Rupert Cornwell: Bush has dug himself into a hole, and he just can't leave

[emad]

Rupert Cornwell: Bush has dug himself into a hole, and he just can't leave that shovel alone

His Supreme Court nomination has alienated the right, just as he needs some friends
By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 16 October 2005


Someone once asked Dwight Eisenhower if he had made any mistakes as President. Yes, Ike replied, "Two of them, and they're both sitting on the Supreme Court." It hasn't quite got to that point yet for George W Bush - indeed, his choice of John Roberts as the new Chief Justice of the United States looks to be one of his most felicitous decisions. Harriet Miers, however, is another matter.

Until this month she was toiling in near-obscurity as the President's White House counsel. But then Mr Bush named her to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court. In a country where Supreme Court nominations command the column inches devoted in England to the search for manager of the national football team, the decision was a sensation that stunned everyone - above all the conservatives who have been this President's closest allies.

Now Ms Miers is doubtless a fine and competent woman, but Republican true believers were clamouring for more. They yearned for a heavyweight who would move the nine-member high court firmly to the right, not a centrist like O'Connor, but someone who would vote to roll back such abominations as abortion and gay rights, and to curb the power of central government. And what have they got? The short answer is, nobody knows - and conservatives are in uproar.

This Bush, we were told, was the first president with an MBA, and his White House would hum with the efficiency of Jack Welch's General Electric. Did you hate that ditherer Bill Clinton, for whom every question had three sides? Well, the Bush promoters assured, you'll love straight-shooting George W. And so it used to be. You might not have liked the decisions - invade Iraq, pull out of Kyoto and so on - but boy, they got made.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article319976.ece

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. As for that MBA comment, Bush is the first president with an MBA,

and I hope he is the last. He has singly proven that government should never be run like a business.

[opihimoimoi]

3. He gives MBAs a bad rap....;o)

[Itchinjim]

10. Bush* can't even spell MBA.

[MurrayDelph]

12. that's true even if you spot him the first two letters

(He couldn't find the A with both hands a map and a flashlight)

[Benhurst]

4. I couldn't agree with you more as far as running the government

as a business is concerned.

On the other hand, do you really think Bush earned his degree? I think I read a while back that Poppy has given Harvard $ millions, for services rendered no doubt.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. I'm having trouble believing Bush scored higher than Kerry did in Yale.

Maybe some of those grades were gimmes.

[Somawas]

5. If he has run the government like a business,

and I'm not sure at all that he has, he has not run it in the best interests of the shareholders. He should have been fired at the last meeting of shareholders.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. The way the same people are getting CEO positions regardless

if they know the business product they're selling or not, I'd say he's running government the same way best business methods are practiced here in America.

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Doesn't everyone have an MBA these days?

What is so special about that Master's degree again?

[cliss]

14. I love the comment by Al Franken this week:

"The president said he would run this country like a corporation". In the meantime, he promotes his friends. Is this how it's done in a corporation?

Franken made the point that Bush is NOT running the country like a corporation. He's running it like a family business. The CORLEONE business.

[Cha]

15. An mba with a "c average".

They didn't mention everything * touches turns to shite.

[opihimoimoi]

2. The HOLE is like Meteor Crater in Arizona

and look, he is still digging...

[pretzel4gore]

6. elected politician versus dictator...

mygod these dopes do not even realize what they say...bush never got elected, and even if the author's are right and he was elected, it was only by (unreported) cheating and lying and fraud! clinton ran and won on merits, and he worked the system like a professional so he gets insulted as a ditherer? He never outfoxed the voters? That makes him inferior to bush? fukk these bastards...they're stupid, plain stupid; they're being told!

[emad]

8. That hole is the black hole of where the Republicans' brain used

to be.....

[sam sarrha]

9. his MBA was like a Junior college class, a discussion group.

there is an article from his MBA teacher that said at the time in the 70's 'he felt sorry for the company that would hire him'.