Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D) was on Alan Colmes’ talk radio show (I’m not sure if he’s ever been on Hannity & Colmes with both hosts) and explained why he thinks president Bush is the worst president we’ve had. Man is it weak.
His list:
–We had a surplus and now we don’t and it’s Bush’s fault (not 9/11 and the war on terror’s).
-He made the “worst foreign policy decision” in awhile by invading iraq. Respectable opinion as long as you include the majority of democrats that voted for it in that “worst” bunch, but history hasn’t shown it as a miserable failure or stunning success yet, so the verdict is very much not in there. A fact that a self noted historian like Reid would normally factor in a professional diagnosis.
–Cost of the war (both blood and treasure): obvious criticism if you think the war was a mistake then $50 and 1 life lost is a ripoff tragedy. But he is still off to assume in his statement that the benefits of having a military presence in the region that has become a terrorist flypaper (you’ve heard the “Fight them there so we don’t have them here” argument before) is possible to do without, let alone “worth it”.
–Iraq war has destabilized the region: this one is just unintelligent. He supports the claim by saying Iraq is in a civil war. Um, Harry – a civil war in Iraq means it is half better than it used to be. Instead of being a 100% dictator controlled anti-American terrorist allied state, it is an election run American allied state fighting terrorism and the extremest who want to return to the Saddam-rule. Historian Reid is doing Colmes’ audience a disservice with this naive summary of the war same as he would if he said the countries aiding the North in the American civil war should pull out because we were destabilizing the region. We don’t know if Iraq’s outcome will be as good as ours, but that’s the whole point – we don’t know yet. And the educated guesses based on the facts on the ground do not lead down the Reid road.
I also like how Reid is disappointed in John McCain for not running an honerable campaign and then gives zero examples along with accusing him of being unelectable because of his temper but when asked for a juicy example he refuses even one. But trust him that he COULD if he WANTED to. dude… c’mon… that’s kinda pathetic.