The American Spectator

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Meet the Depressed

2.10.04 @ 12:01AM

PRESIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
Re: Jed Babbin's Dubya's SGO:

Are you crazy, did you watch the same show I did? Tim Russert was BRUTAL on George Bush. I think Bush did pretty well. It always amazes me how republicans eat there own. Hope you enjoyed your meal. I will remember not to read your stupid articles in the future. Sincerely, a former reader,
-- Mary Crowder

I devoutly hope -- nay, I pray, fervently -- that someone in the White House has the good sense to get Jed Babbin's piece in front of the President and see that he reads it. One finds oneself wishing that Babbin occupied a seat of influence in this administration. He has hit several nails squarely on their heads. Bush looks weak, vulnerable; he seems almost on the verge of saying the whole Iraq operation was a mistake. We know that it wasn't, and that he doesn't believe that it was, but he must re-demonstrate purposeful conviction, must reassure the American people, convince them again that his doctrine of preemption was well thought out and makes sense, which it was and does. We need a strong leader; we need the President to be Churchillian again, as he was when he told us what we were going to do about terrorism, and explicitly about Saddam Hussein. We need to see and hear him dismiss the charges and attacks of his political opponents for what they are, blatant rubbish. As Babbin points out, the President and the nation are well served by Rumsfeld, who is strong and lays it on the line; Powell and Tenet are weak. The President can't count on them to sell his case.

Babbin is right on, too, in his additional arguments, for a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage; abolishing, instead of pumping up, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts; and doing something positive and dramatic to rectify the outrageous way our retired disabled military personnel are treated -- it happens in no other department of government. If I were one of the latter I wouldn't be in any hurry to reelect this Administration.
-- John G. Hubbell
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Thanks. Every time I read articles such as yours, I become even more liberal. And even more determined to defeat the likes of your moronic, gutless, papa's boy puppet of a leader.
-- Rita Cormulley

I just read your piece on President Bush. Simply the finest editorial I have read in my 39 years of life! Your compassion for the President and pointed advice truly raised the hair on the back of my neck. I'm uncertain if you ever served in the military, but you would have made a terrific commander.

Best of luck to you sir.
-- Steven J. Greer, CSM USA (Ret)

What do want, for gosh sakes? Bush said at least five times it was right to go into Iraq -- and for the right reasons -- the big risk is where are they (WMD'S)? I thought Bush did a great job. You can spit a thousand hairs and still reach the same conclusion: HE HAD THE INFORMATION AT THE TIME THAT HE THOUGHT WAS RIGHT. TIME ONLY CHANGES THE DATA. AS WITH ANYTHING IN LIFE ONE CAN ONLY MAKE GOOD DECISIONS NOT PERFECT DECISIONS. Those who are looking for perfect will never make a decision. THANK GOD HE MADE A DECISION. I DREAD THE DAY WHEN A PRESIDENT WAITS FOR THE PERFECT INFORMATION. REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR.
-- Michael Elliott

Bravo Mr. Babbin! Wish there was some way of assuring that our president gets to read your piece. I still believe Mr. Bush to be a good principled man and believe he is the kind of leader we must have for the next four years. But I think, like you, he's lost confidence in himself. I suspect he's somewhat lost "himself" by having so much disparate advice thrown at him. Like: "Throw the liberals a few bones and maybe some will vote for you," and "Americans are against the war now so start back peddling and softening your message." And " cultivate the liberals, aliens and seniors by proposing liberal policy. " STOP IT. The conservative base elected you as a conservative and we'll do it again if we can trust you to represent us!
--Amanda Pearce

Yes, Bush has a leftist pork laden budget. The NEA, PBS, so on and so forth. He has refused to support the militred. More importantly, he has continued to refuse to defend the borders from illegal immigration. All of these are leftist acts that have not endeared him to his base. Unless he repudiates this trash and actually becomes a conservative, there will be nothing to conserve.

Why did we elect a Republican, indeed!
-- Richard L. Hardison
Stockport, Ohio

After reading Jed Babbin's piece this morning, all I can say is at least he got this much right: "Mr. President, your performance on Meet the Press on Sunday was simply awful."

Otherwise it's time for Mr. Babbin and all Bush apologists to admit that their guy is simply not fit to lead and his policy of pre-emptive military action has not only failed to protect us from terrorism but has ruined our previous, mostly cordial relations with the free countries of the world.

And by the way, the only reason the UN is failing, Mr. Babbin, is because of the Bush administration's arrogant dismissal of the need for international consensus in making foreign policy.
-- Libby Spencer
Northampton, Massachusetts

Other than his assertion that Dubya's Meet the Press performance was a disaster, Babbin's article is drivel. I wonder what his schedule for pre-eminent attacks is, and in what order. Guys like him foster hatred and the elimination of diplomacy as a sane means of securing our safety and security, and when that doesn't work our government does what it says it will do, and seek out and destroy those responsible for attacking us (like bin Laden) instead of creating some mythical danger as was (is) the case with Saddam and Iraq.
-- William Stillman

Letter to the Editor

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