That said, I do respect the man and his absolute conviction to protect us from terrorism. If I had it to do it all over again, I’d vote for him over Kerry, because I believe terrorism is the #1 issue we have to confront in this country. I am very pissed at him over several other issues, however, including his illegal amnesty proposal. And, even this mid-term election was not a mandate to support it. Quite the contrary, but he won’t see that and the democrats will jump on it. Pat Buchanan is absolutely right on this issue.

Anyway, it’s not just about age, but that fact in combination with the other pertinent fact, that it has been years since Don Rumsfeld has held a position of anything approaching this much authority and responsibiulity. When was the last time he did this, during the Ford Administration?

If he had been active all through this span of time, the advantages of all those years of experience, and and constantly facing new challenges and ideas and having to deal with them, would have far outweighed the detriment of his age.

I know it’s an old adage that people get set in their ways in their old age; however, I think you youngsters will find that about every decade of your life, a person has significant changes in the way they view their circumstances and how that fits into the world around them. Speaking from experience…lol

I think there’s some semblance of an uncomfortable truth there. Just out of curious — what do you consider “too old”? Is it a particular number say…66-years old (Pelosi) or is it a certain level of diminished mental capacity (a near-senile Robert Byrd — who is fucking 89-years old — is he going to go for 100-years old just because Strom managed to do it?)?

John Adams, the Founding Father of our country, was only 41 when he signed the Declaration of Independence, but 66 during the final year of his Presidency.

Thomas Jefferson was only 33-years old when he penned the Declaration of Independence, and also 66-years old in the final year of his Presidency.

So, maybe 66 is the right number. Which makes at least half of the House too damned old to know better.

So when he tried to make a leaner, smarter army, that was a good thing for a peace time army, or for small scale conflicts even. But the dumb son of a bitch just couldn’t adjust to the notion that Iraq was not a small scale conflict, it was a full blown shooting war, against a non-uniformed and all but invisible enemy.

He just couldn’t take it that his vision and work was a failure. In the long run, though, it’s not really his fault. Bush is the man to blame. And he knows it. That’s why he didn’t make Runmslfeld resign when he should have, long ago. Not becasue he really believed in Rumsfeld, but because he knew to dismiss the old fart would be an admission of his own failures.

That’s what caused your party the election this year, to a great extent. Denial and obstinence.

Well, in any case, I’m glad to see him go. I don’t know how much of a difference it will make but I’m certainly eager to find out.