What Is Going On With the GOP?

If you go to Stranger's Almanac, a left wing blog that describes itself as a "forum for pissing off conservatives", you'll find several dozen quotes given by Republicans during the Clinton administration's Bosnia campaign.

They are interesting quotes, and they certainly don't sound like the most current rhetoric given by the Bush administration and the Republicans on Capitol Hill. However, the reasons are almost completely partisan and not due to a shift in ideology on the part of the GOP. The party recognized in the 90's that any war or peacemaking process that the Clinton administration got itself involved in could reap enormous benefits come election time, and now the Democrats have realized the same in relation to the Iraq war. Polls have indicated that Americans are not looking favorably upon the situation in Iraq, and the President's terrible communications skills have polarized the nation, as he has repeatedly refused to budge from his exhausted rhetoric about "staying the course" and "fighting for freedom".

While the President's words are laudable in theory, they represent empty ideals, and do not address the real situation in Iraq. It's important for politicians to have goals and visions for their actions, but it's also important for them to take responsibility when they go wrong. President Bush is supposed to be serving the American People, and when 75% of these constituents believe that the casualties in Iraq are "unacceptable", he needs to communicate what the problems are and how he is working to solve them, rather than to give the same rhetoric that got him elected, when the public had a much more favorable view of the war in Iraq.

If Bush doesn't do this, he could hurt his party bad in 2006.