Post-Gazette Editorial – 1/25/07

This page was last updated on January 27, 2007.

Feeble state: Hobbled by Iraq, Bush issues a modest agenda; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; January 25, 2007.

Rather do a full piece-by-piece critique, I’ll address only a couple of points.

When the editorial stated, “Leading into America’s current troublesome international posture, Mr. Bush warmed a few hearts by mentioning global climate change, apparently a first for him [emphasis mine],” the author either displayed gross ignorance or a willful attempt to deceive us. You see, nearly five years before this apparent “first,” President Bush announced “Clear Skies & Global Climate Change Initiatives.” Are we to believe the self-proclaimed “One of America’s Great Newspapers” didn’t know this?

When the editorial stated, “On immigration reform he called again for a temporary worker program and pledged no amnesty, presenting the problem again but offering no solution.” Apparently the PG forgot President Bush supported the immigration bill passed by the Senate last year. While I believe the bill was the wrong “solution,” it was an alleged solution.

The editorial continued with, “Then, less than halfway through the speech, even counting the formalities and the fluff, Mr. Bush went into his usual security/war routine.” Does the PG consider the issue of national security nothing more than a vaudeville routine? In general, there’s rarely anything more important a president can discuss than national security.

Perhaps “He then asked for more troops, 92,000 additional Army and Marine Corps personnel over five years, which is also consistent with his ‘new strategy’ escalation in Iraq. Yet expansion of the armed forces is inconsistent with his call for cutting the budget deficit.” answers my question. Apparently it never crosses the PG’s mind that we could cut extraconstitutional spending to pay for the constitutional responsibility to “provide for the common defence.”