I recently returned from a trip to Washington D.C. where we celebrated my mothers birthday. I had occasion to speak with a high ranking (not so high that you would know him/her) State Department employee, who shall remain nameless, about our president and our foriegn policy. Let's just say that said employee is not fond of our president. I listened for some time about Bush's shortcomings when I decided to ask a simple question, "Has Bush done anything right?" The employee was unable to point to any decision, foriegn or domestic, that was good.
So we either have a president who has the uncanny ability to always make the wrong decision, or a State Department employee who has lost the ability to think objectively about our president. Which is it?
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3 comments:
Are you fond of our president?
I didn't vote for Bush in either election, but I do think he has done some good things. His two appointments to the Supreme Court were good if not great. The tax cuts have resulted in strong economic growth and record tax reciepts. Bush is an advocate for free trade, school vouchers, and health savings accounts, all of which I like.
He has disappointed as well. Government spending has gone through the roof and he has done little to stop it. Getting mucked up in Iraq was perhaps a mistake, though it is hard to know for sure on that one. I mean we do have a problem with Islamic extremists that needs to be dealt with aggressively in my opinion. I realize that that was not the original rationale for the war however. Bush has also supported some anti-free trade measures like steel tarrifs and now tarrifs on ethanol from sugar.
My point anon is that if a person can't think of anything positive about Bush, then perhaps they are blinded in some way.
Whenever the White House appears to discount your agency's inputs you tend to devlop some discontent. The CIA was less than enthralled with the Clintons when they stopped the CIA's daily White House briefs. It's also not uncommon for a federal government employee to be a political partisan. The Bush administration's handling of the build-up to the Iraq invasion alienated quite a few people - the first Secretary of State resigned. The mysterious pentagon office of special plans disappeared and Rumsfeld is no more. I agree the President has done some good things, but Iraq war management has not been one of them. Don't know if your State employee was already an anybody but Bush guy, but Bush didn't seem to value State much in these issues, and then war management went south - it could hit a nerve.
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