Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [MLUG][Politics] State of the Union

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>
> > I'm listening to a rerun of Tim Kaine's speech.  His main point seems 
> > to be that the Bush government is running the country in an 
> > incompetent fashion.
> >
> > I think that this is a rather difficult accusation to make.  The 
> > problem is to know whether the fault for mistakes can be laid at 
> > Bush's foot, or whether they can be laid at others getting in the way, 
> > or whether the problems are so difficult that mistakes are impossible 
> > to avoid and no-one else could do much better.
>
>
>
> The usual accusation is that Bush doesn't listen to people and he 
> appoints friends, and their friends, to important positions they are not 
> prepared for.  The FEMA director "Brownie" and the Katrina disaster are 
> what really hurt him.  I don't know if Bush is incompetent, but it seems 
> like it.

It does look like the appointment of Brown to FEMA was a genuinely bad 
and preventable decision.  The poorness of this decision was excabated 
by the rather poor response of the local government.  I think that if 
Bush were asked today (as he was during the last election season) what 
his big mistakes were, he could talk about his appointment of Brown - 
not that he would say it this way, because I notice that he shows great 
loyalty towards his employees, but he might talk about the general 
failure of the executive branch to respond adequately.

Bush's lack of willingness to publically face up to his mistakes is one 
of his weaknesses.  But I think one would be hard put to find an 
effective leader who both shows the kind of singlemindedness of purpose 
that has been required recently, who is also able to openly admit his 
mistakes when they happen - typically those are character qualities that 
are in opposition.  That is why I am prepared to put up with this weakness.

--

Stephen Montgomery-Smith
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen

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