Talk:Max Cleland
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Did Cleland pursue his bachelor's degree and participate in ROTC before his Vietnam service, or did he attend afterward on the GI Bill? Was the master's completed before or after his military service? He seems to enjoy writing --- did he once consider a different career? Does he discuss this in any of his books? The answers should be in this article. --Jpbrenna 07:25, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
It is disingenuous to refer to Cleland, though he may rightly have been described as a political opponent of G.W. Bush, as a "critic of G.W. Bush" (as the catagory added to the bottom of the page would have it). If we're to refer to Cleland as some sort of notable Bush critic, we'd have to do that to half the people in the world. More accurately, Cleland was a critic of the Swift Boaters, who in their turn were critics of John Kerry. The 'Swift Boat' group had no official ties to Bush; their critics are not to be automatically granted some sort of special status as "Bush Critics".
- Perhaps half the people in the world are Bush critics, perhaps not. I suspect there are a few, even in the United States, who cannot even name him as the sitting president, let alone articulate a rational criticism of his policies. Still, even if it were true that fifty percent of the world's population are Bush critics, most of them would not be as notable. Cleland is a prominent politician who has made numerous statements critical of Bush's policy conduct, usually relating to military matters and veterans' affairs; these have been reported in major news outlets, unlike the coffeehouse rants of some of my (often irrational and excessive) Bush-bashing friends. The Swiftboaters were not the only bone of contention, the critiques have made the papers and the congressional record, and thus I think the categorization is accurate (although I didn't add it). --Jpbrenna 20:51, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
The statement in the article "He was defeated while running for a second term in 2002 by Representative Saxby Chambliss. Voters were perhaps influenced by Chambliss ads which featured Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, ads that Cleland's supporters claim questioned his patriotism.[2]" is misleading. Nothing in the ad questions the patriotism of Cleland. Those ads were referring specifically to Max Cleland's outspoken opposition to the homeland security bill; Max refused to vote in favor of that bill unless the employee's of Homeland Security were unionized. That is a factual statement. I know Max would like everyone to believe that he is a victim of a smear campaign but that simply isn't the case. --User:kbastin 10 November, 2006 —– Three issues:First- His academic credentials appear at the end of the article. They should appear near the beginning. It would be interesting to know if he attended college on the GI bill. Second-He cannot be THE Bush critic. If anyone is going to be designated The Bush Critic, it should be me. Seriously, he is clearly one prominent critic. As other people noted, Bush critics are legion. Third-Of course, the ads questioned his patriotism. Why would the GOP run them? Also, the supporters claimed......does not state that everyone agrees with the statement.—
