RE: When Bush-worlds collide

Ol' Pat can be so articulate. I sometimes marvel at how he manages to torpedo himself so often.

He makes some good points, including this devastatingly accurate (with regard to the neo-cons) quote:

"And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more."

A couple of notable items on the downside for Pat, though:

That one in six manufacturing jobs has vanished during his tenure, that real wages of working Americans are falling, that trade deficits are reaching $800 billion, that dependency on foreigners for vital necessities of our national life is growing – none of this matters, as he mutters on his prayer rug the mantra he was taught: "Free trade good, protectionism bad."

But the mantra isn't necessarily bad, Pat. It's the execution that is pathetically and painfully bad. And Pat exposes his neo-Marxist leanings and marches headlong into the same tarpit occupied by his subject. Just as Bush mistakes Americanism for free market capitalism, Buchanan mistakes policy for economics. Why do we think that the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. can or should have any impact on the number of manufacturing jobs held by Americans, or the balance of goods purchased by Americans from overseas versus those made here? And yes, the real wages of Americans are falling, but why doesn't Pat lament the real reason for that: a massively out-of-control government that consumes half of what the middle class earns to keep itself alive? There is the real sin of Bush, the so-called "conservative."

...Latin Americans revert to populism and socialism...

For Pat to indict anyone for populism is nearly sublime. Hey Pat, don't look now, but there's a mirror right behind you.