# Dubya Vs. Romney **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 14, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172 "2012-07-14T03:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/21 "2012-07-14T15:30:05Z")
Reading some other answers I think I didn’t give Bush enough “credit.” He fucked up almost everything it was within his power to fuck up, and Romney probably would not. However I think the general thrusts of their policies wouldn’t be much different. Republicans talk much more about the deficit now than they did 8 or 12 years ago, but most of their core ideas have not changed and they have even less ideological diversity right now. I’m not sure how different Romney could afford to be. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/22 "2012-07-14T15:51:45Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I think that if Romney is elected, he will end up being the Obama of the right. He will be far more centrist than his campaign would suggest, and will be criticized for not toeing the conservative line. Isn’t that what Tea Partiers think was wrong with Bush, too, that he wasn’t conservative enough? > [@Marley23](#): > > However I think the general thrusts of their policies wouldn’t be much different. Republicans talk much more about the deficit now than they did 8 or 12 years ago,… Time makes all the difference. 12 years ago there really wasn’t a deficit. 8 years ago Bush was the incumbent. But remember that whole Contract With America thing in '94? Part of it was the Fiscal Responsibility Act, a proposed amendment to the Constitution to require a balanced budget. Republicans care deeply about deficits as long as they think they can blame them on someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/23 "2012-07-14T18:26:36Z")
Bush because he’s consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/24 "2012-07-15T02:41:49Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Bush because he’s consistent. When somebody’s main qualities are stupidity, dishonesty, corruption and evil, “consistency” isn’t a virtue. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/25 "2012-07-15T03:45:49Z")
Personally, I never bought into the idea that Bush was just a mindless puppet for his evil overlords. I think Bush was the one making the decisions. I’m not saying this to defend the man. Considering the decisions that were made during his Presidency, it’s more a case of allocating blame rather than credit. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/26 "2012-07-15T03:55:42Z")
Bush was really really bad, but we know what kind of bad. Romney will probably have most of Bush’s bad and then some. Bush may be a slacker idiot warmonger and a corporate toady, but Romney seems like the kind of guy who’d uproot and displace an entire state’s population to build a course for rocket golf. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/27 "2012-07-15T04:00:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Personally, I never bought into the idea that Bush was just a mindless puppet for his evil overlords. I think Bush was the one making the decisions. Seconded. In particular it was established years ago that Bush stopped listening to Cheney during his second term and paid more attention to, among others, Rice. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/28 "2012-07-15T05:04:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Seconded. In particular it was established years ago that Bush stopped listening to Cheney during his second term and paid more attention to, among others, Rice. So he was a mindless puppet for Rice and others. The mindless part is pretty well established. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/29 "2012-07-15T06:56:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > So he was a mindless puppet for Rice and others. The mindless part is pretty well established. As I posted, I disagree. Bush’s problem wasn’t that he was a mindless puppet who did what other people told him to do. His problem was that he surrounded himself by yes-men who only told him what he wanted to hear. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/30 "2012-07-15T07:05:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The mindless part is pretty well established. It actually isn’t at all. I don’t know why people have so much invested in the idea that someone else made Bush’s mistakes for him. I know he came across as a complete dumbass, but he did make the decisions. Those decisions often included trusting the wrong people, but you can’t say he was a figurehead for Cheney and then suddenly stopped listening to Cheney and became a figurehead for Rice because that big change indicates by itself that he wasn’t a figurehead and was at least deciding who he was going to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/31 "2012-07-15T07:44:51Z")
Romney, Bush is a war criminal and was the worst president in US history. Romney would likely be only third or fourth worse. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/32 "2012-07-15T23:03:30Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Romney, Bush is a war criminal and was the worst president in US history. Romney would likely be only third or fourth worse. :rolleyes: Even worse than Buchanan who let the South secede or Jackson who ordered the ethnic cleansing of the Cherokees? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/33 "2012-07-15T23:04:31Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > When somebody’s main qualities are stupidity, dishonesty, corruption and evil, “consistency” isn’t a virtue. Its not as if in your view Romney is any less “dishonest”, “corrupt”, or “evil”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/34 "2012-07-16T03:55:30Z")
I’d much prefer Bush. Bush seemed like a decent-enough guy personally who just happened to be in way over his head. As a result he made some really horrible decisions. But occasionally (AIDs in Africa, immigration) he managed to behave decently. Romney, on the other hand, is a huge corporate douche. He doesn’t seem to have any principles other than making as much money as possible for himself and his crony buddies. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/35 "2012-07-16T04:07:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As I posted, I disagree. Bush’s problem wasn’t that he was a mindless puppet who did what other people told him to do. His problem was that he surrounded himself by yes-men who only told him what he wanted to hear. > [@Marley23](#): > > It actually isn’t at all. I don’t know why people have so much invested in the idea that someone else made Bush’s mistakes for him. I know he came across as a complete dumbass, but he did make the decisions. Those decisions often included trusting the wrong people, but you can’t say he was a figurehead for Cheney and then suddenly stopped listening to Cheney and became a figurehead for Rice because that big change indicates by itself that he wasn’t a figurehead and was at least deciding who he was going to listen to. Yes, he was not literally a mindless puppet. But as you’ve said he lacked judgement, and made decisions on a selfish basis. But he was clearly not an idea man. He needed to be fed ideas, and whether he was being manipulated or just a dumbass, the ideas came from elsewhere. He was not a participant in any problem solving process, except at the last step to choose the wrong option unfailingly. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/36 "2012-07-16T04:12:19Z")
There is no way Romney could do as horrible a job as Bush did. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/37 "2012-07-16T05:02:37Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > I went with Romney, on the grounds that he probably wouldn’t go insane and invade a random middle east country to be named later. Domestically, they’d be a wash. you mean like Obama? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/38 "2012-07-16T05:11:41Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I’d much prefer Bush. Bush seemed like a decent-enough guy personally who just happened to be in way over his head. As a result he made some really horrible decisions. But occasionally (AIDs in Africa, immigration) he managed to behave decently. > > Romney, on the other hand, is a huge corporate douche. He doesn’t seem to have any principles other than making as much money as possible for himself and his crony buddies. > **[Romney Business Partner Daughter Search](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/star-search-2/)** > > Mitt Romney assisted in the search for his business partner's missing daughter? Does this really sound like a corporate douche without principles. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/39 "2012-07-16T05:21:06Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > [Romney Business Partner Daughter Search | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/politics/romney/search.asp) > Does this really sound like a corporate douche without principles. Good point. He will occasionally drop everything and spend a lot of money to help his crony buddies. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172/40 "2012-07-16T05:23:39Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Good point. He will occasionally drop everything and spend a lot of money to help his crony buddies. So being helpful to cronies in finding their missing daughter is just snoozing up with one’s cronies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubya-vs-romney/628172.md?page=3)