# Bush Says Election Validates Iraq War **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993 "2005-01-16T05:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/1 "2005-01-16T05:54:22Z")
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12450-2005Jan15.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12450-2005Jan15.html) **Bush Says Election Ratified Iraq Policy** > [@](#): > > President Bush said the public’s decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath… Submitted for your opinion. I will add my own when I recover, and am no longer too stunned to type. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/2 "2005-01-16T06:00:20Z")
It’s about the torture. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/3 "2005-01-16T06:36:03Z")
After his reelection, Nixon also thought his approach to the war in Vietnam was ratified, then he began the secret bombing of Cambodia. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/4 "2005-01-16T06:55:22Z")
[sarcasm] Also, considering Dubya won the election by such an incredibly _huge_ margin, the American public validated his Presidency and all of his policies. [/sarcasm] ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/5 "2005-01-16T07:01:07Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Submitted for your opinion. I will add my own when I recover, and am no longer too stunned to type. Hrumph. After four years of Dubya, and _this_ stuns you into a stupor? I thought you were made of sterner stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/6 "2005-01-16T07:51:07Z")
Can you imagine Roosevelt or Truman or Kennedy saying something like that? (I kind of wish he had saved it for his Inaugural Address.) How can Republicans **not** be embarrassed by this statement? ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/7 "2005-01-16T07:54:13Z")
Ohh, it’s the _electorate_. And all this time I thought it was God. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/8 "2005-01-16T08:02:21Z")
It’s a fine theological point, but in this instance, it is the electorate as a _reflection_ of God’s will, the same way He subtly manifests to ensure that power and privilege is guided into the hands of the virtuous. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/9 "2005-01-16T08:33:12Z")
I bet Bill Clinton wishes he had tried that line. “I’m disbanding the Independent Counsel’s investigation. The public’s decision to re-elect me is a ratification of my personal morals and there’s no reason to hold me accountable for past mistakes or misjudgements.” ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/10 "2005-01-16T08:42:56Z")
I’ll bet anything that late at night, when Laura’s asleep, Dubya retrieves a Burger King paper crown from the back of his closet, sneaks into his bathroom and tries it on, thinking, "If only. . . " That Bush thinks winning the election by a thin margin somehow equates to unanimous support for his policies and validates his decisions is just plain delusional. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/11 "2005-01-16T08:57:27Z")
Of course, there is an upside, same article… > [@](#): > > Bush said he will not press senators to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the top priority for many social conservative groups. Apparenty, the “grave and growing” threat to the sanctity of marriage is now deemed not to be “imminent”. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/12 "2005-01-16T09:02:48Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Of course, there is an upside, same article… > Apparenty, the “grave and growing” threat to the sanctity of marriage is now deemed not to be “imminent”. Not now that he won re-election, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Demorian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demorian/32/7273_2.png) [@Demorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demorian)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/13 "2005-01-16T09:45:45Z")
… I don’t know quite what to say about this, other than to softly bang my head against the wall to dull the enormous aura of stupidity radiating outwards from America. I just hope that he doesn’t extend this realization of his to lower taxes and give tax refunds more. ---
**Author:** ![Demorian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demorian/32/7273_2.png) [@Demorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demorian)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/14 "2005-01-16T09:50:18Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Not now that he won re-election, anyway. Actually, that is a surprisingly positive thing to hear from Bush. Maybe I misunderestimatisized him. … Nah. He just knows it would never pass, and now it makes him look considerate and compromising to re-court the moderates who were driven away by his proposal. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/15 "2005-01-16T11:34:12Z")
I couldn’t get past the first paragraph and it made me reel with revulsion. The guy is just flat out whacked. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/16 "2005-01-16T13:34:17Z")
As I said after the 3rd debate, that will be the last time that Bush ever listens to a dissenting point of view. He’s surrounded himself with yes men and sycophants who have been telling him how wonderful he is and that the public believes everything he says. He has just as much contact with reality as Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![sinical\_brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sinical\_brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinical_brit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/17 "2005-01-16T13:36:35Z")
At last - Bush is thinking the same thing as the rest of the planet ! Goog luck with your country there… Sin ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/18 "2005-01-16T13:42:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Bush said he will not press senators to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the top priority for many social conservative groups. Of course not. They need this to still be an issue for Jeb in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Demorian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demorian/32/7273_2.png) [@Demorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demorian)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/19 "2005-01-16T13:55:03Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > As I said after the 3rd debate, that will be the last time that Bush ever listens to a dissenting point of view. He’s surrounded himself with yes men and sycophants who have been telling him how wonderful he is and that the public believes everything he says. He has just as much contact with reality as Michael Jackson. Reminds me of that incident last year when the Alabama state senate unintentionally banned female genitle piercing in a bill meant to stop mutilation of infants. They had absolutely no idea that women did that, and officially expressed shock about it… pissed off a lot of people though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993/20 "2005-01-16T14:01:29Z")
I’m as moderate as moderate gets. I supported the war in Afghanistan (though not Iraq). My overwhelming objection to Bush comes from his fiscal policies. But dear God above what’s up with this? I don’t even see the political gain to be made by making this statement. Who’s he trying to convince? Those 0.005% of people in the middle who don’t fall into the ‘love him’ or ‘hate him’ group? It’s like he woke up and said “Let’s add some fuel to the fire. Andy, call up the Post and let’s see if I can rattle their cages a little.” I mean, I’m not one of those who describes him as ‘shrub’ or a chimp or stupid or anything…but what the hell is he thinking? Even if he truly believes this doesn’t he have a politicians normal reluctance to make such statements? And where the hell are his handlers? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-says-election-validates-iraq-war/284993.md?page=2)