Politics: Three of President Bush's failures in his first term

Three of President Bush's failures in his first term

Written by Mike Sylvester

President Bush’s first term is over; we can now look at what he accomplished. A President should be judged on what he promised repparttar

voters during his campaign. Voters should compare what he promised, to what he delivered.

Look at some of what President Bush wanted to accomplish in his first term: A better public education system, fiscal responsibility, and less Federal involvement in repparttar 125884 affairs of repparttar 125885 fifty States. Let’s look at each of these goals President Bush set for himself.

President Bush increased Federal spending on education by 83%. He signed a bill called “No Child left Behind.” This bill established a set of Federal mandates to repparttar 125886 fifty states; many of which are not funded. Not one single educator I have discussed this bill with thinks it will help Indiana; in fact, all of them feel that it will hurt our school systems. With all of this extra spending and this extra layer of beauracracy what has happened to repparttar 125887 test scores of our school children? Unfortunately, they have dropped even further. I would give President Bush an “F” on education reform. He sure spent a lot of money; but, spending more money and adding another layer of administrators is not repparttar 125888 way to fix repparttar 125889 system.

After being elected in 2000, President Bush promised more fiscal responsibility. He inherited a 5.6 trillion dollar deficit. The Federal deficit is now over 7.6 trillion dollars. Our Republican Congress, Republican Senate, and Republican President have increased repparttar 125890 Federal deficit by one third in four short years. The Republican Party can no longer call themselves fiscal conservatives. Our Federal deficit is so high that our currency has sunk to new lows against foreign currency. The main reason for repparttar 125891 plunge of repparttar 125892 dollar is foreign investors are concerned about repparttar 125893 massive debt that our government is incurring. There is no doubt that President Bush receives an “F” for fiscal responsibility. Our children and grand children will regret repparttar 125894 spending excesses of our generation.

Why Democrats Lose Elections: They aren't dumb. They're asleep.

Written by Kenn Gividen

Give repparttar

GOP credit. Unlike repparttar 125883

Democrats — whose collective IQ seems to register somewhere between a ’58 Buick and box of rocks — repparttar 125884

Republicans are astutely aware of their political surroundings. That’s why they win and Democrats don’t.

In reality, repparttar 125885 Democrats aren’t dumb.

Anyone who was privileged to bask in repparttar 125886 presence of former Gov. Joe Kernan know him as a passionate leader who truly cared for Hoosiers. The sharp mind of former Democratic Party State Chair Kip Tew was an asset to repparttar 125887 party. And former Lt. Kathy Gov. Davis was bright, witty, and personable. In short, they were a class act.

No, repparttar 125888 Democrats aren’t dumb. They’re asleep.

The GOP, by contrast, paid close attention to repparttar 125889 elections in 2003 when Libertarian Greg Dixon took nearly 15 percent of repparttar 125890 vote in his bid for Indianapolis City Council. That put a sizeable ding in repparttar 125891 confidence of his Republican challenger. More bothersome was repparttar 125892 fact that Libertarians proved they could plan and execute an effective campaign. The GOP took note. The Democrats snoozed.

That same year repparttar 125893 Libertarians’ candidate for mayor in Carmel snatched nearly 25 percent of repparttar 125894 vote from repparttar 125895 Republican incumbent. That was no small task, considering Hamilton County is a bastion of Republicanism. In nearby Noblesville, repparttar 125896 GOP saw over 40 percent of its vote go to Libertarians in two of their City Council races. In Wayne County, Susan Bell flat out squashed her Republican opponent and became repparttar 125897 Hoosier state’s first Libertarian judge. All told, twelve Libertarians are holding office across repparttar 125898 state.

To repparttar 125899 ears of Republicans, repparttar 125900 above has repparttar 125901 ring of an alarm clock. To repparttar 125902 Democrats it’s a lullaby.

Simply said, repparttar 125903 GOP gets it. Indiana has three political parties. They are vulnerable. In 2004 they responded accordingly and won.

The Democrats don’t get it. One would think repparttar 125904 party of Birch Bayh would have repparttar 125905 good sense to exploit repparttar 125906 Republicans' soft spot. Exploit it? They don’t even seem to know it exists.

Consider, for example, repparttar 125907 GOP’s gubernatorial primary in May of 2004. Eric Miller, a pro-life, sun-tanned poster child for repparttar 125908 religious right, challenged repparttar 125909 man who would ultimately become repparttar 125910 next governor. The Republican Party was divided. To thinking folks, that translated into vulnerability. To repparttar 125911 Democrats — who are not thinking folks — it meant nothing.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>