No, if he’d done that he’d have raised taxes to pay for it. And done so for something useful. Spending like crazy, creating massive debt and getting little to nothing in return for it - that’s conservative behavior, not liberal behavior.
With Cleveland being counted twice, there have been forty-four Presidents. I rank Bush ahead of Buchanan, Nixon, and Hoover and behind Grant, Wilson, and Lyndon Johnson.
Ok, Buchanan really fiddled while Rome burned, but how was Nixon worse than Bush?
Criminal acts.
Using the powers of his office to get re-elected.
Pandering to Southern racists.
Heir to Joseph McCarthy.
Helping destroy faith in government.
Arguably some war crimes but that’s a judgement call.
If it wasn’t for Joe McCarthy’s name on the list, I might’ve thought you were talking about Bush.
That’s been my suspicion all along.
Obama for sure, but frankly he’s done a pretty terrible job.
I cant believe people are saying Obama is worse than Bush, just because he hasn’t cleaned up Bush’s mess as quickly and easily as they had hoped he would. Just for starters, Obama hasn’t done anything completely stupid and unethical, which puts him WAAAAAY ahead of Bush. His program, painful as it was and will be financially, probably kept us from complete financial collapse.
Bush inherited a relatively stable and sound America, he turned it into a burning building. Obama inherited a burning building, he put out the fire and has started refurbishing. Obama’s only major mistake was in not realizing how deep the hurt is in the middle class right now, as 25 years of class warfare by the wealthy against them is finally registering on their pitiful little brains. The smart politicoes around him should have understood that, they did not, maybe too much time in the quagmire of Illinois politics blinded him and them to the fact that you can’t solve the problem with some razzle dazzle and a visit to the political machinery people. Compared to Bush’s illegal, unethical, misleading war in Iraq, his attempt to gut Social Security, his politicizing of the Justice Department, his cheap and vindictive attack on Valerie Plame, his total disinterest in protecting the environment … and a LOT of other things … Obama is an incredible president, a veritable icon of probity and leadership. He almost always does the right thing, and TRIES to do it right, with the most obstuctionist Congress in history … damn, Americans are idiots for not seeing that, but I knew that when Bush got half the votes in 2004.
I voted for Obama, but that’s because you only gave us Bush to compare him to. I’m very disappointed in Obama at this point, but he and Bush are not even in the same ballpark.
ETA: You should have done a poll comparing Obama to Clinton, or Carter, or even Ford.
Look, I think Obama is a better President but you have to give points to the Bush administration for getting what it wanted done. Was there any big piece of legislation that took as long as the health care reform act? Did he ever have to compromise to get no support from the Dems in congress? The Bush administration were also excellent at handling the press and shaping the debate.
They used their powers for evil but at least they had freaking powers.
For heaven’s sake, it’s only been two years. If you compare the two at this point of their respective administrations, you can make a case that Bush is better, but that is not fair to either Obama or Bush.
Regards,
Shodan
Yeah, Bush is better - he saved the world from all those terrible WMD’s in Iraq, and it only took him what, twice as long as we fought in WWII to do it!
Kind of missed the point about timing, did you?
Regards,
Shodan
Actually no, 2002 vs. 2010. My point is valid I believe.
My reaction exactly. I’m astounded and frightened by the CNN poll results reported, but they only confirm that P.T. Barnum pegged the American people real well.
I decline to vote in the poll because Obama has only been in office for two years.
Pretty much these. Obama vs Ford/Carter/Johnson/Reagan/etc I can see. But Bush? Did people really forget everything that quickly?
I have no love for Bush, but even less for Obama. In fact, I’d say they’re both equally bad (for some of the same reasons, and for some vastly different reasons, but bad is bad). Since “equally bad” wasn’t an option in the poll, I went with where I lean.
At this point in Bush’s administration, he had allowed the worst ever terrorist attack on America to occur on his watch, and he had set a record for most days taken on vacation by a U.S. president in his first year in office.
Any democrat who had been president with that on his record would have been ripped to shreds.
All I hear from liberals is how Obama has been in office only 2 years and that Americans should give him a break and now you are blaming Bush for 9/11? How long had he been in office before the attacks? One thing about Bush, he never blamed Clinton even though Clinton should have done more to fight the terrorists who bombed the trade center the first time.
Are you saying Obama seldom takes vacations? What about this summer? Vacation after vacation!