Author and syndicated columnist Molly Ivins said during a brown bag talk in February that she's "genuinely carfuffled" about the way Bush has started his presidency, particularly his failure to balance far-right policies with more moderate ones.
"He's governing as though he had a mandate from the far right," she said, "with complete disregard for what really happened during the 36-Day War in Florida." The most worrisome aspect of this imbalanced approach, said Ivins, "is that there is nobody inside his circle smart enough to tell him not to do this."
In her opinion, the Republicans are in denial about the outcome of the election, and President Bush's choice of the "amazingly conservative" Dick Cheney as his "older male mentor" is serving to keep his political blinders on. She said Bush did a better balancing act as governor of Texas, managing somehow to bridge the gap between the economic right and the Christian right. "He held those two groups together for six years," she said, "and that took some political skills."
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Molly Ivins signs a copy of her new book, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, for first-year student Jed Perry. Photo by Megan Scarborough |
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May 14, 2001
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