Bush to conservatives: Agree with me on amnesty or you're anti-American

[Gregoshi]

The non-existent WMD broke this camel's back. When it became clear that we went to war in Iraq under false pretenses (basically lied to everyone), I felt Bush should withdrawn from the 2004 election as the only respectable thing he could to do. Since he didn't, I felt it necessary to remove him myself, so, as much as it pained me, I voted for Kerry.

[Odin]

it was spring 04 for me, thats when sadr's paper was shut down and he rebelled, along with a boat load of sunni's in Fallujah. It was then that it was 100% clear to me (I was about 85 up until then) that Rummy and Bush had no idea what they were doing that they would need hundreds of thousands more troops to secure Iraq and do it the right way.

they didnt and the mess we have today is the result, the fact that it took the midterms to refute the policy for rummy to resign complimented my train of thought.

The WMD was bothersome to me as well, but in all candeor not many people thought saddam actually destroyed what he had in 91. turns out he might have, thats a secondary one for me, but the mismangement of the war is when I signed off.

[Xiahou]

Just as a straw poll, is there anyone here who would vote for George W Bush again - on his merits and record to date - should it be possible?

It entirely depends on who he's running against. I certainly wouldn't want to vote Bush- but put up another Kerry as an alternative and I might have to just to keep the other guy out of office.

I don't know of anyone in the current crop of Democrat hopefuls that I'd be willing to vote for, but luckily Bush is ineligible to run again- so I won't be faced with the possibility of having to hold my nose and vote for him.

[Don Corleone]

I actually have a huge issue with the Democratic party for forcing me to vote for Bush in 04 because I desperately wanted to vote against him then, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for Kerry. I really should have voted Libertarian or written in Alan Keyes.

I began to lose confidence with the invasion of Iraq. I saw it as misguided and dangerously distracting from what we should be doing, flushing Al Queda and the Taliban out of Afghanistan (and Pakistan for that matter).

My gnawing doubt grew exponentially when the administration put forward Medicare Part D and Harriet Meirs.

But the 'straw' as you say was when in light of all evidence to the contrary, the administration continued to say they would not bolster troop strength in Iraq through 2005 and 2006. I knew we didn't have a clue when Cheney gave the "insurgency in its last throes" crap, the first time...

[Whacker]

I actually have a huge issue with the Democratic party for forcing me to vote for Bush in 04 because I desperately wanted to vote against him then, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for Kerry. I really should have voted Libertarian or written in Alan Keyes.

I have a bigger issue now with our whole political system as is. The whole 'two party system' is really a big losing point for us, it's either one or the other and really nothing in between. When I say that, I mean that in essense when one does vote for something/someone other than Dem/GOP, (as much as I hate to say this) one is throwing their vote away and it's really not going to account for much, except in a few instances where it's perhaps a tiebreaker. I really do think we need several more real honest-to-god political parties to balance out the mix and give people a much wider range of selection of candidates that they can choose from, as opposed to "jerk A" or "jerk B". In this aspect, I really look up to and respect the situations in other countries like Germany, France, Canada, where there really ARE multiple parties to chose from.

But the 'straw' as you say was when in light of all evidence to the contrary, the administration continued to say they would not bolster troop strength in Iraq through 2005 and 2006. I knew we didn't have a clue when Cheney gave the "insurgency in its last throes" crap, the first time...

I dunno about you mate, but I became a whole lot more disenfranchised after the 9/11 shock wore off, and I realized the whole military knee-jerk reaction wasn't losing any traction at all, if anything it was picking up speed. It was just a train wreck from there on.

[AntiochusIII]

A Million Dollar Question:

What does this Bill actually do?

I mean, I hear a lot of opinions 'bout it. I just don't really know what it is actually doing, which tends to make forming my own opinion [of the Bill] difficult.

Of my opinion of the tactic, well, ah...

The President is desperate.