Political Quotes

“last weekend the nation inaugurated a new President, President George W. Bush. With the change of power now complete, the President and Congress must now get down to the hard business of governing. After eight years of Democratic leadership, it is obvious that a Bush Administration will propose policy changes on several fronts. One of the most important and complex issues for President Bush will be how to implement his national missile defense policy in a manner that contributes to our national security, rather than putting it at risk. For six solid years, Republicans have used national missile defense as a ``big stick''--a stick employed not against America's enemies, but against those who thought we did not need a national missile defense. Republicans repeatedly criticized the Clinton administration for its approach to national missile defense, and in the last two presidential campaigns, the promise of a ``robust'' national missile defense figured prominently in the Republican Party's platform and foreign policy speeches. Although it is always difficult to get into the minds of the American people, it does appear that, for the most part, the public has ignored this debate. The missile defense issue has commanded the attention of only a tiny minority of the American people. In a recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trust of priorities for the new administration, Americans rated missile defense in eighteenth place among twenty issues.…”