Finally - Bush did something good !

[Zkribbler]

You gotta give credit where credit is due. Bush scores one for showing up in Iraq on Thanksgiving and one for ending tariffs

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
You gotta give credit where credit is due. Bush scores one for showing up in Iraq on Thanksgiving and one for ending tariffs

Zkribbler...how should Bush get points for ending dumb tariffs that he imposed in the first place?

This isn't a positive political mark for Bush--it will hurt him with steel workers, and it makes him look weak for blinking under threats from the EU and Asia.

[Al B. Sure!]

Has Bush lost Teamster's support by now? is this the end of the union bloc voting conservative?

[Lord Merciless]

I doubt there are many steel workers left in the US, and I doubt that they would vote for Bush regardless.

[Urban Ranger]

Maybe they would all move to Florida and vote against GWB.

[Q Classic]

You gotta give credit where credit is due. Bush scores one ... for ending tariffs

and he loses one for creating them in the first place.

[Ned]

Yeah, the steelworkers union has decried Bush's move and said that they would work hard to unseat him.

Thinking how beholden the Democrat party are to protectionist unions, it is amazing that Clinton was a free trader.

It is also amazing that Bush became a protectionist, because he is never going to get the union leadership to back him.

[Chemical Ollie]

The term "Fair trade" was invented by leftist, to describe a deal where you pay more for the goods, to allow for higher salaries in 3rd world countries. Now Bush uses it for his own purposes and I don't get it. (I oppose both the leftists and Bush)

[Ben Kenobi]

Zkribbler...how should Bush get points for ending dumb tariffs that he imposed in the first place?

He's a smarter president now then before.

Gives you one less reason not to vote for Bush, and it gives him some nice ammunition over the protectionist Dems.

The only way the tariffs could have hurt him is if some of the Dems took him to task for not having free trade, but now they don't have that opportunity.

How many times do you hear people complaining about Bush not admitting he was wrong? Now he has.

[Ned]

Chem Ollie, if you oppose Bush because he imposed the tarriffs, you are not a good leftist.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ned
Chem Ollie, if you oppose Bush because he imposed the tarriffs, you are not a good leftist.

Duh, that's because I'm not. I'm conservative.

I was pro-Bush during his last campaign and all the way until he imposed the steel tariffs. Then I started to doubt - well is he a commie or something - opposing free trade and introducing government support to obsolete industry?

Then came 9/11, and his response made me turn my back against him totally. The goal of terrorism is to provoke the authorities to do stupid things in response, which will make the public hate the authorities, and stupid Bush fell right into the trap.

Sound effects from "Counter-Strike" computer game: BOOOOMMM....Terrorists win!

[Ned]

Well, we conservatives here in the US conniptions about the steel tarriffs as well.

I can also understand your view on 9/11 as conservatives here in the States have historically been isolationistic. However, all that changed beginning with the rise of George McGovern. The parties here in the US have switched with the Republicans being the party of Manifest Destiny.

[Drake Tungsten]

You guys are crazy. Bush scored political points with steel workers for imposing the tariffs in the first place, showing that his support for the American steel industry goes beyond mere words. He always knew the WTO would find against the US in this case, but the act itself was great from a political standpoint, even if it was always doomed to failure.

Now that the inevitable failure of the tariffs has come about, Bush can spin his removal of the tariffs as a sign of his support for free-trade and respect for the WTO and other international trading organizations. The public memory is so short that most people will forget that Bush imposed the tariffs in the first place and will give him some sort of credit for this pro-free-trade move. Meanwhile, Bush can still score points with steel workers, claiming that he tried his best to help them out, but foreign opposition did the tariffs in. It's a win-win situation for Bush.

Say what you want about Bush and his team, but you must admit that Karl Rove is a political genius.

[Ben Kenobi]

Chemical Ollie:

You sound like an interesting conservative, being against the war on terror, and for free trade.

Which aspects of Bush most appealed to you, when he first got elected?

[MrFun]

Ben -- conservatives are diverse in of themselves, just as liberals are diverse in of themselves.

You can have two conservatives slugging it out with one another -- or two liberals slugging it out with one another.