Thursday, September 07, 2006

When in Britain...

News today comes to us from across the pond that, due to a lack of public support and outcries from his own party, PM Tony Blair will be resigning with the year. While he won't give a specific date for his resignation, he is apparently already making plans with the man most likely to replace him as Britain's Prime Minister.

Blair has been under intense pressure to step down ever since he strongly supported GDub and his "War on Terror", specifically the war in Iraq. The British people have grown increasingly disgruntled with Blair, and are starting to throw their support strongly to the Conservative Party, causing upheavals within the Labour Party, which has held power for the last decade.

This, of course, comes during the times where Blair is constantly being weakened by accusations that he is Bush's "pet poodle", and shortly after he'd vowed to not attempt a fourth consecutive term as PM. Blair is now attempting to work his exit strategy out in such a way that his already weakened base of support isn't shattered further, and to allow for a smooth transition to his successor. Of course, over on this side of the ocean, the Bush Administration should be worried when their strongest international supporter has been waylaid by his own party.

Ultimately, what is occuring in Britain isn't unfamiliar to Americans. After all, our President sits with some of the lowest approval ratings ever seen, and a number of campaigns across the nation are actively telling Bush and crew to avoid helping them in their bids for election. There has even been a fair amount of talk about the President resigning with the knowledge that the people aren't on his side, and neither are prominent members of his party.

Unfortunately, this is America, and our President is someone who won't admit mistakes that he's personally made. The closest mea culpa we can expect from the Decider is when he says that someone in the administration did wrong, without specifically pointing fingers or shouldering the blame himself. In fact, when called out on his errors, GDub acts the petulant child, throws a fit, and threatens to imprison those that are criticizing him and his policies.

The country with the most investment in America shortly before we declared our independence was Great Britain, and we learned a lot from them over the years. Perhaps it's time that we once again looked across the pond and took another lesson from the British. When someone that once held great levels of popularity and global sway can be toppled by his adamant refusal to budge on an issue that's gone wrong, what could possibly happen to someone that has consistently floundered in a quagmire of negative feelings?

Of course, given that this is America, we'll probably simply wait a couple of years until the next Presidential election, and place whichever new incompetent monkey we feel can screw up the least into the seat of power. God help us if that person somehow ends up being worse than GDub.

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