Originally Posted by drgoodtrips

Well, if you're talking to me personally, the semantics game doesn't really interest me. If you're going to claim that Bush was a bystander and that he wasn't given a lot of rubber stamp latitude in the aftermath of 9/11 by Congress et. al, I'll stipulate the technical accuracy of your argument and take for granted the silliness of it in reality, allowing the discussion to move forward. And, for what it's worth, I don't think that Bush and Chavez are comparable, but not because Bush wouldn't want the power Chavez can access. Dubya certainly did his best while in office to expand the scope of the executive to cut through the "red tape" of checks and balances. Hugo is just in an environment with a less educated/savvy populace regarding civil liberties and doesn't have the same deeply entrenched checks to power that Dubya does. We could speculate as to whether or not Bush, given that kind of opportunity to power, would take it. My opinion is an unequivocal "yes he would", but again, that's speculation. In terms of the desire for unilateral power, I see little difference, though Chavez certainly seems like more of a blowhard and drama queen than Bush.