You don’t remember what? People saying the economy would go to shit and gas prices would go through the roof if he got elected?
No, I don’t. 
Ok. I do.
You never heard anyone say “Bush has ran every company he’s ever headed into the ground, and he’ll do the same to the country”?
or “Bush is an oil man, and if he gets elected gas prices will triple”?
I don’t know if there’s even an argument here. I can’t help you. Lots of people said it. Lots of people on the other side said it was poppycock.
There was even an Onion headline when he was inaugurated. “Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Over” or something.
A lot of people said a lot of things when Bush was first running (and also during the re-election). They said if he was elected abortion would be illegal. That if he was elected then there would be prayer in school. Some folks here were convinced that he would set aside the elections and <insert dire hand wringing peril>. That he would invade Iran or nuke North Korea…or something like that (still time left too…I’m sure there are a few die hards waiting for this to transpire).
Oh…and the price of gas at the pump hasn’t tripled either.
Bush has been a bad president…one of the worst in my lifetime in fact. But this economic crisis didn’t come solely because of him or his administration…while he’s far from blameless, he isn’t the sole or even the major cause of it. I have no doubt that Bush will go down as one of the 10 worst presidents…but this crisis far from seals either the debate or his immortal place at the bottom of the list. My guess is that later historians are going to see all this much more clearly…and that much of the blame being heaped on Bush about THIS crisis anyway is going to be spread out onto other heads.
-XT
cough Greenspan cough cough
Quick! Get Dubbya a copy of My Pet Goat!
During the Buchanan presidency, a third of the country split off and declared their independence. Let me repeat that for emphasis. A third of the country seceded. That’s the hurdle a president has to jump over if he wants to be called the worst president ever. And Bush hasn’t managed it yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5xVRXLgLxw We have a president that can do this. What a fine choice this was.
In all fairness, the question was horse plop to begin with. If the only thing in your fridge is rotten eggs, any omelet you try to make is gonna taste crappy.
Actually this story proves Bush is the worst ever:
Pakistan’s military said today its forces had received orders to fire on US troops if they entered Pakistani territory, after a cross-border raid inflamed public opinion.
…
The remarks mark a sharp deterioration in military relations between the US and Pakistan, which have been close allies in the “war on terror” since the September 11 attacks seven years ago.
So Bush (who is already detested by the rest of the World) has antagonised a nuclear power, which is vital in the fight against Al-Qaeda, so much that they will fire on US troops.
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
Yeah, cause A) it’s not like the US has never used cross-border raids and attacks against enemy positions hiding out in other countries before (only BUSH would do such a thing!) and B) Pakistan was SUCH a stanch ally before and Bush has pushed them away…
(and C) Didn’t Obama say that he didn’t rule out going into Pakistan as well if terrorist groups hide out there before raiding back into Afghanistan?)
-XT
True ,but in Bush fashion he butchered it.
I don’t know if others picked up on this, but in his speech, GWB said that the MBS paper was being priced by the market at less than its real value, which was why the gov’t had to step in.
Stop and think about that for a moment.
This is an alleged Republican, a so-called conservative.
Welcome to Amerika, comrade. What Lenin and Stalin couldn’t achieve in the course of killing tens of millions, a scion of the Eastern Establishment has proclaimed as GOP doctrine.
I didn’t hear his speech, but I think what he’s probably saying is the same thing everybody else is at this point: the problem isn’t that MBSs and related securities/derivatives aren’t being priced at their real value, but that nobody knows what that real value is. And the only benchmark they have to go by is sheer poison: under mark-to-market rules, banks would be required to slash their asset base (via balance sheet items associated with such securities) each and every time somebody out there sells this toxic sludge at fire sale prices. Thereby encouraging more fire sales and further writedowns, creating a death spiral in the banking sector.
It absolutely has. Gas the month Bush took office: $1.37. Gas in July of 2008: $4.05. Even right now, $3.86, is more than triple the cheap gas of Clinton’s last year, $1.25.
Source: Energy Information Administration @ eia.doe.gov
In adjusted dollars?
-XT
Oh, hush. The biggest reason the dollar is inflating so much is BECAUSE of the cost of gas, you coy little thing.
Really?
The national average of regular unleaded the day Bush took office was $1.47 a gallon. The peak this summer was $4.11. That’s 2.8x higher. I’d say that’s plenty close enough to tripling. Of course, right now, the national average is only $3.65, so it’s only 2.5x higher right now. :rolleyes: Of course, if you take the minimum and maximum ($1.10 and $4.11), we were pretty close to 4x higher than the minimum of his presidency, which happened after we dethroned the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Taking into account inflation ($1.82 in todays dollars), the price has still well more than doubled.
Actually, I think it’s more the other way around, in considering the cost of crude oil in less-valuable dollars.