Does character count less in a time of war?

Sept. 11 shook up the priorities in the public square, making it hard to judge what mattered before Sept. 11 according to what matters now. But columnist Robert Steinback asks a provocative question in The Miami Herald: Why is there so little talk of character in the Bush era?
“Isn’t it curious how in the public discourse today one rarely hears references to character as a material issue with respect to political leadership? If an extramarital affair was proof of a vacant character, wouldn’t questionable actions that actually affect people — soldiers, covert agents, Congress, storm victims and the like — be exponentially more serious?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

7 Comments

  1. JUSTA GUY
    Posted October 14, 2005 at 6:35 am | Permalink

    There have been many characters to talk about in the Bush administration.

  2. Ed Friedemann
    Posted October 14, 2005 at 7:59 am | Permalink

    Bush seems to feel part of his job description is to deceive the American People on matters of life and death.Everything he does is backhanded.

    Bush lies about the things the People of this country have a right to know.

    A president being untruthful about his personal life is something I’m not quite sure we need to know or be asking, as long as it does not relate to matters which affect our country.

  3. Joe C
    Posted October 14, 2005 at 7:36 pm | Permalink

    EdYou are paid by the enemy. You are not that stupid.

  4. k
    Posted October 15, 2005 at 2:29 am | Permalink

    Yea, Bush is a character. He wouldn’t tell the truth to the American people even if he had nothing to hide. Personnaly I would rather have a president who f—s an intern than one who f—s the county.

  5. TRACY
    Posted October 15, 2005 at 10:42 am | Permalink

    K-it’s ok to fill in the blanks.I know the word is FOOLS.

  6. Galahad
    Posted October 15, 2005 at 10:50 am | Permalink

    Hey, Ed–

    I want to get paid by the enemy, too!

    How’d you do it, man?

  7. Eddie deRoulet
    Posted October 18, 2005 at 1:06 pm | Permalink

    This president and his whole administration can’t talk about character because it does not have any. He and it has lied to get him into office and to keep him there. He lied to us while he was he in Texas and he continues to doso. It is funny, he made fun of Osama the other day about hiding and sending his “boys” out to do their work, when he did the same thing during Viet Nam….hid!