place your bets here.

[100% Ozone Safe]

Haha, my sister just IMed. She's in college and she says that all the girls on her floor are rioting because THE OC wasn't aired, while the bush conference was.

To make this an acceptable post for the LL... Looks like bush just lost the support of women everywhere. He shoulda known not to mess with the OC.

[MoMo]

That's funny!

Did you know they showed it at 8:00 instead of 8:30 because
NBC said they wouldn't air the news conference if it overlapped
with "The Apprentice"? As it was, you might have noticed Bush's
comment about needing to wind things up by 9 to keep the TV
people happy.

Who's running this country?

[100% Ozone Safe]

Who's running this country?
is that a rhetorical question?kuz this one is

[TI83]

i think his new energy policy is going to win over alot of support from both parties, especially in the instances of spending money for new energy technologies. i think that alot of people across the country don't really understand the whole concept behind his social security plan. alot of people have been misguided to think that they will stop recieving social security benefits and ignorance among the american people is one of the main opponents to his plan but i think he did a good job of clearing up some of the facts on his new systems to be put in place.

about my prediction for his final years in office...i think the country(government) is on a really conservative power trip and alot of ulta conservative policies will get passed during the bush era that would not be able to pass during any other president. i stand by my prediction that bush is similar to andrew jackson in the sense that he was hated/loved during his own time but remembered as a hero afterwards.

that's all for now :rolleyes:

[XCrnr9]

[QUOTE=TI83] i stand by my prediction that bush is similar to andrew jackson in the sense that he was hated/loved during his own time but remembered as a hero afterwards.
QUOTE]

I don't know how many people see Andrew "trail of tears" Jackson as a hero, but IMO Bush's nationalistic policies Won't stand up to the rising power of the EU and I think we could be taking a dead end road by not keeping good relations with them.

[New York XC]

I have a feeling the Dems are gonna do very well in the 2006 elections. There are a lot of similarities between now and 1994 (I think that's the right year I'm thinking of...)

[exjersey1]

I have a feeling the Dems are gonna do very well in the 2006 elections. There are a lot of similarities between now and 1994 (I think that's the right year I'm thinking of...)

Dems could have done well in 2004 if the party's candidate had ever been willing to actually take a stand on anything and show some spine.

[TI83]

i have a feeling the dems are going to do something dumb and mess it up again. if they're smart, they'll wait a few terms to try a woman because i don't think the country as a whole is ready yet. on the other hand, i think the gop has to find a young new candidate(sp?) and not attempt to win the election with someone similar to dick cheney(old, boring, cold, etc....don't get me wrong, i love the guy but...)

[jersey_guy]

the rising power of the EU

ROTFLMAO

[Jwaksman]

The thing to remember is that state-wide elections are not as much about the president as they are about the candidates. 1994 is made out to be a huge Republican movement, but it was really just a case of a lot of vulnerable Democrats and strong Republican candidates. So, breaking down 2006, Democrats have a long order in front of them. Best case scenario is that they make up ground, but they can also lose ground, and there is absolutely zero chance that they can recapture the Senate before 2008 or the House before 2010.

Most Vulnerable Republican Seats:

1) Pennsylvania
2) Tennessee
3) Rhode Island

That's about it right now. If elections were held today, Santorum would lose in PA and Tennessee would be a tossup. Democrats had two people ahead of Lincoln Chafee in the polls in RI, but both decided not to run. He's still vulnerable, but he'd win if the election were held today.

Most Vulnerable Democratic Seats:

1) Minnesota
2) Washington
3) Florida
4) Maryland


There are other seats that will come into play as time goes on, but if the election were held tomorrow I think would pundits would guess that Democrats would actually lose a seat (they'd almost certainly lose MN & WA and win PA, with the other 4 states as tossups).


Remember, it is rare for incumbents to lose. Senate seats are generally picked up through vacancies. This is how Republicans picked up so many seats in 2004, by preying on Democratic vacancies. As of right now, the only Republican vacancy is Tennessee. Democrats have vacancies in Minnesota, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont - with a possible vacancy in West Virginia. That doesn't bode well quite yet for a comeback.

[Jwaksman]

[QUOTE=TI83]but IMO Bush's nationalistic policies Won't stand up to the rising power of the EU and I think we could be taking a dead end road by not keeping good relations with them.



Hahahahaha... You mean the slow collapse of Europe that has continued for the past 60 years?? The "EU" itself is dead - that ghastly socialist constitution that they created is even too hideous for socialist France. Meanwhile, every country save France (even Germany) has been scaling back on regulation and opening up and becoming more geared towards free markets. They've realized what most economists have realized, that Old European economies cannot last forever, they're just unsustainable.


Reminds me what one of my friends at school told me about one of his economics professors. The guy is a consistent Democrat whose number one issue is helping out the worldwide poor, but he started out one lecture with this:

"There are some people who believe in Free Trade. They're called economists."

[jersey_guy]

Democrats have vacancies in (..) New Jersey

That's assuming that Sen. Corzine wins the governor's seat this year. It's likely but surprises happen, especially if the Republican candidate runs on the property tax reform platform (biggest political issue in the state right now).

[Jwaksman]

There is zero chance that Corzine loses the New Jersey Gubernatorial race in '05. He will spend his opponent into the ground, for sure. And the Political Bosses that rule NJ have cleared the way for him, forcing out any other Democratic opposition (including the Governor of New Jersey, himself!). The Republicans do have a shot at picking up his senate seat, since they do have some decent candidates and the Democrats really don't have anyone else waiting in the wings behind Corzine (unless Codey decides to run for Senate, which I think is unlikely).


Anyway, as I was saying, even Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid admits that it would take a miracle (http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050429-124430-4013r.htm) to win back the Senate in 2006. Also, Democratic pollster John Zogby (who had Bush losing badly in his final 2004 election polls) has Bush winning in a theoretical rematch against John Kerry here (http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=989). I've been hearing about this Democratic resurgence, and that people are finally lining up against Bush for years now. In 2002, in 2004. From January through November of 2004, all that I heard was that Democrats were seeing record crowds at gatherings, that no one could find a single person who voted for Gore who was voting for Bush but that they could find people left & right who were switching from Bush to Kerry. Democrats were going to sweep the nation, they said.... Then Democrats had their worst election in more than a quarter century...


As I said back then: I'll believe it when I see it....