Semantics

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson quit school so that they could shoulder the responsibilities of teen parents. He's someplace "up north" doing an apprenticeship as an electrician and she's just given birth to their first child. They are not high school drop outs and she is not an unwed mother. According to her mom, Sarah Palin, they are working their butts off to become self sufficient, high school educated parents. Unwed teen parents who drop out of high school are the children of somebody else. Yep, they are working, or will be, working to obtain a correspondence GED, just like the many thousands of kids who drop out of high school every year. But in Sarah Palin speak they did not drop out of school, although they no longer attend, she Bristol is not an unwed mother just an engaged girl with a baby. It's a matter of semantics.

According to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he is a "casualty of the war on terror." Mr. Gonzales is writing a book about his experiences as Attorney General even though he remains under investigation for alleged political meddling at the Justice Department.  Unlike other members of the Bush Administration, Gonzales has been unable to land either a job or lucrative speaking engagements. Could be that most people know the difference between mild physical discomfort and physical torture that causes excruciating pain and death. Maybe people don't put much store in the musing of a man whose final act as Attorney General was to lie about his intention to resign after he had already informed President Book of his intention to resign. Is he a lying weasel looking for an opportunity to explain away some of his less stellar moments or is he a victim of the wild out-of-control liberal press? It's a matter of semantics.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is advising his listeners that the current economic crisis was not the end result of Reaganomics, but a conspiracy masterminded by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It's not that George Bush was a bad president, but that he was a victim of bad luck. It's not that appointments were made to repay party operatives for their loyalty, as opposed to finding the right person with the appropriate qualifications to full the job, but that unexpected events derailed what should have been a terrific eight years.

It's all in how you look at things. 

We've been told that it is a very dangerous thing to have one party in charge of all three branches of government--and now we have the past eight years to stand of an example of just how bad it can get. I have no idea what the next four years will bring, but can it be any worse than the reign of Kid Bush and the GOP gang? His response to the crisis on the Gaza Strip? Let Obama handle it.

I read in the Washington Times that some RNC officials what to pass a resolution accusing Bush of embracing socialism.  I'm not sure when the bail out became what it was, socialism for the wealthy, but I am sure  they are simply preparing their response to any all all of Obama's proposed, imagined, or feared public initiatives. The RNC has never come to terms with Social Security. Again, its a matter of semantics.

And finally, just to be on the safe side, Bush has written a memo specifically suggesting how those who toiled in the White House lo these past eight years should remember him. Some would say he is attempting to revise history, others claim he is just being helpful.

It's simply a matter of semantics.