NO. (i will discuss second term developments, not rehash old arguments from the first term, where i thought he did a great job).
- Despite Condi Rice's appointment at State, US diplomacy continues to be a failure across the board.
- We blew it on Uzbekistan. Instead of either ignoring the human rights abuses at Andijan or outright condemning them (in line with the Bush doctorine of democracy), we hem and hawed it like this was the Clinton administration all over again. Now we've lost our K2 base, the Chinese and Russian "Shanghai" corporation outmanuevered us and continues to zing us in other Central Asian capitals, and we looked incompetent to most observers, from India to Afghanistan to China and Russia. At least the Europeans started out playing hardball with Karimov the dictator and have since gotten all spineless.
- We've failed to call out China on their outrageous support of regimes in Zimbabwe, Burma and Sudan (among others). Oops, Sudan is now our ally (see below). Instead of reaffirming our leadership as the human rights defender of the world, we're letting the Chinese literally get away with murder in the name of cheap oil and getting shit on all over in the process.
- We're now aligned with a Islamofacist genocidal state (no, not pakistan). Sudan is now our "ally" in the WOT and we betrayed the people of Darfur and our own ideals to do so, in the most disgusting case of realpolitik since Kissinger managed to officially condone the slaughter of millions of people in a period of less than three years (Cambodia, East Timor, Chile, Bangladesh).
By the way, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is now rampant in Sudan's rebellious regions, and the African Union is failing because no one (hmm, America?) is pressuring them to take a harder line on Sudan.
- We are letting Chavez and Castro walk away with most of Latin America in their sway, while mounting a weak response to the most blatant destablization of a region since the Soviet Union got weak in the knees for Latin America in the 70's.
Domestic Policy
- Pres. Bush decided he'd rather use all his political capital on Soc. Security reform and ignore everything else from immigration to out of control federal pork.
- Pres. Bush decided to let 7 senators from his own party betray him and embolden the democratic opposition over their heinous fillibustering of federal judges.
- Pres. Bush decided to show zero leadership on drastically improving this nation's sagging schools, dooming 4 more years worth of kids to failed American education.
- Do I need to mention the lack of realistic and bold energy ideas?
- What the "f" happened to tax reform?
