On four more of 'em

Okay, so back before President Bush's approval rating tanked so drastically and even some Republicans started trying to distance themselves from him, I used to joke (morbid humor, that) that the Republicans were going to try to amend the Constitution to give us four more years of Bush.

Now, of course, such a suspicion, even joking, is ridiculous. Even President Bush himself is gazing with wistful anticipation toward the end of his time in office. But Republican candidates are coming up fast, and some of the frontrunners are looking like they might just revive Bush's legacy of bipartisanship.

Before you click on that link, let's play a game. It's called "Hey, Who Said That?" and the answers are below.

1. "[I]f you believe the way to win this war is to stay on the offense and use every element of national power to protect you, and lay the foundation of peace for a generation, vote Republican."

2. “If any Republican is elected president ... we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it."

3. “I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense. We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”

4. "When it came time to vote on whether the National Security Agency should continue to monitor terrorist communications, almost 90 percent of the House Democrats voted against it. In all these vital measures for fighting the war on terror, the Democrats just follow a simple philosophy: Just say no."

5. "[The terrorists] hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world."

6. "We do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism. The terrorists are at war against us because they hate everything America stands for, and because they know we stand in the way of their ambitions to take over the Middle East."

7. "[I]f you want this country to do everything we can to protect you from further attack and lay the foundations for peace, you vote Republican."

8. "[T]he question is how long will it take and how many casualties will we have? If we are on defense [with a Democratic president], we will have more losses and it will go on longer."

9. "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."

10. “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”

1. President Bush
2. Rudy Giuliani
3. Rudy Giuliani
4. President Bush
5. Rudy Giuliani
6. President Bush
7. President Bush
8. Rudy Giuliani
9. President Bush
10. Rudy Giuliani

If you thought you might just miss Bush's fiery rhetoric, annihilationist politics, and fearmongering, fear not. It looks like we've got plenty more coming down the line - for the next year and a half at least.

I, for one, can't wait. Can't. Wait.