It is a mistake to equate Rick Perry with with Shrub Bush.

Bush was a fake cowboy who rode a mountain bike because he's afraid of horses. Rick Perry is the real thing. He pure West Texas hard-head. Perry has the capacity to make a gargantuan disaster of America, on the scale of the Alamo. The man is clearly talking above his pay grade already.

The last thing America needs is a president who is too stupid to see the difference between science and religion. The person who can't discern that, probably doesn't believe in either one.

Irregardless is not a word. Pet peeve. Otherwise I have no complaints. Ciao

While Mr. Rothkopf makes an excellent point noting the domestic similarities between Pres Obama and Ike, I would suggest Mr. Rothkopf also mention some foreign policy similaries between Ike and Pres Obama, i.e., both have a record of being cool to engage U.S. troops abroad and to get bogged down by historical transformations in key locations (e.g., Suez in 1956 and Lybia presently). Ike then, and Pres Obama now is discretely encouraging and supporting democratic movements, illustrated today in al-Assad's Syria slaughterhouse. Ike didn't have an Irangate as Reagan did and neither will Pres Obama.

best treadmills for home
best treadmills for home

Rothkopf sounds like an "a N.Y. inteligentsia member'" or just another dumb yankee.
Seems to me that what Perry said makes a good bit of sense, unlike the half- cracked foreign policies that come out of D.C. & N.Y., Reagan was an old Baseball commentator and Perry's an 'old Country Boy.... and both of them made more sense than anyone since Harry Truman. I think Perry & Palin or Palin & Perry would make the kind of ticket to restore the U.S., to greater glory,

Please, please, please GOP give us the ticket of Perry and Palin. It would be awful for the country but, hey, not long ago (former) French Prez Jacques Chirac found Jean-Claude LePen on the other side of the presidential debate table and got re-elected with 80% of the vote.

Hook 'em Up Hokum Horns!

While Mr. Rothkopf makes an excellent point noting the domestic similarities between Pres Obama and Ike, I would suggest Mr. Rothkopf also mention some foreign policy similaries between Ike and Pres Obama, i.e., both have a record of being cool to engage U.S. troops abroad and to get bogged down by historical transformations in key locations (e.g., Suez in 1956 and Lybia presently). Ike then, and Pres Obama now is discretely encouraging and supporting democratic movements, illustrated today in al-Assad's Syria slaughterhouse. Ike didn't have an Irangate as Reagan did and neither will Pres Obama.

As presented in Time Magazine, "We declare that we. . .can never find our salvation in any attempt to stand apart and live completely alone in this world." But at the same time he called for a change from the "unhappy record" of U.S. foreign policy during the last seven years, in which "we have been losing whole nations to the enemies of freedom." That was Ike speaking, but it well could be Mr. Obama.

"Dollars and guns," Ike was quoted in Time in 1952,"are no substitute for brains and will power. It is not hard to find men long on courage and short on brains. But this is no time for boldness without reflection and purpose." This too could well be Pres. Obama speaking.

Ike said the following, but so could Obama: " . . . What I deplore. . . is this: the incompetence of political leaders which made military action necessary. Democracies cannot afford the luxury of assigning armies of soldiers to go around 'picking up' after their 'statesmen.'

Continuing to quote Ike from Time Magazine: "A deadly result of this playing by ear has been to frustrate the free world's quest for unity. I mean this in three specific ' senses. We have no single, coherent policy in Asia . . . We have failed to use our influence to the fullest to bring about unity in Western Europe . . . We have failed to achieve real unity of spirit with our allies." Pres Obama has expressly stated these same sentiments as expressed Ike.

Eisenhower is further quoted by Time: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. Any nation that pours its treasure into the purchase of armaments is spending more than mere money. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities … We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people."

Americans have a profound distaste of a Prussian culture of permanent militarism. Accordingly, Ike cut the Pentagon's budget and Obama is doing the same. Both Ike and O shared the deep belief in the state's capacity and obligation to provide citizens the foundation of a good life. Eisenhower wanted to build a national highway system; Obama has (after a century of efforts by presidents) delivered national health care. Further, both share the view that because every dollar spent on defense was a dollar lost to national well-being, Ike and Obama produced adequate defense budgets while limiting the United States' military-industrial-congressional (neocon) complex. (George Dubya Bush take notice.)

Perry and Palin - Hokum and Pokem - are a long stretch from Ike, and no match for Barack Obama.

i think a great majority historians will disagree with you.
For the magnitude of his incompetence and of the cost of his miscalculations, W. will rank among the worst presidents in US History; whereas, while Bill Clinton's management of foreign affairs was worse than mediocre, his was primarily a domestic presidency and as such it is consider by most to be a flawed but successful presidency, not near the bottom with W., Warren Harding and James Buchanan.

@JOEYFOTO.FR

I wouldn't be so hasty. Let some more water flow under the bridge before we start making historical judgements on the Bush years. If Iraq actually gets it together and becomes a legitimate democracy that respects human rights, while Afghanistan (as it seems to be doing) collapses a week after US troops leave, especially if the Taliban comes back to power, history will be much kinder to Bush than you think.

As for Obama, he's bought Afghanistan, so success or failure there will belong to him. And I daresay it's much tougher to make a real state out of Afghanistan than to replace a dictator in Iraq with something at least faintly resembling a legitimate government. And if relations with Pakistan deteriorate even further as a result of the bin Laden raid, that will deflate any gains from killing Osama.

You're bumping up against the Three "ifs" Is The Limit Rule when writing the history books of the future:

1) "If Iraq"

2) "if the Taliban"

3) "if relations with Pakistan"

There's just no defending George Dumbya Bush from any reality based analysis.

While Dumbya is only now being introduced to the history books he's on a trajectory that makes the Bush Clan wish History books didn't exist. Bush 41 is in the books as a one termer and Bush 43 already is recognized as a two timer: the 2000 Florida vote and the notorious WMD - Words of Mass Deception.

I reiterate my plea to the Republican Party to nominate the bushy haired southern one, the Lone Star Governor Rick Perry. The ageing conservative white reactionary vote needs (and should have) their guy to vote for 'cause everyone else is voting for Pres Obama. Perry's already said Texans would welcome getting "ugly" toward Bernanke down there in the badlands. (Oh, and for you young'ns out there there's always Ron Paul, to the bitter and unefficacious end.)

Besides, I would reject outright having a beer with any Bush: G.H.W, Dumbya and Jeb and Perry to boot.

You elected George W. Bush over Ann Richards
and Rick Perry over Kay Bailey Hutchinson,
how smart could Texans be?

And Governor Ann Richards which with Molly Ivins forgives even more, especially now that there is so very much in and about Texas that begs forgiveness. (If only 75% of Texans were aware.) I'd introduce a motion Rick Perry secede his citizenship except that, aside from being a forgiving soul, I'd luv to see Perry nominated.

Sitting on my little island in the Pacific I cannot but giggle with mirth and, with a dose of schadenfreude, wonder what my friends in Austin, Galveston and Corpus Christi think about their state officials.

My experiences in Texas suggest to me that the right-wing has hijacked the mythos of the hardened, independent, tough-minded and slightly isolationist Texan and turned it into yet another aberration of conservative American politics, replete with xenophobia, jingoism, arrogance, hubris and total ignorance of the rest of the world.

Let me know when y'all are done being stupid so I can move back home.

Terrible article, Rothkopf. I think making sweeping generalizations of the inhabitants of the greatest state in the union does you no favors.

i can hear Molly Ivins now, although she was talking about another Texas blow-hard:
"When ignorance gets up to $70 a barrel, I want drillin' rights in that man's head."

My favorite tee-shirt is from Aspen.
It reads: "If God had Meant for Texans to Ski, He would have made Bull-Sh## White."

Good old common Texas horse sense, is just dirt-ignorance and blind-arrogance.

I grew up on a cattle ranch myself and I know a dangerous cowboy when I see one. In his little part time job in Texas, good-hair, smooth-talking Governor Perry is a big deal maker. As the leader of a world power, he would be a dangerous fool.

Your contempt for everything that Rick Perry doesn't know, just means that you share his ignorance. America is down but not out — another dose of Texas snake-oil — with Perry's average intellect, primitive moral self-righteousness and blatant corruption — might finish America for good.

I heard one about Rick Perry that may be a tall bushy story or may in fact be true. I'd welcome any info from anyone who might know which.

Years ago when Perry was campaiging as a Democrat, he visited a Reservation for Native Americans (can't get the name of the place). The chief took Perry into a hall where Perry gave vigorous remarks. "If you elect me you will get all the education you want," Perry exclaimed. The Native Americans stamped their feet and shouted "umgalawa!" Perry said "If you elect me I guarantee you your fair share of respect and of the American dream," to which the crowd again responded with stamping and shouts of "umgalawa!"

Later Perry and the chief touring the Reservation turned a corner where a tall wire fence appeared. Perry asked about the fence, to which the chief said, "Oh, that's where we used to keep the buffalo." Perry took off running and said "Watch me, I'm going to jump the fence!" To which the chief said, "Okay, but watch out for the umgalawa on the other side."

If you had any integrity, you would be willing to go to the root to the problem and not blame the president for a problem he was handed on the day he took the oath of office after eight years of mismanagement.

Frankly, I don't know if President Obama's stimulus package was too large or too small, but I do know that it was an attempt to address an emergency that was not of his making. I also know that if you take away the Bush Tax cuts and the, at least, hundreds of billions of dollars squandered on a puerile enterprise in Iraq, America would be in entirely different financial situation..

President Obama said that he has in many ways modeled his career after Abraham Lincoln. In one way that has worked out very well. The ugly, vicious, cowardly vituperation and contempt that was directed at Abe Lincoln but has not but seen since, is resurrected in the rhetoric of Obama haters, who repeat the same distorted charges (e.g. your post) from the right-wingers who are indifferent to data and listen only to each other.