Newsview: Bush Gambles, Loses Campaigning
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraq, Katrina, CIA leak, Harriet Miers. Things couldn't possibly get any worse for President Bush. Wait, they just did.
Bush put his wispy political prestige on the line in the Virginia governor's race and lost Tuesday when the candidate he embraced in a last-minute campaign stop was soundly defeated. While there are many reasons for Jerry Kilgore's defeat, chief among them his poor campaign, giddy Democrats said the Virginia race as well as a Democratic victory in New Jersey prove that Bush is a political toxin for Republicans.
''The arrogance of saying, `I'm the Great George Bush. I'm coming to Virginia in the 12th hour and pulling Kilgore's bacon out of the fire.' I think he rallied Democrats with that move,'' said Steve Jarding, a Democratic political consultant who helped elect Virginia's current governor, Mark Warner.
''Democratic voters said, 'I'll send you a message, George Bush, if that's what you want.'''
I guess that's what you get when you lie to the American people when you campaign ('my administration will avoid foreign entanglements and empire building'), when you lie to the American people when you take them to war (yellow cake/WMD/Al Qaeda connections), and when you lie to the American people about torture/Guantanamo/secret CIA prisons.
Mr. President, I understand that right now you are very pissed off with Vice President Dick Cheney. I would be too, and I don't blame you for being so. But keep this in mind: You are the spineless fucking idiot in charge who allowed Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz to hijack your presidency with their insane, fanatical ideas, and drive your legacy into the toilet. Ultimately, you are responsible. Perhaps for the first time in your life, you have to take responsibility. This is your fault.
You might have had great ideas. You might have had a great presidency. Instead, you let a bunch of fanatical neoconservative thugs hijack your administration and drive you -- and this country -- into infamy. I predict that you will be scorned, not praised, by history.
Congratulations.