More clueless Bush team behavior...

Hmm, lets see Bush has his pow-wow down in Texas, far removed from most of those on Wall Street he seems to be aiming at. He and his team talk about how there is nothing wrong, go out and spend some money, things will be fine. I agree with their assessments, but did they really need this, in the middle of Texas of all places? Good enough, BUT...today Condi Rice is all over the TV talking about how "evil" Saddam is, playing the same line of all the other Bushies, how they need "regime change". Problem is they have little support for it. We all would love this regime change, yet no one is convinced it is that easy. In the meantime the sabre-rattling just drives oil prices up incessantly. As many economists have shown, a good deal of the cause for the recession of last year was started by the rise in oil prices. Short of interest rates and their beneficial effect on consumers when they go down, oil prices are probably the second biggest factor in macro-economics that aren't direct control of the government (taxes, spending, etc). And here has been one Bush team member another going around and rattling the oil markets. Good work team, you guys just show you have no clue whatsoever. I don't care if you are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, you just have to wonder who the hell is running this ship! Foot-in-the-mouth disease seems to be a common affliction and unintended/unforseen consequences seem to surprise them all the time. For the sake of the country, please someone tell George to get a real leader in the cabinet that can get everyone educated and on the same page, and further someone who thinks things out instead of just saying seemingly random things backed with no action, or in the case of Paul O'Neill often a completely opposite action. Stock market may not be good right now, but these guys deserve a lot of the credit of the drag on the economy right now...

i have wondered about the sabre rattling myself. it seems insane but i welcome anyones thoughts as to its strategic value because quite frankly im real confused about it. i suppose a cynic would say bush does it to drive up oil prices for his buddies involved in the oil industry business. evans and o'neil seem to be incompetant in their roles. the "economic conference" was a non event really as it seemed to offer nothing. i might add that it seemed rather bizarre and strange. its a fact the greenspan can only do so much with monetary policy. obviously some sort of fiscal policy would be helpful as well. im convinced now that bush is as clueless as his detractors say and he is not fit for the job. al gore in 2004? wow that doesnt have much appeal either.

Al Gore, yeah talk about the dumbing down of America, Dumb and Dumber Part II. I have to believe that the Dems can find a moderate candidate who lacks the prove partisanship of Tom Daschle and the far out liberal theories of years past. So many skeletons can come out of the closest between now and election day, but I agree barring all out war, Bush is in serious trouble because he lacks quality talent on his team that can put out a simple coordinated plan of what things are important, what things are to be focused on, and mostly what things you should NOT say to keep the team with a unified front to the media. With some of the appointments in this cabinet and the broad spectrum of voters that exist within both parties, you would think going forward Presidents could stop doling out cabinet spots to political backers and start giving them to truly competent people, regardless of party. If you support or are against abortion or educational vouchers should have little bearing on your ability to do a job such as Treasury Secretary or Secretary of Transportation. Despite the clear desire of the voters to have a broad-spectrum of beliefs and acceptance of other views, this President and I assume Al Gore seem to be bent on shoving their personal stands down everyone's throat on the assumption that they got some "mandate" just because they were elected as the lesser of two evils. Maybe someday we will be lucky enough to have a leader who realizes that we all have our own views on issues and should be allowed to have a government that respects that by being balanced and avoiding political spectrum except where it is absolutely necessary.

As a Canadian and a former US resident, I would have to agree that the current administration has not been outstanding when it comes to leadership and communicating among themselves and with the public in general. Part of the problem may be as you describe as lack of quality talent. The other may be lack of experience in the real world. NSA Condi Rice has excellent academic credentials but this is her first job in a pressure filled political position. She is bound to make mistakes as she gives advice that could appear and sound logical in the academic world but would be pure disaster in the real world. The President needs to listen equally to others such as Kissinger and Brezinsky who have had long experience serving in previous administrations and other proven experts in the Vietnam war and other conflicts. Mistakes made at the highest level are magnified and could prove very costly in human lives. Hopefully, GW makes the right decision.