Can Bush Get That Treaty?

David, are you hearing yourself? You're merely repeating talking points, not responding to what I said. I was talking about the Annapolis Summit. When I said that the American people and indeed much of the world has given Bush's tenure in office incredibly low ratings, I was not ranting, I was reflecting documented fact. If you want to believe that history will be kind to this president, be my guest. It doesn't look that way to me, and to the almost 80% of Americans who think this country has been taken in a wrong direction. The point of my previous post was to emphasize my not unreasonable position that Bush is looking to get a signed peace treaty between Palestinian West Bank Arabs and Israel as his much needed diplomatic triumph, his "Oscar Award" moment. Solve that mess -- and you smell like roses. David, I hope he solves it. You know my affection for Israel and my wish that it experience a thousand years of peace. Let the whole region prosper (not just the oil men). With that in mind, I hope Bush can do something diplomatically to leave office smelling like roses. I don't hate the man. But seven months after Annapolis I question his preparation. He doesn't have much of a track record when it comes to preparation. Even though he has the power of the US behind him to push forward his efforts, he doesn't seem to have the intellectual competence to use that power effectively. [Seven years of evidence for that statement, David!] You say: "The administration's policies have squelched terror attempts on our soil, the surge has achieved a turnaround in Iraq, we are moving forward on increasing oil supply (to combat the price doubling since Democrats took control of Congress)." If all that were true, he'd be riding high in the polls. He'd be "The Man." McCain would say his name at every truck stop. Democrats would have lost in '06. And Obama would not be the candidate of big time "change." Sorry, David: the pulse of this country today is unforgiving toward the Bush residency. The consensus is, he's wasted our precious time, and he's leaving the next guy (Obama) with a big mess.