THIS IS NOT ->Delawareliberal

delathought said:
people would classify me as a fiscally-conservative, socially moderate Republican.

Serious question... How do you reconcile that characterization with support for Bush? Clinton was the last President (and only one in my memory) to sign a balanced budget, not to mention welfare reform. How do fiscally conservative Bush supporters sleep at night?
 

"Fiscally conservative" and "socially moderate" places you squarely in the Clinton camp, my friend. There are plenty of centrist Democrats who are fiscally to the right of the current administration.

Of course you can argue with results. The GOP was inordinately successful arguing against Clinton's eight years of peace and prosperity. Based on results, we all should have voted for Al Gore in 2000.

I'm as happy as anybody that there have been no major attacks on the US. But after 9/11, I think ANY president would have unleashed the military and intelligence community. However, I think any other president would have done it much more quietly and adroitly than Bush has done, and probably would have won more diplomatic and international support.

I'm also happy the economy is "growing" - that's better than the alternative, of course. But it's not growing because of conservative tax relief. It's growing due to traditional Keynesian stimulus - massive defense spending funded by massive Federal debt. That's liberal, right?

And irrational consumer spending funded by the housing bubble. As Hilary (not my fav Democrat) said, the economy is "standing on a trap door."

Good Lord, what would the GOP have said if these deficits had occured on Bill Clinton's watch?

I'm all for the prospect of a more civil discourse. I haven't made any personal attacks yet, as far as I know. But I must point out it was the GOP's choice, and their winning strategy, to frame the debate as a conflict between liberals and conservatives. If you examine the platforms plank-by-plank, Democrats are centrists, and on most issues are in line with polling of the general population. The Democrats would be considered conservative in other countries. (granted, the Dem leadership seems to trend left, which is not helpful to the party).
 

delathought wrote:
As far as the brash and arrogant nature of our defense under President Bush, I want a strong President. I want a no-bullshit leader...

Speaking of no-BS...Do you and other Bush supporters REALLY think Bush honestly thought there were WMDs in Iraq? Was Bush honestly surprised to find no WMDs in Iraq?

To me, as a Bush opponent, the cloud of fear Bush spun around WMDs to justify the invasion was the very definition of BS.

It's pretty well documented that the neocon crowd (Rumsfeld/Cheney/Wolfowitz) had an agenda for the Middle East that predates the GWB administration. So it seems evident that Bush BS'ed the WMD story to get by Congress and the public. Actually, I believed him about WMDs. It never dawned on me that an American President would lie about something so important.

At this point, it would take a real leap of faith for me to believe that Bush wasn't lying when he said we were invading Iraq to keep WMDs out of the hands of terrorists.
 

Greetings DemVictory2006! Speaking of the economy...

Didja notice the news story today that the yield curve has become inverted?

An inverted yield curve is empirically a a very accurate predictor of slowing economic activity (usually recession) within the next year or so.

Basically the inverted yield curve means a lot of smart people, possibly even including some Republicans, think the economy is going down soon.
 

hmmm... I wonder who the Republicans would blame a recession on?

1. Katrina
2. al-Quaeda
3. Saddam Hussein
4. Liberals
5. Activist judges
6. Clinton
7. anybody-but-Bush
 

8. Unions
9. Clinton (Hilary)
10. And, my vote for most likely scapegoat... Democrat obstructionists in Congress!!
 

Jason, you are smart enough to constantly get the goat of the GOPer rank and file or they'd not be so adamently trying to pawn you off as a numbskull.

Take a measure of pride and congratulations in their blush of attentions, you are getting to them and that, my friend, is sweet, sweet victory.