Is demonizing Bush and Obama substantially different than what’s come before? Republicans hated Clinton. Democrats seriously disliked Regan and poked fun at Bush sr. I don’t remember Carter at all (I was born the year he took office) but I’m sure many of you do, and the presidents who came before him too.
Isn’t the guy from the other party who was elected *always *“that fuck up who is going to put us in the poor house and/or get us all killed?” If so, then of course the insults hurled at the current president would overlap with the ones hurled at the last.
That’s not long enough. You won’t really know what they accomplish until after the next election cycle. You’ll think you know as will everyone else, and act accordingly, but you won’t know.
I was talking to my Grandmother who lived through the depression and I asked her how this cycle compared to the depression. She said without Social Security and Unemployment Insurance it would be exactly the same, but that those two programs made all the difference.
Fiscal Conservatives will argue that the New Deal extended the Depression, but if you take the long view on it, it was a great thing for this nation. Nashville has lights, and my Grandmother lives above the poverty line because of it.
It boggles the mind that the same people who defended Bush through every stupid decision he made over the past eight years are now claiming that our current president is an idiot.
I’m not sure who you’re referring to. I agreed with some of Bush’s decisions; I disagreed with some of them, especially his expanison of the size of government. Does that mean I’m not allowed to form and express an opinion of Obama?
Regardless of what you say, Ill go ahead and say my opinion anyway.
I don’t think BHO is an idiot. I think that overall he’s probably of slightly above average intelligence. But his lack of knowledge about how the economy works makes me think that in some ways he’s not too bright. Also some of his comments and decisions about national security suggest some ignorance in that area.
It sounds like the intent of the OP is to neutralize and render meaningless any criticism of BHO stupidity. So BHO can utter any number of idiotic things and the response will be: “Oh we don’t have to listen; that’s just some vengeful Republican who’s still sore over losing the election.”
I offer this question: Regardless of the intelligence of the previous POTUS, is there any point at which pointing out BHO’s idiocy becomes relevant?
The conservative magazines and blogs I read do NOT say that Obama is stupid.
BUT… they regularly point to things Obama has said or done, and ask, “Can you imagine how David Letterman and Jon Stewart would be howling if BUSH had said the same thing?”
And it’s a fair point. Letterman or the “Daily Show” could easily make Obama look like a pinhead by seizing on his many gaffes. For the most part, they haven’t- partly because they sympathize with their fellow liberal, partly because they’re afraid of being called racist, and partly because they’re too quick to tell themselves, “Oh, Obama is a smart guy, and we all know what he MEANT to say.” They regularly give Obama a benefit of the doubt that they NEVER gave to Dubya.
Guys like Letterman and Stewart do not fear being called racist, by the way. Obama’s race is of no consequence to the left. The right never seems to stop obsessing on it, though.
That puts him roughly where JFK was on some of his best days. That’s not a bad place to be at all!
There is some truth to that. We have a tendency to be a little picky and suspicious of the other party’s President. George W. Bush was my twelfth president and I’ve never seen a less presidential person or one who did more damage to the country. I’m thinking of ways in which he is, I believe, fundamentally different from Obama. (The violations of Geneva Conventions, attacking a country which had not attacked us, for starters)
And I’ve never been more hopeful about a President than Obama. I never thought I would say that after Kennedy.
One big change I’ve seen is that Bush just wouldn’t get out in front of the press for the longest time! And when he did, he was incoherent when it was off the cuff. There was too much secrecy. No problem in hearing from Obama and the man can speak.
Did anyone here really expect him to have our economic problems solved by now?
The Daily Show has on several occasions highlighted where Obama has said exactly the same thing as something Bush had said (sometimes almost verbatim), and have lampooned his odd gaffe. Obama hardly gets a pass because of his political affiliation. TDS also does the occasional race-based humor (see pretty much any Larry Wilmore segment, for example). So the conservative magazines and blogs you read are wrong.
That was nothing compared to this. There was a slight correction in the market. It didn’t cause a recession. The economy remained fundamentally sound. Bush did not inherit an unholy mess. There is no comparison.
The DOW is up because a report came out that people are spending more on durable goods. That’s a great sign. It was up a huge amount yesterday when the government announced that it would buy toxic debt, which is what they should have announced before these bailouts and the (“effective,” in case the adminstration decided to change the definition of) nationalization of AIG.