Incumbents in both parties are dancing perilously close to the edge right now: Gas prices are out of control, we are bogged down in Iraq and now politicians seem to be doing more talking than acting. We may be heading toward an election in which the attitude is to throw the bums out, and if that happens, Republicans will pay the bigger prices because they are in control. |
It was a sluggish response, almost a White House in slow motion. Americans expect not only to see their president on the scene, but a firm hand on the tiller. That wasn't there. There was nobody in charge. |
It's as if he's trying to have it both ways. |
It's clear they are bringing in someone to do better marketing. Whether they are bringing in someone to bring more complete information to the public is very much an open question. |
It's devastating that the president would ask no questions. If he sat there mum in a full briefing ... that will only confirm the suspicions of a lot of opponents. |
Larry is a friend and I believe in the vision of renewal that he set forth for the university. He recognized that it was almost impossible to move things forward. |
On 9/11, we were attacked by an enemy?. But there's no foreign enemy here. There's nobody to blame. |
That would give you protection against Democratic attacks and restore bipartisan spirit. |
There has been this legitimate concern that he has been isolated. It is a smart move on his part to do this. Presidents in the past have frequently called in the old guard. He gets the benefit of hearing different views and is seen as getting out the bubble. |
There's a normal tendency in the campaign, during a crisis, for the country to rally around the White House. That may help Al Gore in this campaign, but on the other hand, George W. Bush handled himself so well the other night on foreign policy that I think it fortified him just before this crisis broke. |
There's a tendency after you win your second term to think you're invulnerable. You're not just king of the mountain, you've mastered the mountain. That can often lead to mistakes of excessive pride. |
Think of that, the split-screen sense. That's the problem this presidency has ... it's being split down the middle. |
This is the first administration that I can remember, including Nixon's, that said we need to think about a law that would put journalists who print national security things up in front of grand juries and put them in jail if they don't reveal their sources. |
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This story's going to have legs if somebody gets indicted. I think the president has to lance the boil directly?. It starts with facing reality, accepting your share of responsibility without blinking. |