The Bush press conference

The Captain's Quarters has two posts on the yesterday's Presidential press conference.  In one of them the Captain notes that Bush got high marks from none other than the Washington Post.  Here's the Washington Post.

Mr. Bush, however, hasn't lost sight of the stakes. "The enemy has said that it's just a matter of time before the United States loses its nerve and withdraws from Iraq. That is what they have said," he told reporters. "And their objective for driving us out of Iraq is to have a place from which to launch their campaign to overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East, as well as to continue attacking places like the United States. Now, maybe some discount those words as kind of meaningless propaganda. I don't. I take them really seriously."

In an earlier post the Captain excerpts Bush going after the Democrats on NSA surveillance issue.

But he made his best point when the issue of the NSA surveillance program arose:

I did notice that nobody from the Democrat Party has actually stood up and called for getting rid of the terrorist surveillance program. You know, if that's what they believe, if people in the party believe that, then they ought to stand up and say it. They ought to stand up and say the tools we're using to protect the American people shouldn't be used. They ought to take their message to the people and say, vote for me, I promise we're not going to have a terrorist surveillance program. That's what they ought to be doing. That's part of what is an open and honest debate.

I did notice that, at one point in time, they didn't think the Patriot Act ought to be reauthorized -- "they" being at least the Minority Leader in the Senate. He openly said, as I understand -- I don't want to misquote him -- something along the lines that, "We killed the Patriot Act." And if that's what the party believes, they ought to go around the country saying we shouldn't give the people on the front line of protecting us the tools necessary to do so.

So far, I still can't see 2006 as a good year for Democrats.

Comments

[Ol' BC]

I got to see a good portion of the press conference and it was one of Dubya's better efforts. He should have been a little more that way all along. Now, if he would just give us a meaningful tax cut and trim the heck out of spending, he could balance the budget rather quickly. I hope he realizes the sustained growth is a direct result of the smallish tax cuts he had earlier.

[Tom Bowler]

I think he understands the effect of the tax cuts, and I also think he'll eventually get a better grip on the spending. But I think he won't fight over spending cuts, because doing that might damage his ability to fight the War on Terror. He does a lot of things that are not libertarian, but that's OK with me because the important thing is for him to continue to fight the War on Terror for three more years.