George W. Bush is Happier
By Jerome Grossman
President Bush enjoys off - the - record lunches with favored journalists from time to time. One of the rules for the occasion provides for absolutely no direct quotations, but allows for reference to the matters discussed. At a recent lunch, Bush seemed more buoyant and especially interested in presidential politics and the 2008 election. He expects Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the Democratic nomination and probably the general election. He did not seem too perturbed by the prospect. He indicated that the Democratic candidates were coming around to his point of view on the Iraq war and that Hillary would continue his Iraq policy once she appreciates the dangers and difficulties. What may have caught Bush’s attention was Hillary’s statement that she “hoped” to withdraw troops by 2013 as well as her plan for a residual US military force. Here is Hillary's latest plan for a residual U.S. force of undetermined size in Iraq with no time limit: To protect the U.S.Embassy and other U.S. installations: to train the Iraqi army, to fight insurgents, and to deter Iran.
Bush thinks that a Democratic President continuing the occupation would validate his Iraq policy and restore his reputation and standing in history. His model is President Harry Truman, like Bush lowly regarded at the end of his presidency, now a hero of the Cold War in some history books. Bush hinted at some back channel advice emanating from the White House to the Clinton campaign.
Could it be from Bush to his father to buddy Bill Clinton to Hillary?
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2 comments:
The best thing for Bush would be a Clinton victory. Hillary donning the crowd would lead to many great things for Bush's cronies:
1. Galvanization of a right-wing that is being pulled apart by the issues of religion in government vs. social freedoms, economic conversativism vs. big government corporate subsidies, non-intervention vs. nation builders. They all will band together against Hillary politically, merely because they can.
2. Hillary is an establishment gal. Free trade, corporate subsidies, entitlement programs - all that great big-business slurry will keep pouring down the throats of the people Bush is really loyal to: Not the Religious Right, not the rural conservatives who pinch every penny - the Corporate Class.
3. Hillary will not get the troops out of Iraq, nor will she solve any of the ills of the Middle East through bold action in all likelihood. Maybe she'll oust Maliki, maybe she'll get a two-state solution in Palestine, but I doubt it; her chief supporters want neither. So, in the end, the people will see her reign as a Carter Presidency and vote in eight more years - or 12 - of Republicans.
So, yeah, if I were Bush, it would be a strain to keep the lampshade off of my head.
I agree with you Jerome. Hillary was decreed acceptable by Bush et al two years ago. Her meeting with Rupert Murdoch was what, the coming out party, the coronation?
Her and Bill's centrist economic policies are totally acceptable to Wall Street and the Dow now rises out of its indicated realm for today's conditions.
I wonder how she's going to handle the Cheney unitary executive initiative.
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