How can people badmouth President George W. Bush and his ability to run this country? Well, it's very simple.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution gives us, among other things, the freedom of speech. It gives you freedom of speech to back white bread from Texas; it also gives me the freedom to toast that white bread. Today I choose to talk about the wonderful President Bush.

I will agree that President Bush successfully did what he set out to do in Iraq. What President Bush has failed to do, and Pals seems to overlook as well, is fix the economy and job market in America.

By "fix," I mean he had to mess it up in the first place. According to the U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov), the unemployment level is approximately 8,170,000 people; that is 2,317,000 more people than it was four years ago at this time.

Now, before I upset some people, I will call attention to the fact that the unemployment level has dropped around 500,000, since November 2003; however, there is one group of people that are not counted in the unemployment level and that is those who are discouraged from seeking out employment because of lack of available jobs.

This level has nearly doubled in four years from 267,000 to 484,000 and has also risen 30,000 since November 2003. The last time these numbers were this high, there was another President Bush in office.

One other "little" thing I would like to bring up that seems to get over looked is our national debt.

Since President Bush has taken office, the debt has risen $1.4 trillion to an estimated $7.1 trillion (http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov) and it continues to grow.

Last month, President Bush sent the proposed 2005 Budget to congress that included a record $521 billion budget deficit. That's a whole lot of money.

How can I say all this about a man who led us through the tragedy of 9/11? Simple. I believe in free speech, and I, unlike so many other college students, actually voted in November 2000. President Bush deserves to be applauded? Yes, lets applaud him for his vigilant effort in putting over 2 million people out of work and raising the national debt by almost 25 percent. What a great man.

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I love my friends.

You raise alot of good points. Unfortunately you, like so many others, blame one person. Bush is the president, let's blame him! He's our man. He's in charge. He's the king! Let's blame Bush! Let's blame Clinton! Let's blame anyone in a blue suit and red tie who happens to be standing in front of us.

All these issues you raise cannot be mended by the actions of one man. You want someone to blame for the state of our economy? Blame everyone who invested in a company about six years ago just because it had a "com" at the end of its name. So many people discovered the cheapness and flexibility of Ameritrade and E-Trade and dove into the stock market without looking both ways first. The economy bubbled up and then popped (which just happened to occur about 1 or 2 months after Bush was elected.) Blame them. But that's hard to do, becuase wh's "them?" It is less satisfying to blame a group of people than one person like the president.

I would hate to be president. No matter what happens - if an asteroid is crashing to the earth - it's his fault. Then it's: "Hey man I shouldn't have voted for Bush, now the world is about to be blowed up by an asteroid!"

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lambaste me not

why is it we as a people think issues through so simply, setting out to blame the top person, when many decisions by various people decide the situation we are in.


I would say Clinton has some blame, but so does Bush, and so do you

You should have included the amount of jobs created since August (the month that the rate began its increase) and say that 1.4 million jobs have been created and when the job report comes out in less than 2 weeks we will see it rise even higher.

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"Republicans believe that everyday
is the 4th of July, while the Democrats wish everyday was April 15th" - Ronald Reagan