# Obama getting ready to clean up Bush's messes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 9, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903 "2008-11-09T14:35:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/1 "2008-11-09T14:35:53Z")
I’m surprised this hasn’t been posted yet. [Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/08/AR2008110801856.html?hpid=topnews) > [@](#): > > Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team. > > A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition. > > … > > “The kind of regulations they are looking at” are those imposed by Bush for “overtly political” reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama’s team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush’s appointees rush to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy. > > … > > Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush’s controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson’s. > > … I like the fact that four dozen people have been working on this for months. People have been talking about Obama “hitting the ground running” and it actually looks like he really is! Imagine that, we’re actually going to have a grown up heading the country. > [@](#): > > The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it. That’s what I’ve been wanting to hear. The gag rule was the first thing I remember Bush doing when he got into office, and I thought to myself then, “uh oh.” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/2 "2008-11-09T15:33:11Z")
Looks good to me but what is the debate? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/3 "2008-11-09T16:08:39Z")
I guess there isn’t any. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/4 "2008-11-09T16:10:33Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Imagine that, we’re actually going to have a grown up heading the country. They said the same when Bush took office - don’t get too giddy just yet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/5 "2008-11-09T16:11:54Z")
And the torture? What about the programs Bush put in place regarding the kidnaping and torture of prisoners? Those will go too, right? ---
**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:** [November 9, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/6 "2008-11-09T16:15:28Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > They said the same when Bush took office - don’t get too giddy just yet. They did? Seriously, I don’t remember anybody thinking that this guy had a clue. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/7 "2008-11-09T16:17:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > They did? Seriously, I don’t remember anybody thinking that this guy had a clue. 49% of the voting public and the majority of the SCOTUS thought so in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/8 "2008-11-09T16:23:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > They did? Seriously, I don’t remember anybody thinking that this guy had a clue. Of course I can’t find a good cite (found a few bad ones) - perhaps it was more along the lines of adults in charge of the Whitehouse. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/9 "2008-11-09T16:35:40Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Of course I can’t find a good cite (found a few bad ones) - perhaps it was more along the lines of adults in charge of the Whitehouse. Might you be thinking of Bush’s repeated 2000 pledge to “restore honor and dignity to the White House”? Meaning, AFAICT, that there would be no blowjobs going on there on his watch. His campaign was definitely stressing the “bring back the grown-up moral values and stop the sleaze” concept, but I don’t recall any widespread popular belief that he was going to **govern** with more intelligence or maturity than Clinton had. In fact, the popular meme about Bush early on was that he was kind of a mental lightweight (which was why the [Aug. 2001 Onion article “Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations”](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38718) was so hilarious—my personal favorite). Then he briefly acquired some _gravitas_ after 9/11, but pissed it away pretty rapidly. As a new President, though, the “grown-up” credentials that he was touting seemed to be moral, not intellectual. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/10 "2008-11-09T16:43:42Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > And the torture? What about the programs Bush put in place regarding the kidnaping and torture of prisoners? Those will go too, right? Quoted just so this little technicality doesn’t get lost in the din… ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/11 "2008-11-09T17:12:26Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > (which was why the [Aug. 2001 Onion article “Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations”](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38718) was so hilarious—my personal favorite). Another example of the [genre](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31077). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/12 "2008-11-09T17:41:09Z")
I’d like to see him dump DADT as well, but I think he’d probably be skittish about doing it right away since it was one of the first issues that Clinton tried to take on and got a lot of flak for it (flak which led to the inept DADT policy in the first place). ---
**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:** [November 9, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/13 "2008-11-09T18:52:06Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > 49% of the voting public and the majority of the SCOTUS thought so in 2000. This response makes no sense to me. Was there some sort of document issued by SCOTUS saying that George Bush was going to fix the country’s problems? And the voting public is notoriously ill-informed. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/14 "2008-11-09T19:24:03Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > This response makes no sense to me. Was there some sort of document issued by SCOTUS saying that George Bush was going to fix the country’s problems? And the voting public is notoriously ill-informed. No, all the SCOTUS really weighed in on was whether or not the manual recount process violated the Equal Protection Clause–they found that it did, and that essentially ended the Florida election and left Bush its winner (and by extension the winner of the Presidency.) I can only assume that **BMax** misspoke or was misinformed. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/15 "2008-11-09T19:39:38Z")
Off to MPSIMS at the request of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/16 "2008-11-09T19:53:59Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > And the torture? What about the programs Bush put in place regarding the kidnaping and torture of prisoners? Those will go too, right? yes, and closing gitmo detention center are high up on the list. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/17 "2008-11-09T20:00:43Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > And the torture? What about the programs Bush put in place regarding the kidnaping and torture of prisoners? Those will go too, right? Another vote for this. Gitmo and Iraq were probably the top two reasons I voted for Obama. Now no matter who the president is, I can tell you we won’t be out of Iraq any time soon. But if Obama doesn’t end this American Inquisition toot-sweet, I’m going to be one disgruntled voter. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/18 "2008-11-10T00:44:17Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > Another example of the [genre](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31077). My candidate for [the most prescient Onion headline ever](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784). Check the date. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-getting-ready-to-clean-up-bushs-messes/471903/19 "2008-11-10T02:27:24Z")
I hope he will be able to do something about the last minute rape of the environment that the Bush administration is trying to pull off before January. Cite [here](http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/11/lame-duck-bush-administration.-makes-haste-eviscerate-environmental-protection-laws)