Bookraft

In the 2000 election, George Bush constantly repeated the phrase "I am a Uniter not a Divider" as his selling point to independents and the broad electorate. He cited his record of having worked in his view "effectively with a Democratic legislature in Texas". He emphasized his skills at getting broad, bipartisan consensus.

In every election, a candidate takes his greatest weakness and transforms it into a strength by just saying "I am Uniter not a Divider". But George had already used this one when he disavowed in the 2000 debates any interest in "foreign adventures". The problem is that George W. is an election winner - and that take precedence over any other consideration, including his own promises to the country and its electorate. He still sees his ends, murky though they be arrived at, as justifying just about any means. Read what the NYTimes editorial says - and then what a Republican pundit has to say about George's "Uniter" promises.

And the problem is that because the Republicans lead by their President are engaging in such divisive, muck-raking, bullying- with-a-bludgeon bat campaign ( and don't tell me the Democrats are just as bad , this is a Republican-led Innovation for Democracy which we are bringing to the world) - that wounds are so deep and will take so long to repair that the ability to move in any bipartisan way on major issues such as:
- How do we extricate ourselves from Iraq without making things much worse ?
- What is to be done about Global Warming and other going-critical-in-the next-few-years environmental problems ?
- How do we handle Globalization which will surely make the US a secondary economic power or worse in a very short time ?
- When and how do we commit to real Energy Independence since our, and the World's Capitalist Best Captains of Industry have missed the mark for nearly 30 years ?
This is but a short list of the wicked problems that are going to take true uniters, domestic diplomats to sort through.

Meanwhile is George W going to continue to campaign for the following epitaph:

I could have been a Uniter ...
But I ended up as The Great Divider.