Now, it has been postulated by certain people, that President Bush is somewhat of a puppet, being maneuvered and coached by the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rove. This accusation, for most any other president would be unthinkable, but we find that it is not very hard to envision "W" being coached and so forth, by the puppetmasters that helped secure his presidency.
From history, we know that some presidents were indeed puppets also, putting on a good face while the First Lady made the command decisions from the background. Nancy Reagan in the latter part of the Reagen administration and Eleanor Roosevelt in the latter part of the Roosevelt presidency for example. But never has a presidency been controlled by the Presidents Men so obviously as this current administration.
Bush has been president for over three years, and during that time he has conducted 12 press conferences. Both his father and Clinton, over the same time frame, had given over 70 press conferences. Now, you can say that the man is camera shy, or you can say that his handlers do not want him in front of possible scrutiny very often, for fear of what he might say (like mispronouncing a leaders name...again).
Also, no other president has taken as many vacations, or retreats as President Bush. Again, you can say that the man just likes to clear his head, or you can point to the fact that he is taking a vacation during a time that his attention is needed with diplomacy over the Iraq war. From the Center of American Progress, "Instead of going the extra mile to assuage the fears of the international community, President Bush did not personally take the time during the crisis/his vacation to call the leaders of the countries whose citizens were held hostage last week. In fact, the President barely took time off from loafing at his Crawford mansion to deal with real problems, choosing to spend his time appearing on fishing television shows rather than addressing a major world crisis. The result is that global support for the U.S. effort in Iraq has further eroded as security deteriorates. Many allies are now finding it "difficult to resist calls to scale back their involvement or even withdraw." This pulling back unfortunately comes at the same time the U.S. is attempting to build a global force to protect the United Nations in Iraq, a proposal "essential to the fragile political transition because the Bush administration is relying on the United Nations to return to Iraq to help organize elections after the occupation ends on June 30." Without allied support, American troops will be left in harm's way to shoulder the burden."
All I'm asking is, do we want four more years of a puppet presidency? I didn't think so.
