# Bush circulates staff memo on what to say about his Admin's record **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 10, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473 "2008-12-10T00:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/41 "2008-12-10T16:27:57Z")
The guy is even a failure at spinning his legacy. 41 days until the party of the century. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/42 "2008-12-10T16:44:46Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > On a **pendant’s** note, the memo is about the Bush _administration_. Not just Bush, himself, but his ministers and so forth, who _do_ have an effect on the economy. 'Tis sport to see the Doper hoist on Gaudere’s petard. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/43 "2008-12-10T18:38:40Z")
This far and no one acknowleges his contributions to the English language? In both vocabulary _and_ grammar. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/44 "2008-12-10T18:59:41Z")
> [@Rhubarb](#): > > If Bush doesn’t have any “poer o’er the economy”, then he should not try to take credit for “lifting the economy … through tax cuts”. If (as he claims) he can affect the economy, then he should also accept the responsibility for its subsequent fall. Yes, I agree. Anyway, as to the others’ statements, no, Bush did not cause the economy to collapse. As usualy, the leftist idiots on parade assumed what they set out to prove. And in any case, Bush pushed for harder regulation (or more accurately, and end to exemptions) over the originators of the credit market fiasco. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/45 "2008-12-10T19:27:41Z")
Doesn’t seem to have succeeded. Was it the obstructionist Democrats throwing their weight around? Did they crush Bush’s efforts beneath their iron fist? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/46 "2008-12-10T19:29:44Z")
Bush is still running 60% plus approval with Republicans, isn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/47 "2008-12-10T19:48:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Clinton left Bush a budget surplus. And really, if I structured my budget at home so that there was a surplus every month, I’d be getting more blowjobs. I mean, can you really say that Bill didn’t deserve the occasional hummer? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/48 "2008-12-10T20:18:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m not going to look for faults here. Bush’s African aid program may not have been perfect but no major program is. Overall, Bush deserves credit for increasing foreign aid to an area of the world that needed it. It was a positive act by his administration. By spending money on program strategies so tied to and hamstrung by conservative religious ideals that they didn’t actually accomplish what they were supposed to? Pragmatically speaking, how is that “aid” as opposed to “flushing money down the toilet”? They refused to distribute condoms for HIV prevention, for god’s sake. They preached abstinence-only to cultures who believe they can [cure HIV](http://womensissues.about.com/od/rapesexualassault/g/virgincure.htm) in themselves by [raping](http://www.popline.org/docs/1607/285712.html) [virgins](http://speakout.org.za/about/child/child_virgin_rape_myth.html). They have among the highest HIV rates in the world. Preaching religion isn’t going to save their lives. Giving them a comprehensive education and real, practical resources would. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/49 "2008-12-10T20:42:16Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Doesn’t seem to have succeeded. Was it the obstructionist Democrats throwing their weight around? Did they crush Bush’s efforts beneath their iron fist? We’ve been through this. Barney Frank looked funny at him, and he had to drop all efforts at regulation. You think they’re going to take responsibility for anything? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/50 "2008-12-10T20:59:12Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Your request is acceptable. Thank you overlord. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/51 "2008-12-10T21:03:12Z")
> [@grey\_ideas](#): > > From what I remember a lot of the funding has got somewhat hijacked by the religious abstinence groups though. I don’t think “a lot” is an accurate term. It’s true that some of the money has been allocated to promoting abstinence, but it’s a relatively small number - I want to say 5% of the total funding. Although I think it used to be more; it was lowered when PEPFAR was renewed a couple years ago. I’ve got my fingers crossed that President Obama does away with that. I asked a couple of public health professors - one of whom advised the Obama campaign - on exactly that topic, and they both said that he hasn’t taken a position on this issue, so I’m not sure what to expect. It seems that quite a bit of the abstinence-only stuff in Africa has actually been internal, though, not due to American pressure. The first lady of Uganda, who’s a born again Christian, has promoted it heavily. Helen Epstein’s book _The Invisible Cure_, a really interesting book on AIDS in Africa, includes an anecdote about how a free condom box outside a college dorm was loudly condemned and then burned by a priest. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/52 "2008-12-10T21:23:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > We’ve been through this. Barney Frank looked funny at him, and he had to drop all efforts at regulation. The presiden’ts dog is _that_ powerful, _and_ he has a middle name??!!! ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/53 "2008-12-10T21:42:18Z")
Are you sure this wasn’t a memo sent out by Chuck Norris’s PR agency, misattributed to Bush? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/54 "2008-12-10T22:11:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The guy is even a failure at spinning his legacy. 41 days until the party of the century. Century ain’t over yet. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/55 "2008-12-10T22:18:03Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > They preached abstinence-only to cultures who believe they can [cure HIV](http://womensissues.about.com/od/rapesexualassault/g/virgincure.htm) in themselves by [raping](http://www.popline.org/docs/1607/285712.html) [virgins](http://speakout.org.za/about/child/child_virgin_rape_myth.html). Early-Victorian British believed the exact same thing about syphilis. Or so Michael Crichton tells it in _The Great Train Robbery._ ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/56 "2008-12-10T22:26:37Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Gotta second this. Bush is probably my least favorite person on Earth, but he did make an impact in Africa. I have heard both Bono and Elton John speak very admiringly of Bush’s accomplishments regarding AIDS in Africa. (Elton has changed his tune somewhat lately to claim that Bush still hasn’t done enough, but I suspect that this change of heart is politically driven.) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/57 "2008-12-11T03:35:57Z")
He might well be an admirable candidate, but I doubt he has any such ambitions. He’s gay, of course, and also openly British. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/58 "2008-12-11T05:57:19Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > He might well be an admirable candidate, but I doubt he has any such ambitions. He’s gay, of course, and also openly British. :mad: Stop smearing him! He is **not** British! ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/59 "2008-12-11T06:35:44Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Yup, that’s right. Bush “let” the economy crash. Gosh darn that Bush, if he just hadn’t let his hands slip, the economy would have been just fine. > > Fact is, the president does not and never did have much poer o’er the economy. Bush didn’t cause or particularly help the rise in 2001, and he didn’t cause this now. This particular bit of idiocy has been around for a long, long while. Hoover is largely remembered for “not doing enough”, when he did everything he actually could and convinced Congress to do more. But the comment you’re responding to was a response to Bush saying he “lifted the economy.” If he’s going to claim credit for the economy getting better, then I don’t think it’s unfair to say “Well, then he should be willing to take the blame for where it ended up.” ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473/60 "2008-12-11T06:50:29Z")
**List of things Bush has screwed up:** [ol] [li]The Economy[/li][li]Pretty Much Everything Else[/li][li]Uh…Hi Opal?[/li][/ol] However, **he does deserve credit for the following:** Establishing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national monument. [wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papah%C4%81naumoku%C4%81kea_Marine_National_Monument) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-circulates-staff-memo-on-what-to-say-about-his-admins-record/476473.md?page=4)