Well Stoid, at no point did I ever harbor the slightest doubt, that from your perspective, everything would suck. Nor was there every any doubt of whom you would blame. So, you can take that “I told you so” and shove it.
From my perspective things are looking pretty good. In spite of 8 years of Democratic doomspeak we’re kicking ass so well, that security and our foreign engagements aren’t even election issues
Really the only major issue is the credit crunch. If only those stupid Democrats would have listened to Bush in 2001 when he warned about this, things would be great. No matter though. We’ll get her fixed.
I don’t recall this particular excoriation, seeing as you were blasted so many times by posters from all over the political spectrum for ill-informed, moronic statements on any number of issues.
I’d never previously thought of you as a Cassandra, doomed to have all her accurate soothsaying ignored, mostly because in classical mythology Cassandra didn’t deserve her fate and you did.
This is the main reason you can think of for backing him? Holy crap. This is stupid, even for you. I am voting for Obama on Tuesday, but supporters like you are cringe-worthy.
We should all hope it’s eight more years before you’re back here spouting more idiocy.
Shayna! Bless you, my dear, for scrounging that up! I wouldn’t have known where to begin (and couldn’t actually, being a mere guest. I was so bummed when I spaced and lost my chargter designation! Rude!) Weren’t we supposed to have coffee at some point?
And Biggirl… I’ve been to New York twice in the last three years! You were among the Dopers I was most hoping would take note and have a pizza with me! Wah.
Bush has been a bad President, but the United States remains a stable nation. He wasn’t catastrophically bad in the literal sense of that term - the country was far, far stronger than he was incompetent. By comparison, the administration of James Buchanan actually DID cause the country to split apart.
Presidents have done a lot worse. Buchanan, obviously, and his predecessor Franklin Pierce. Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Gulf of Tonkin” play to escalate Vietnam was every bit as much a lie as “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and led to far more death and horror than the Iraq War has. The Hoover administration presided over a series of economic disasters that make the recent bailout look like a hiccup.
Which is why he is likely to be a one-term Prez, unfortunately. American voters are spoiled and impatient. The medicine the country is going to have to take to get us out of the hole we’re in is likely to be so unpleasant and slow-acting that by the time the 2012 election rolls around, the long hard slog we’ll have endured is still going be be, uh, sloggy.
Of course, if Obama pulls it off, he could go down in history as one of the greatest of the modern Presidents.
I would just like to add that I told you so, too. I knew Bush would be a bad, bad deal for the US. I thought he’d do more censoring (Ashcroft was busy with a big censorship initiative when 911 happened and he had to go hunt actual criminals, i.e., terrorists, so it wasn’t for lack of TRYING) and that he’d let big business fuck us over (dead right about that one) especially with regard to the environment (also on the money) and he’d pack the Supreme Court with right-wing assholes (also spot on). I did not foresee his abuse of habeas corpus, his use of torture or his emergence as a war criminal with the unprovoked attack on Iraq. I simply had no idea HOW bad he would be. For his retirement, he deserves to be locked in a cell in the Hague, awaiting his war crimes trial.
Good on you, Stoid, for calling it like it would be, way back when.
On edit, I also didn’t foresee the Bush administration’s treasonous behavior in the Valerie Plame affair. (Don’t give me that “letter of the law” stuff, if I had done what the Bush people did, every conservative on the board would be calling me a traitor.
Scylla is the master at whooshing people. I’m going to assume that’s what his post was all about. And Rand Rover is definitely an obnoxious troll, in case there was some doubt left on that point. Takes one to know one.
And a special fuck you to James Buchanan for setting the bar so damn low that we actually have to argue if GWB was The Worst or not! Although I love the defense, “hey at least it wasn’t *our *country he tore apart!”
The mess in Iraq? That’s all geedub, but the mess on Wall Street? That’s all us, cousin.
George Bush didn’t force us into a $500K interest-only mortgage on a house that was only worth $275k to begin with. The economic mess, at least as far as housing and credit is concerned, isn’t on this administration, it’s on the people, but the people need a scapegoat, may as well be Bush, why bother to learn our own lessons?
It’s true, there are a lot of things to blame on Bush, but we have short, short memories when it comes to the truth. He’s not totally at fault and frankly, had some actual potential in the beginning and especially after 9/11. He has, in fact, proven himself to be the candidate most worthy of the booby prize, but your fellow Americans, at least just better than 1/2 of them, elected him. Twice.
So, Stoid, you were right. Whoop-de-fuck. Now what? We’re literally hours from the potential start of a new era in American politics, does anyone think that maybe, JUST maybe, we can let this bullshit go and focus on where we’re going?
We know what was wrong with the last 8 years. It ain’t a fuckin secret, what do we DO about it? Elect Barack and hope for the best.
I, as a supporter of Barack predict he will fail the test in his first hundred days. I think that he’ll do stupid things with good intent and learn from them. I also predict that we will all have smaller paychecks and bigger government, thick with social programs, which frankly, I would rather have my money go to than, say boeing or Haliburton, but never-the-less, we will be individually poorer because you can’t get to where Barack wants to go without more taxes, or more money from us. He doesn’t want to strike a balance, he wants to even the score, there’s a difference, and I’m not sure he sees it.
All that said, he will get my vote because I think at some point he WILL see how important that balance is and do his best to make it right. McCain/Palin don’t have a chance in hell of seeing that forest for its’ trees.
They would be if the economy hadn’t recently gone down the shitter. People care less about overseas adventures when they’re worrying intensely about their paychecks and houses (and yes, I know a lot of people aren’t worried about that, but many are).