'Better Than Gore'

Some time ago we asked a man why he supported George W. Bush. "He's better than Gore," was his response. We doubt this person even remembers saying this to us, but if he does we hope he'll let us know if he still feels this way, but more importantly, why.

While we're waiting, let's take a look at some of Bush's foreign policy successes as outlined by Joseph Galloway, writing for McClatchy Newspapers:  

Near the end, when the Watergate bloodhounds were baying at his heels and the sword of impeachment hung over him, Richard Nixon sought solace, refuge and redemption in foreign affairs and foreign travel.

Last week, President Bush made a half-hearted stab, officially described as "low-key," at brokering peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and cobbling together a bit of a legacy that doesn't revolve around crusades in Muslim countries.

This after seven bloody years during which he paid little attention to this long-festering sore. What little attention he has paid -- supporting Israel's ill-conceived and poorly executed 2006 invasion of Lebanon, giving Saddam Hussein's old spot in the axis of evil to Syria and pushing for democratic elections among the Palestinians that were won by the militant Islamic group Hamas -- has only made things worse.

Beyond a couple of photo-ops with Israeli President Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and an opening address that contained no new ideas, no commitment and no way forward, the president stayed away from the talks.

The fact that the meeting coincided with Bush's approval of an agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that lays the foundation for permanent U.S. bases in Iraq and a long-term American military presence there wasn't lost on the Arab representatives in Annapolis. The details of the deal will be negotiated next year, doubtless bypassing Congress once more.

The elephant in the room in Annapolis was Iraq and the grotesque American failure -- the only real foreign policy legacy of the Bush presidency -- that it represents. The consequences of that invasion and nearly five years of war have been to strengthen and hearten the wrong side in a vital and volatile region.

 Read the rest at Star-Telegram.com