Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 29, 2009

Which ever way the wind blows.

bush never hesitated because he never thought. he either had Chaney telling him what to say, or he was messing it up on his own

Charles Krauthammer has a great description of O’s method regarding security policy: 1) Vigorously condemn Bush’s policy; 2) Loudly announce minor changes to Bush’s policy; 3) Quietly adopt Bush’s policy.

Bush won’t have to wait for history to vindicate his policies; Obama is already doing it.

(Do not for a minute think I am defending Bush, but that is for another post.)

Everything you’ve just said goes to vindicate my position that the republicans and democrats are just two factions of the same party. Socialist! Who’s really in charge?

it is not the American citizen that is for sure.

Joe_Minotaur, that reminds me of an old joke. In a Swabian village, the steeple and its attached weather-cock fell off after a F2 gale. The villagers rebuilt the steeple, and decided to put a bureaucrat on it as the indicator, as the old weather-cock actually had offered some resistance.

DesultoryPhillipic - I am in charge here. And I give everyone permission to do whatever you darned well please. Just don’t bother me.

pschearer, you don’t need to defend Bush. Obama is doing a fine job of his own in that department.

Anybody that quotes Krauthammer isn’t always defending shrubbo but they are showing their penchant for quoting an idiot.

yep, there is just nothing funny about Obama. he’s just perfect. but that Bush. We just can’t ever get enough of his antics.

Krauthammer is about as brilliant as anthracite coal.

Perhaps, but you can’t deny his accuracy. At least on this point.

Even a crippled bigoted squirrel can find a nut once in a while.

I refer you back to my first post. He was once a speech writer for George McGovern. Maybe he’s just got a thing for guys named George.

Is there a separate discussion about the hy-phens?

I blew soda out of my nose when I read this about Krauthammer on Wikipedia:

“Krauthammer’s 2004 speech ‘Democratic Realism’… set out a framework for tackling the post 9/11 world, focusing on the promotion of democracy in the Middle East.”

So how’s that democracy in the Middle East effort going? IIRC, when we urged Palestinians to hold elections, they immediately voted for Hamas, and we (along with Israel) responded by clamping down even tighter with sanctions, making their living standards unbearable…has ANYBODY ever been more wrong?

Longtomecomicsfan - How is your history on the Viet-Nam conflict? In the 1940’s Ho Chi Minh tried to get American support to set up a democratic government in Viet-Nam but Truman refused to talk to him. He didnt want to offend the French. So who did Uncle Ho end up getting support from? Yup, the Soviets.

We’ve never been very good at nation building or spreading democracy. We either don’t talk to the right people or shove it down the throats of follks who don’t want it.

Thank God America is a republic. I plead guilty to everything but the law enforcement bit.

DP, DITTO!

OK, I am thinking the BBC comedy “Yes, Minister” - that morphed into “Yes, Prime Minister”. The lesson in most of the episodes was take the suggestions of your civil servants with a grain of salt. This show ought to be required viewing for every candidate.