January 30, 2005

Scoring President Bush’s First Term Instructive

Despite radlib post-election delusions, W won with a majority of popular votes – 51 percent versus Kerry’s 48.

Compare President Clinton’s popular votes – 43 percent in 1992 and 49 percent in 1996

Diehard Dems snicker about a supposed lack of a Bush “mandate.” Webster Dictionary defines mandate as “an authoritative command, as in elections.” A win by one vote is a mandate.

Bush won re-election by a 3.6 million popular vote majority. This is the first time since 1988 that a president has polled a majority. His father won then with 53 percent.

Unsolicited advice for Democrats: “Get over it.” W won a convincing mandate.

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The war in Iraq – a crucial element in the greater war against terrorism -- awaits a final reckoning.

We will be better able to assess the commander-in- chief’s performance after results are known from Iraq’s first election going on today.

Win, lose or draw – the mere holding of a free election in Iraq is a great victory for representative democracy. Soldiers and citizens killed in the run-up are heroes to whom the world is eternally indebted.

Liberal Democrats seem more intent in hating Bush than in winning elections or promoting “liberty and justice for all.”

The war on terrorism began in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. President Bush the elder – with United Nations encouragement and brave Americans -- repelled Iraq in the Gulf War.

U.N. forbade the U.S. from pursuing the fleeing Iraq army. However, the U.N. levied economic sanctions, allowed U.S. planes to watch Iraq and sent inspectors to find “weapons of mass destruction” that Saddam had used against Kurds and Iranians.

Muslim terrorists took advantage of world timidity to attack “soft targets” everywhere. U.S. embassies were especially relished. A truck-bomb damaged The World Trade Center in 1993 and killed six people.

Inability of U.N. inspectors to find nuclear weapons worried everyone – including the Clinton administration.

President Clinton said on Feb. 17, 1998: “If Saddam rejects peace, and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.”

Similar statements of concern -- and recommendations for military force – were voiced for the next three years by members of the Clinton administration and leading Democrats.

Among the latter were Senators Tom Daschle, Bob Graham, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Henry Waxman, Carl Levin, Hillary Clinton and (steady, now) John Kerry.

Quotes of the above once-upon-a-time hawks furnished upon request.

Democrats -- and “old Europe” governments -- believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and should be deposed. Flip-flopping seems to be a habit of political opportunists.

President Bush was duty-bound after the 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Center to defend our selves. He sent our military to Afghanistan and Iraq which harbored the terrorists attacking Americans – and to warn other nations harboring terrorists to beware.

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On the home front, Bush has tackled the “third rail” of politics – Social Security. “Touch it and die!”

Most Democrat, and some Republican, office holders want to kick that can down the road.

The popular retirement fund is solvent now but goes over the cliff in 15 to 35 years -- depending upon your assessment of the value of IOUs backing the program.

Bush would allow workers to put a small portion of their payroll taxes into “personal” retirement accounts invested in approved, triple-rated investments – thus reducing the draw against the government.

Congressional members and other federal employees have had that privilege for years. It earns twice as much as the same amount left in the Social Security program and is transferable at death to others.

President Bush could have left that and other tax programs to a future president and congress. However, the sooner the problem is fixed, the easier it will be.

This is called statesmanship.

Let’s score him an 8.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org