This is one of the points I'd disagree with Dean over. Maybe he should have talked with Ann Richards about Dubya.

I never had respect for or trust in Bush II. The only thing Dubya was good at was inheriting stuff and squandering it. That's been his MO his whole life. And Dubya's "compassionate conservative" had Xtian fundamentialist written all over it. I was never fooled by that at all.

As far as Bush I, yes, he was a much more experienced president than his son is, but Bush I couldn't handle the economy either. That's why Clinton beat him in 1991.
Terry from Killingly, CT | Email | Homepage | 09.07.03 - 6:26 pm | #

thanks for the reference, Scott. I am from California, not Tennessee. But I am glad that fellow bloggers will read this article, because as you say, there are many new quotes that we haven't heard yet.
cindy hopp | Email | Homepage | 09.07.03 - 6:48 pm | #

As reluctant as I am to say a kind word about the man I despise more than any other living human, I think any cause for justice is only furthered by attempting to be truthful, and to give credit where it is due, even to your enemies. We can win with the truth, because it is more than bad enough.

So without going and hunting down the links to everything I've read these last three years, I have to say that all I could gather was that the general impression of W. in Texas was that he was a decent man and a moderate governor. Even Molly Ivins had a few good things to say about him, within limits. He was predictably in favor of regressive tax-cutting, that much hasn't changed, but he generally got high marks for attempting to reform Texas' byzantine school system, which is what he campaigned on. He quite naturally has no fiscal sense, or any idea of the value of money, since it is true he's never had to earn any for himself (Arbusto Petroleum was comfortably subsidized by his Dad's buddies, who, as we all know, all lost their investments. But we don't hear them complaining now, do we?) It's important to keep in mind, though, how little power is vested in the Texas governorship, so really, the little chimp didn'tactually have the authority to cause too much trouble during his time in the statehouse.

It's fairly clear to me, anyway, that our so-called president is for the most part an empty vessel, with no ideas of his own to speak of, but with a will to power and to correct his Daddy's legacy that made it easy for him to promise to implement whatever the people who bought his election wanted done. Not the first time we've had a puppet in the White House.
tencentlife | Email | Homepage | 09.07.03 - 7:02 pm | #

Texans were continually told how moderate he was. Those of us less attentive than Molly Ivins had one put over on us. Laziness? Probably. Willful ignorance? Possibly.

But good of Dean to voice a lot of our old impressions of him and to contrast this with what his presidency has turned out to be.
A Texan in Maryland | Email | Homepage | 09.09.03 - 8:42 am | #