An Opposition without a Cause

The other day, I noted a story claiming that Bush was damaging our national discourse by using straw-man arguments. Today, I'm wondering why the left keeps sending out straw-men to represent their views.

Listening to Bush's press "conference" today, I had a sense of déjà vu. The questions were all the same as last year and every one since the war began. The left is running out of arguments. They want to keep up the pretense that this war is a bust, but they haven't got any evidence except their own prejudices. Helen Thomas was more tiresome than usual. The main difference was Bush's responses. He was taking no guff, and expressing his points logically and clearly, following up on his impressive performance in Cleveland yesterday. He came across as a regular person, patiently explaining his answers in terms that people could understand and which were compelling.

The press is emphasizing his answer to one question about when there will be no more troops in Iraq, I would have said as soon as there aren't any in Kosovo. CNN has interview with Jack Murtha, who just repeated his goofy hyperbole that Bush hasn't said one thing that was true about Iraq. Murtha served in Vietnam, but he seems to have lost quite a few brain cells since then. He looks like a muppet, and seems to have a tape recording inside.

The talking points over the weekend were 1. Incompetent, 2. Incompetent and 3. Incompetent. The new one today is a reprise of the calls by Democrats for Don Rumsfeld to resign.

If you're a Democrat and the president is on the ropes, according to the polls. It's your big chance to score points. What do you say? "Bush lied!" "Bush is incompetent." "Bush should fire Rumsfeld." No facts. No alternative strategies, except to send more troops. We all know how well Democrats prosecute wars. (LBJ for instance.) They're setting themselves up to look like idiots if they ever get back control of the government. If Hillary! becomes prez, how would she handle Iraq? I think she'd try to prove her manhood by getting tougher.