[Vision2020] The Week That Wasn't

[Tom Hansen]

>From Bob Schieffer's commentary on this week's "Face the Nation" -

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Week That Wasn't
By Bob Schieffer

For the Bush administration, it was the week that wasn't - the week that
just wasn't the way it was supposed to be. 

In a carefully orchestrated campaign built around the fifth anniversary of
9/11, the President had hoped to convince the nation the war on terror was
the most serious issue of our time - I happen to believe he is right about
that. 

But when he turned his prime time speech on 9/11 into a defense of his
decision to go to war in Iraq, Democrats accused him of playing politics and
reacted with fury. 

Worse for the president was the rebellion that broke out among his
supporters - Republicans all - about whether the president's ideas about
handling enemy prisoners might be endangering our own troops. Some of the
president's most conservative supporters said, yes, those ideas would put
our troops in danger. 

When you consider the critics' credentials - Sen. John McCain of Arizona,
once a prisoner of war himself; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member
of the judge advocate generals corps in the Air Force Reserve; Sen. John
Warner, the hawkish chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from
Virginia; and Colin Powell, once the president's Secretary of State - you
have to wonder how this president got himself on opposite sides of this
group. 

Whatever the answer to that, it left Democrats in an unaccustomed position.
They no longer had to quote themselves in their opposition to the
president's plan. 

For now, they can just refer all questions to Republicans. That's a place no
president or his party wants to be, heading into an election.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho

********************************************
"In America, anybody can become president.  
That's one of the risks you take . . ."
- Adlai Stevenson
********************************************