LETTERS

A Bush Shift to More Sensible Strategies?

NEWSWEEK

Published Aug 30, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Sep 8, 2008

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'What Bush Got Right': Most readers used our cover story as an occasion to complain all the more about what Bush didn't get right. "You spent four pages on what he might have done right. Can we expect a phonebook-size follow-up of 'What Bush Got Wrong'?" one asked. Another said all Bush got right was "not exercising the full range of his incompetence during his second term. Let's hope the enormous damage he's done can be repaired by our new president and our country's resilience."

On 'But I Did Everything Right!': "The DNA evidence in Sharon Begley's parenting article reduces the art of breast-feeding to the utilitarian function of raising a child's IQ and discounts the social, emotional and physical gains breast-feeding provides to mother and child."
Laura Kalmes
Madison, Wis.

The President ' s Second Term
Throughout Fareed Zakaria's article "What Bush Got Right" (Aug. 17/ Aug. 25), he lists the president's disastrous failures and then suggests that our next president must carefully consider the few grudging changes George W. Bush made during the last two years of his presidency. Are these reparative measures what Zakaria means by "What Bush Got Right"? Now is no time to grant Bush credit for intelligent moves. The world knows that his record remains one of ignorance, obstinacy, failure and missed opportunities. Our country will take years to recover.
David Hendrickson
Fresno, Calif.

Why is NEWSWEEK attempting to put a last-minute spit-shine on the legacy of the worst president in the nation's history? Do you really believe that a few hours spent playing patty-cake with Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin could redeem the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, or the destruction of our esteem among other nations, or the creation of a deficit that will take generations to resolve or, above all, the rape of our Constitution and our civil liberties?
Edward Fagen
Middlebury, Vt.

While George W. Bush has made mistakes, his good decisions deserve more credit than most Americans give him. Bush was right when he began to rid our society of infanticide by signing the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. He can also be credited with cutting income taxes, ridding us of the ridiculous marriage penalty and giving seniors better prescription-drug benefits. And in the debates of 2000, he called for more oil drilling in our own country, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Steve James
Camillus, N.Y.

When I saw the Aug. 17/Aug. 25 cover, I wondered why NEWSWEEK would need a double issue to report on "What Bush Got Right." Inside I found a four-page article (out of 70 pages), representing about 6 percent of the entire issue. I think that's perfect. George W. Bush did get about 6 percent of his administration's policies right.
Ron Zager
Webster Groves, Mo.

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Posted By: randy123 @ 09/17/2008 4:15:15 PM

I have read so much political news today....bottom line for me is please get rid of all the republicans....they have robbed our nation of everything of value ever since Nixon. They only care about money and power....they talk about family values...the only family value they care about is a net-worth statement. Let me recall my most memorable republican stratagies....
Nixon, Oversight and direction of breaking and entering the oppositions campaign headquarters....Lied about it......Pardon his VP who was convicted of tax evasion, etc, etc......
Ford, Nice guy, just could not put one foot in front of the other.
Reagan, Deregulated every vital industry from banking to communications resulting in a 350 billion bailout by the first Bush......War on drugs that has cost this country untold expense from prisons to law enforcement to foster care of all the locked up weed heads that we all feel so treatened by....
Bush1, was there not a better way than dessert storm? Again more deregulation and work for the war machines.
Bush2, No need to say anything except that one day this criminal will go to jail...Maybe international action for war crimes....He as all the republicans who have served in my lifetime are absolute morons and all deserve to go to jail. Maybe if Obama is elected he will not pardon all the republican crooks that surely will be investigated and prosecuted one day........Republicans care for nothing but money, power and themselves
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Posted By: dmc55 @ 09/06/2008 9:59:03 AM

Sarah Palin starts out her introduction to the world by stating she is a "Hockey Mom who is a Pit-bull in lipstick.??? Well I am a Minnesota Hockey Mom who fits that description but from a different perspective. As an African American single parent, I saw the time commitment and game dynamic as a way to keep him occupied and out of gangs or prison. He was frequently the only minority of any color or culture on a team.

It wasn't the "Hockey Mom" but the ???Coaches??? who ultimately were responsible for the team. It wasn't the "Hockey Mom??? but the ???Coaches??? who set the tone of his acceptance as a part of the 20 player unit. It was the ???Coaches??? leadership that determined how the dynamic personalities and acceptance of all types of diversity would mold players into one cohesive unit. It was the ???Coaches??? actions that either built them into a strong fighting team or a dysfunctional unit that fell into disarray. It was the ???Coaches??? game plan and their ability to adapt to changing game conditions that determined whether the team won or lost the game. ???Hockey Mom's and Hockey Dad???s??? not assigned coaching duties sat on the sidelines and cheered!

This nation doesn't need someone who is good at standing on the sidelines cheering for the team. Our internal economic problems are complex. The majority of us are struggling to keep from going under financially. Our nation???s standing in the world is on the decline because we fail to recognize and respect its enormous diversity. Our children are suffering from declining educational opportunities after high school because of cost. The planet???s environmental problems will impact our grandchildren. Our healthcare system is beyond the reach of many and seniors are working part-time or full time jobs far into their retirement years to make ends meet.

This nation needs "Coaches" who understands the dynamics of this 50 state team called the United States of America. ???Coaches??? who is understands that the team will be far more successful if it accepts, respects and uses the diversity each of it players brings to the unit. "Coaches" who understand that the current game plan is not working and are willing to make changes on the fly to give their players an opportunity to win. Hockey Moms, Baseball Moms, Football Moms, Soccer Moms, Lacrosse Moms, etc. are looking for the right ???Coaches??? to lead this nation through a hard season into the playoff round and ultimately the championship game so their families have a chance to win their own defined ???Stanley Cup.??? Sarah Palin and John McCain can continue to promote the ???Hockey Mom??? label as their own and cheer from the sidelines, but as a player on this nation???s team, I need a strong set of coaches. I believe Coach Obama and Coach Biden bring the skills that will give the team the best opportunity to get our names on the ???Cup
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Posted By: efaye206 @ 09/04/2008 10:27:52 PM

I had the RNC video montage of Sarah Palin's biography on tonight with the closed captioning on. In line with the grizzly bear-as-accessory comments below, one of the glowing praises of Ms. Palin was that she showed her love of the environment by arising at 3am to go on moose hunts with her family. I was awestruck by this. What an entirely new way (one might actually be moved to say it is a "maverick" way) to appreciate the environment! By shooting it dead!

At a time when our country faces some of the most difficult years of my entire life, with a perfect storm of healthcare, a faltering economy, crippling debt, an increasingly unpopular war, and an imperative need to balance energy policy with exigent environmental issues, the RNC sideswipes these issues, apparently thinking it would be a much better idea to send Palin out with a vitriolic, ridiculing, mocking speech against Obama and his audacity to have engaged in -gasp- civil rights work before going to law school and embarking on careers in both a state and the national senate. Why do people applaud this? Why do people soak it up? Our political culture cannot possibly be about belittling the service of others. It can be about the thoughtful debate of actual policies. I'm pretty sure that's the campaign that Obama and Biden are trying to have.