I have my reservations about President Bush. I didn’t vote for him. I won’t vote for him in 2004. However, I think his gesture of visiting the troops at the front-line is worthy of praise. It’s easy to denigrate this sort of thing as a PR stunt, but there’s a reason that the 2nd Division’s motto is “Follow Me”. Say what you will about the man, but he is a leader of men. To denigrate him based on his personality is not necessarily unfair, it is, however, foolish.
I just wish I had a better idea of where it is that he truly hopes to lead us.
This sort of thing is just one aspect of what concerns me:
Nondefense spending has skyrocketed under Republican control of Congress and the White House, and critics say the outlays will hit the stratosphere with the passage this week of a drug entitlement for seniors. The Congressional Budget Office reported that nondefense spending rose 7 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, nearly double the 4 percent discretionary spending caps that President Bush insisted Congress honor.
Since Mr. Bush took office in 2001, nondefense spending has leapt 13 percent — 21 percent if spending on the war on terrorism is included. And he is poised to become the first Republican president to sign into law a new federal entitlement: the $400 billion Medicare expansion to cover prescription drugs.