Approval for Bush

A recent poll has announced that the approval rating of the George W. Bush presidency has slipped to a new low. Only 38% of Americans think President Bush is doing a good job. At the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney’s popularity slipped from 23% to 18% following his shooting mishap. Maybe the numbers for both Bush and Cheney would be better if Dick had taken aim at George, instead of his hunting buddy. [OK. And that same poll also said that everyone’s heard enough about the shooting incident, so this will be my last comment on that subject.]

One factor in the new disapproval of the Bush administration is confusion about the Dubai Ports World takeover of the company that manages several U.S. ports, including the Port of Baltimore. While the announcement of the deal was yet another blunder by Bush “public relations” team, if there really is one, I have to voice my approval of the Bush White House on this one.

Sadly, the facts of this news are still not being clearly spelled out... We live in a global shipping community where the United States is not a leader in the management of ports. These ports are already owned by a foreign entity – Great Britain. Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are good allies, despite the fact that some terrorists may have come from there or kept money in a bank account there. If this is the case, then why not eject Florida from the union because they were the ones who taught some of the terrorists how to fly commercial airliners?!

We can’t just run and hide from all of the Arabs or Muslims in the world, especially if they happen to like us, and if we happen to like them enough not to invade their country or shoot and bomb their homes. The U.S. is strong in some areas of the global economic community, but until Ronald McDonald or Colonel Sanders learn how to manage shipping ports, or we start producing more high school graduates that can make change without looking at the screen on a cash register or can actually speak and write English properly, let alone a second language, then we’d better keep our mouths shut.