RON REAGAN JR. COMPARES REAGAN SR. TO GEORGE BUSH JR.

from THE FAMILY by Kitty Kelley, pp. 572-573:

“There’s a sense of entitlement that all the Bushes have,” said Ron Reagan Jr. in 2004. “They feel as if they’re entitled to everything that comes their way. I know that the first President Bush felt that he deserved to be President because it was his ‘turn’ to be President. It was his due. He’d served all the people he was supposed to have served. He’d put in the time. He’d done favors for all the powerful people he needed to do favors for. So in his mind, he deserved to be President. . . His son George W. Bush was ‘run’ for President. They [the party establishment] came to him and said, ‘You’ve got the name recognition, we can raise the money and run you .. .‘ I think they looked around at the other potential candidates and thought, ‘There’s no one else out there we can control.’ They found the perfect empty vessel in W. He’ll go wherever the wind will go. And ‘they’re’ in charge of the wind. That doesn’t mean he’s stupid. I don’t believe he is. I think he’s of average intelligence . . . My sense of him is that he’s not ideologically motivated at all. But he’s certainly willing to use an ideology to benefit himself. I think George W. Bush’s ideology is the ideology of self.”

The forty-six-year-old son of President Reagan said he did not share the same sense of entitlement as George W. Bush. “I don’t know why I don’t have the same feeling,” Reagan said. “My father wasn’t from old money for one thing. He did most of what he did on his own. He had help; obviously, he didn’t do everything by himself. No one gets to be President of the United States without help. But he became President on his own accomplishments... Remember when the first President Bush spoke about the vision thing? Well, for my father, vision wasn’t a ‘thing.’ You can argue with my father’s point of view and his policies, which I’m certainly willing to do, but he was a man with a genuine vision. He had very specific beliefs, and he stood by them. . . My father wrote his own speeches. He used to write his own radio addresses. I grew up watching him do that as a child. The Bushes can barely read their own speeches, much less write them... I believe the Bush vision—for both H.W. and W. —is probably wrapped up in their family fortunes rather than in anything that has to do with the good of the country.”


BUSH GAFFES IN 2000 SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN

from THE FAMILY, p. 597

“What’s not fine is, rarely is the question asked, are, is our children learning?” (January 14, 2000)

“You’re working hard to put food on your family.” (January 27, 2000)

“This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It’s what you do when you run for President. You gotta preserve.” (January 28, 2000)

“The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case.” (January 30, 2000)

“How do you know if you don’t measure if you have a system that simply suckles kids through?” (February 16, 2000)

“I understand small business growth. I was one.” (February 19, 2000)

“I don’t care what the polls say. I don’t. I’m doing what I think what’s wrong.” (March 15, 2000)

“Laura and I don’t realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis.” (April 15, 2000)

“Well, I think if you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.” (August 30, 2000)

“We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.” (September 4, 2000)


DUMBER THAN DUMBO BUSH'S DEFICIT DISASTER

Let the Democrats set us straight.

[Open quote.]
The proposed 2006 federal budget President Bush released yesterday would drive America deeper into debt while making cuts that will hurt veterans, farmers, and other working Americans.

Bush's budget leaves out the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, currently running at $5 billion per month. It leaves out the cost of his Social Security privatization scheme and makes other unrealistic assumptions and ignores costs in an attempt to paint the rosiest picture possible. But his budget does nothing to decrease the deficit.

Despite Bush's failure to rein in the deficit, his budget still includes cuts to programs that will hurt Americans who need the most help. Areas Bush wants to cut include:

* Medicaid
* Veterans' health benefits (forcing veterans to pay more for health care)
* College loans
* Education programs that help poor children
* Farm subsidies
* Community development grants

Bush's allies in Congress are already expressing their opposition to the cuts in his budget. One Wall Street economist called the numbers "not credible," saying they "haven't been for the last few years and they shouldn't be looked at with much seriousness now."

Sincerely,
Doug, Eric, Jesse, Nancy, and Josh
The DNC Internet Team

[Sources: Washington Post, 2/8/05; New York Times, 2/8/05]
[ Close quote.]
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"The cost of living has gone up another dollar a quart." —W.C. Fields [Notorious dipsomaniac.]