OFF: Free speech entended at US University!

[M Holmes]

Eric Siegerman writes:

> On Mon, Dec 15, 2003 at 11:38:22AM +0000, M Holmes wrote:
> > More fool Bush and his cohort. Politicians who don't see what's going on
> > stay uninformed and end up making the bad decisions which get 'em kicked
> > out.
>
> Indeed.  Bush's desire to have underlings protect him from
> witnessing dissent reminds me very much of Suharto.

Y'see I wonder if that really is Bush's wish. I don't hold with all this
talk of him being stupid. He's clumsy and clearly has some kind of
speech aphasia which runs in the family, but I think he makes a lot of
political capital by playing to the cowboy stereotype and letting his
opponents underestimate him. The guy beat Ann Richards, who was a
talented politician to say the least.

What I suspect is that the folks around him get too overprotective. They
blew it imagewise on 11/9 by moving him to a Secret Underground Base and
I think they're making a mess of it by having legions of armed guards to
tour London etc.

> I'm just glad they caught Saddam now instead of, say, next
> September.  With luck, the thrill will have worn off by election
> day.

If the Dems run Dean, it'll be down to the economy.  If the secular bear
market makes a new low in 2004 (which assumes that mid 2003 to now is a
standard bull rally), and the housing market/debt bubble goes south with
it, I think Bush will lose.  Otherwise nothing short of a terrorist nuke
on the mainland will shift him. Looks like Gore and Hilary have already
figured that out and are betting that the economy will hold.

FoFP