Bush 43 is finishing 41's work
www.charlotte.com Posted on Tue, Feb. 18, 2003
U.S. News & World Report:
George W. Bush is his father's son, all right, so maybe we shouldn't be so surprised that he's pushing ahead with plans to cut taxes, take out Saddam Hussein -- and raise cattle in Texas. Don't get the connection? Let family friend Doug Wead explain. "Presidential children," he says, tend toward completion or mimicry. Bush, adds the author of the forthcoming book "All the Presidents' Children," fits the completion theory. As in: redeeming Bush 41's broken no-new-taxes promise, punishing Saddam for plotting to kill Dad, and highlighting the cowboy side of the Kennebunkport clan.
Wead's book is a fascinating study of the 159 first kids. A common thread: Many can't live up to their father's example, end up on the bottle, and die young. Remarkably, Bush himself was headed in that direction before he cleaned up his act, shocking even his own family. Wead recalls asking brother Marvin in 1988 if W would take up their father's public service. "George?" Wead quotes Marvin laughing. "George is the family clown."
Bush could declare victory without war
Michael Dobbs, Washington Post: There is a widespread international appreciation of the fact that inspectors would not be in Iraq today if the United States had not used its overwhelming military and diplomatic power, [a senior Arab] official says. Bush could declare victory now and save himself a potential debacle. "He's shown seriousness, and Saddam caved," the official says. "If you ask whether the world is in a better position vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein than it was a year ago, the answer is `Absolutely!' Is that victory? Yes, if you want it to be."
World economy depends on Saudis
John Carey in BusinessWeek: Crude [oil] is up more than 33 percent over the past three months, climbing to $35 per barrel in the United States. Economic models predict that if the price stays high for three months, it will cut U.S. gross domestic product by $50 billion for the quarter. ... As long as the U.S. imports more than 11 million barrels a day -- 55 percent of our total consumption -- anything from a strike in Venezuela to unrest in the Persian Gulf hits us hard in the pocketbook.
One nation, Saudi Arabia, is sitting on the world's largest proved reserves -- 265 million barrels, or 25 percent of the known supplies -- and can send the price soaring or falling simply by opening or closing the spigot ... . "The entire world economy is built on a bet of how long the House of Saud can continue," says Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.