Even in this context, I am not going to get too uptight about it. When (officials such as Griffin) make statements that can be interpreted as political statements, the government should not be underwriting it. You just caught the fellow with a little egg on his vest, looking untidy. |
Had this been handled expeditiously, quickly, it might have been a story on the style page, or limited to the late night comedians and the cartoonists. There's simply no question they fumbled this one. |
He does hold the administration's feet to the fire, and that's awfully helpful at this point. |
He doesn't put in the equal sign. But it's not so subtle that any Future Farmer of America wouldn't catch on pretty quickly. |
He has come to symbolize how unprepared this administration was for this disaster, fairly or unfairly, |
He has two major problems: the price of gas and the number of Americans killed in Iraq. Basically nothing is going to change for him until one or both of those problems are alleviated. |
He helped himself marginally. He gave a little backbone to a small percentage of wavering Republicans. But I don't think it had any effect on others he didn't have with him in the first place. |
He really came into his second term with a series of robust proposals, and he's accomplished none of them. His circumstances have shifted dramatically. |
His name is thrown into the mix. Big time. |
How much is this going to be a national election? Clearly, the Republicans will hope it's not. ?All politics is local will be their mantra. |
Human beings, even multimillionaires, are complicated. Now, limousine liberals come in all hues. |
I didn't think much of it at the time ... [but while] other people are burning flags, burning buildings and shooting each other, what the Joint Chiefs did is almost an object lesson in democracy. I would have thought at the time they got too hot under the collar. |
I don't think they [the White House] can use the standard procedure of delay or the standard procedure of attacking their attackers. I think they have to deal with this because this is probably the first charge in the campaign finance deal that the American people will want, if not demand, an answer to. |
I don't think they're necessarily better than some past administrations in terms of the spin. What they have done which distinguishes them ... is how close-mouthed they are. |
I don't think this is going to be one of those historic State of the Union messages. When people talk about new initiatives, they cost money. He's run out of wiggle room there. |