From: elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush
Subject: Re: Bush/Florida/Hurricane Andrew
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 11:49:17 CDT
Organization: Minas Tirith BBS, New Orleans, LA

dave@gergo.tamu.edu (Dave Martin) writes:

> In article <5iNaqB4w164w@mintir.new-orleans.la.us>, elendil@mintir.new-orlean
> }I've been watching CNN this afternoon, listening to Gov. Lawton Chiles and
> }other Floridians, while watching scenes of the aftermath of the hurricane an
> }the continuation of relief efforts.  What struck me about the whole discussi
> }with Chiles is that there must be a lot of angry voters in South Florida rig
> }now.  Angry voters who have their Congresscritters down there with them
> }pitching in to help.  It's going to be hard for the President to duck
> }responsibility for the slowness of the response time of FEMA and the militar
> }in providing help.
>
> What I found amusing is Bush's claims about not blaming people. State officia
> in Florida and others had commented that they could have responded sooner if
> the approval from above had been given. Bush bitched (he had that same tone
> to his voice as when he told those people to "shut up and sit down" a while
> back) about how they all need to work together and that it wasn't constructiv
> to be pointing blame (especially when the fingers kept curving his direction)
> Of course, we've been hearing Bush gripe through this whole campaign how all
> the things that went wrong were the fault of Congress, and everything that
> went right in the world (not much went right over here) was the result of his
> skill. Gee, nice to hear the President tell people that it's counterproductiv
> to place blame when he's been using the blame thing to support his record.

Bob Novak said it well when he pointed out that politicians refuse to play the
'blame game' only when they're afraid they're going to lose.  Had Bush been
right, he'd be out there bashing his opponents with gusto.

>
> I do think, to shift the topic a bit, that the Presidency should be limited
> to either a single four-year term OR that the current two-term limit be
> altered such that they cannot be consecutive. This would prevent a President
> from spending the last year in office campaigning (i.e. - only doing things
> to get re-elected). Also, they couldn't run for any other public office for
> at least a year after leaving the office. That way the President would not be
> campaigning at all for (him/her)self while still serving (key word here) in
> office. Just a thought.
>

I've always thought that one six-year term would be an interesting idea.  We
used to have single-term governors here in Louisiana, and it didn't really work
well.  You essentially had two factions (only one party, the Democrats) trading
back and forth, because the outgoing governor wouldn't want to be eclipsed by
someone else in his own faction, for fear that he wouldn't get re-elected next
time he was eligible.




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