Bush, Cheney meet for first time since leaving office
Former President George W. Bush and his former vice president, Dick Cheney, got together Thursday for the first time since they left office in January 2009.
The meeting took place at Cheney’s house in McLean, Virginia, just three days after the former vice president suffered a mild heart attack and was hospitalized overnight. An ABC News camera captured the moment. “Mr. President, welcome,” Cheney said as Bush stepped from the back of a sport utility vehicle.
“Looking good,” Bush said.
“Holding up alright,” Cheney replied.
“Looking good,” the former president said again as the two shook hands warmly.
“Could be worse,” Cheney said.
The meeting came on the eve of a gathering of Bush administration alumni in Washington.
Poll: Support up for troop increase in Afghanistan
Public support for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan is on the rise, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday. The poll finds 47 percent of Americans favor boosting the troop level in Afghanistan, compared to 43 percent who are opposed to the idea.
An NBC/WSJ poll in September found 51 percent opposed to a troop increase, while 44 percent supported it.
Other recent opinion polls have shown lagging public support for the war and members of President Barack Obama’s own Democratic Party are divided over whether to send more troops.
Right now, there are 65,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan as part of a 100,000 strong NATO-led force. The size of the U.S. contingent is expected to reach 68,000 later this year.
Obama is considering whether to send up to 40,000 more troops. His decision is expected any day now. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and other critics say he’s taking too long to reach a decision. Cheney accused Obama of “dithering” over a strategy review and said he needed to send more troops right away.
If the poll is accurate, a majority of Americans don’t mind the time Obama is taking to review the U.S. strategy in the eight-year-old war. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 58 percent of respondents support delaying a decision until after Afghanistan’s runoff presidential election on Nov. 7, when U.S. officials may have a better handle on Kabul’s political situation.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of 1,009 adults was conducted Oct. 22-25 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
It wouldn’t take much for the Taliban to drive the poll numbers down. A few more suicide attacks on US troops, a few more body bags coming back home and the support will all the way down. Can USA takes damage without a public outcry?
In the other White House war …
He almost said it, but he didn’t. Vice President Joe Biden, who has a reputation for verbal gaffes, almost asked “Who cares?” but stopped himself, when he weighed in on the White House’s latest war of words with his predecessor, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney, a repeated critic of the Obama administration’s foreign policy initiatives, this week accused President Barack Obama of “dithering” and being scared to make a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
“I think that is absolutely wrong. I think what the administration is doing is exactly what we said it would do. And what I think it warrants doing. And that is making an informed judgment based upon circumstances that have changed … to come up with a sustainable policy that has more than one dimension,” Biden told pool reporters traveling with him at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Prague.
But the Democratic vice president worked hard to keep his foot firmly out of his mouth, after looking piqued when asked about Cheney’s suggestion that Republican former President George W. Bush’s administration had left behind a thorough assessment of the Afghanistan war, according to a pool report.
“Well, look, I don’t …” Biden said, and then paused, the report said. “Who cares what …” he began again, sounding annoyed. He paused again, looking as though he wanted to stuff the words back in his mouth.
“Well, let me put it maybe,” he said, and he paused a third time, glancing at communications director Jay Carney with a smile, the report said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I can see the headline now,” Biden said, shaking his head. “I’m getting better, guys. I’m getting a little bit better, you know what I mean?”
The First Draft: Hello, summer!
It’s almost Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer. No bottlenecks yet at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the gateway to Maryland’s Eastern Shore beach towns.
Traffic out that way is likely to get worse around 10:00 a.m., when President Obama delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He’ll also sign bills to limit abusive credit-card practices and reform the Pentagon’s weapons-buying process.
Vice President Joe Biden is in Lebanon, where he’s already managed to tick off Hezbollah. No, he hasn’t said anything unwise yet, they’re just upset that he’s there.
Folks still seem to be talking about yesterday’s Gitmo faceoff between Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served in Cheney’s administration, said that Gitmo is a fine facility but has a “taint.”
“The name itself is a condemnation,” he said on NBC’s “Today” Show.
Gates dismissed worries that any terrorism suspects would pose a security threat if moved to U.S. prison facilities.
“There’s a lot of fearmongering about this. We’ve never had an escape from a Supermax prison, and that’s where these guys will go,” he said.
HBC.
Interesting to note that after the Christmas day bomber was taken into custody, Rasmussen reported that 58 percent thought waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques should be used to extract information from the terrorist who tried to blow up an airplane full of people.
My oh my…how things change when people are threatened on their own soil.
But that isn’t the reason I don’t feel safer today. You can play that game of thinking for a person if you want to, but you would be wrong.
As for prosecuting anyone, it won’t happen. It isn’t justified and the American people don’t want it either. There are a lot of democrats who will go down with that sinking ship if it goes that way.
Oh, just my opinion…as always.