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Is Bush Using Jedi Mind Tricks on Obama?

Jon Stewart is rapidly taking his place next to Charles Krauthammer as Obama's most significant critic, as this long video shows.  Ed Morrissey is on to something here in writing that "Jon Stewart seems to take the media job of holding the current administration accountable a bit more seriously these days than the, er, actual media."
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I can't recall anyone from right-of-center who was so openly - and swiftly - critical of Bush II (even from a principled conservative POV) during his time in office.

Really . . .? I recall many of them who were fairly critical of him even before he was elected! Your fine powers of memory (or google searching) are failing you, Craig.

I mean really, Craig, did Bruce Bartlett's (a bona fide Reaganite) anti-Bush book Imposter (which got him fired from a conservative think tank) completely escape your thorough screen, or William F. Buckley in 2006 saying if we had a parliamentary system Bush would be out on a no-confidence vote? I could go on. . .

The problem is, our last two Presidents have been 1) a semi-retarded cowboy, and 2) a socialist empty-suit. Prior to that we had a do-nothing womanizer in the office. And Congress...don't get me started. What has happened to American leadership? Why can't we find a sensible leader with a brain, an ounce of charisma, and a few principles?

The problem is, our last two Presidents have been 1) a semi-retarded cowboy, and 2) a socialist empty-suit.

Mr. Obama declined, for more than 25 years, to develop and follow an authentic trade or profession; his emptiness is his own sad work. The 'semi-retarded' Mr. Bush is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Business School. He was employed in a succession of business concerns but never worked in ranching (except for summer employment, perhaps).

I can't recall anyone from right-of-center who was so openly - and swiftly - critical of Bush II (even from a principled conservative POV) during his time in office.

Would Sen. Hagel, Rep. Duncan, Patrick J. Buchanan, Thomas Fleming not qualify?

Art, being a "cowboy" is a state of mind more than anything else. As for "semi-retarded," I really have no idea about his true IQ -- I just know that he acted really dumb a good bit of the time (e.g., Harriet Miers). And even Harry Truman was a better public speaker (although I'll admit that Bush was pretty good in the 'townhall' setting).

I didn't hate Bush, but I resented how little he accomplished for the Right, and how his policies led us to the 2008 electoral debacle.

I would refer you to the postings of William Dyer ('Beldar') on Miss Miers. His central contention was that the Supreme Court could have benefitted from an attorney who was a specialist in departments of the discipline other than constitutional law. Miss Miers may have not been an optimal candidate for the Supreme Court. She had no experience on the bench (though neither had Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist, or Robert Jackson). However, her career in private practice (she had been the managing partner of an enormous Dallas law firm) was impressive like that of no other court nominee in recent decades; she also had graduated at the top of her class at Southern Methodist Law School. The effort of George Will and John Derbyshire to pass her off as some provincial political hack is evidence toward the proposition that these men do not do minimal research or that they lie to their readers.

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