Let Bush be Bush (a "Moderate")

For Bush's New Direction, Cooperation Is The Challenge

By Dan BalzWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 9, 2006; Page A01

Tuesday's electoral earthquake triggered an equally seismic reaction in Washington yesterday, one that signaled more clearly than ever that a politically humbled President Bush now agrees with a resurgent Democratic Party on the need for a change of course in Iraq. What was not clear was whether the two sides are genuinely prepared to work together to produce one.

In the wake of an election that swept Republicans from power in the House and left them on the brink of surrendering their Senate majority as well, both parties have greater incentives to reach accommodation than at any time since Bush was elected in 2000. Iraq will provide the critical test of whether either can overcome the ingrained habits and bad blood of six years of partisan warfare that have often left the Capitol in gridlock.

The president took the most dramatic step yesterday in acknowledging how much the landscape has changed. At a midday news conference he announced that he had accepted the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has come to symbolize the administration's apparent unwillingness to change a policy that has failed to bring order to Iraq and that has lost popular support at home. Bush said it is time for "a fresh perspective" on the war.

"I recognize that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made there," he said. "Yet I also believe that most Americans and leaders here in Washington from both political parties understand we cannot accept defeat."

Sorry Dan, not so much of a challenge. You made the mistake of believing your own propaganda. George Bush is not nor was he ever a "Conservative." He is a very nice, slightly Left of Center "Moderate." He will have no problem adjusting to working with Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. They can afford to be magnanimous now because they have won, so there will be peace on all sides.

You mention the "No Child Left Behind" initiative, I would add to that the Steel protection tarriffs, the billions in farm bills, the ethanol industry subsidies, etc. All of these are initiatives with which the Democrats have no quarrel. It is a certainty that his amnesty initiative for illegal immigrants will be well received and supported by the new Congressional leadership. In fact, I would say that the President's natural instincts lead him to be idealogically closer to the Democrats in Congress than to the Republicans who lost.

Sure, he has been resolute in the war on terror and in Iraq, but beyond that and his judicial nominees, his "Compassionate Conservatism" has more in common with the Democrats than the Republicans.

Bush appears to be more than ready to reach an accord with the Democrats on Iraq and the war against the Global Islamic Jihad.

Full Story: The Truth About "Conservative" President Bush

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