I will never forget how George W. Bush ridiculed Gore during the 2000 debates over the futility of "nation building." By late 2003, guess who had undertaken two of the largest nation building projects since WWII?Desert wrote:I've long assumed that newly-elected presidents are taken into a special room where it is explained how things really work in this country. "Nice little campaign, George, but we're gonna need you to shut your pie hole and start invading the Middle East. You can choose not to, of course, but I wouldn't if I were you. You love your family, don't you, George?"MediumTex wrote: Moda,
I agree with you.
Dismantling the government-industrial-surveillance complex would be a very hard thing to do.
Bush also ridiculed Gore for being a big spending liberal. I don't know how much Gore would have spent as President, but it would have been hard to top Bush's multiple wars, Medicare expansion, and budget busting tax cuts.
As far as Obama and his campaign rhetoric, I am still waiting for him to keep his promise to close Guantanamo.
More and more, I am starting to think of Obama as a more urbane and suave version of Richard Nixon, except where the country was outraged at Nixon's paranoia, secrecy and attitude that he was above the law, the American people don't seem that upset at the way Obama has quietly carried on the Bush administration's consolidation of executive power and build-out of a surveillance state.
