Never mind those smalls detail about failing to get Osama, and drawing forces away from the hunt for Al Qaeda to support the Iraq war, and thereby allowing the organization to mutate and attract new members, sure, he handled that pretty well. You might have mentioned his efforts to find and capture the anthrax murderer, which consisted of painting that as terrorism and exhorting us to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape, too. Or the stern warning about strange crop-duster airplanes.
Give him credit for helping get the Taliban out of control of Kabul. That was at least obvious. But it’s all there is to “appreciate” him for. Nixon had some foreign-policy and environmental achievements that mitigate his record somewhat. Bush would be on a par with Harding for the prize of most disastrously failed president ever, but Harding didn’t get hundreds of good soldiers killed and destroy virtually everything his predecessors had worked for. I don’t know how one can avoid giving Bush the title.
As a conservative and somewhat of a Bush supporter I must end this madness!!
Well, end the thread anyway…
Here is all the ammo you liberal commie pinko Bush bashers will ever need;
Attacked and took over two countries.
Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
*Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
His presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the ‘poorest’ multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
His biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
With a policy of ‘dis-engagement’ created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’.
Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
In the 18 months following the 911 attacks has successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
Liberal commie pinko meant as an attention getter and not directed at any one particular poster.
Ugh, I just noticed the location of Uncommon Sense, I’m ashamed to claim BrewTown as the place I grew up. Thanks. Maybe now I can assimilate here after 11 years.
(But if I get really bored and have enough time between mowing the lawn and masturbating into a plastic cup, I’ll attempt to tackle that post point-by-point)
I’m trying. I really am. Here are the four things I can say good about him:
Between September 11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, I agreed with him. I hate hate hate supporting any war, but getting the Taliban out of power was an absolute necessity. The things they did made the Baathist regime look like child’s play. Note that once the Taliban were gone, he started fucking things up, as his priority wasn’t bringing democracy to the nation, nor even chasing down Al Qaeda.
He is right not to release petroleum from the strategic reserves. I’m no rich guy, and the gas prices hurt me, but we’re too addicted to cheap gas in this country; it’ll do us good to have to pay real prices for gas for awhile.
His support of hydrogen power, even if total lip-service, was a baby step in the right direction, from what little I know about hydrogen power.
His support of anti-AIDS programs in Africa was very encouraging; I’m not sure where it stands now.
And, being very serious, I can’t think of anything else he’s done politically that coincides with my values. Surely I’m forgetting something, and I welcome reminders; however, his term has been astonishingly consistent in how it thwarts what I see as decent, humane, and rational domestic and foreign policy.
I just heard that a Dukes of Hazzard movie is in the works. Such a lofty achievement would not be possible under the reign of any other president, save perhaps Bubba Clinton.
Actually, it’d do a lot of good. The first third or so of that thing sounded pretty much accurate, and then it all gets very “okay, now I’m just making stuff up… but he really does suck” toward the middle and continues in that vein toward the end. I’m quite curious to know how much is true, how much is arguable, and how much is just made-up.
Besides, if you ever wanted an invitation to say nice things (or disagree with bad things) about W, this thread is pretty much it.
In all seriousness, I think Dubya’s well-intentioned. Of course we all know where those well-paved roads lead but he isn’t frivolous about his actions. I think the absolute best of him was during the Afghanistan war and right after 9/11. I never faulted him for a second for his demeanor during the school visit when he was advised of the attacks. IMO he remained calm and didn’t show his alarm. Likewise he was perfectly correct to use the safeguards designed to keep him–the government–protected and fucntioning during the initial chaos. That wasn’t cowardice; it was sensible.
And he was very good right after the towers fell, scrambling around, forgetting spinmeisters and actually speaking from his heart. IMO that was the best of him. Rove and polls weren’t driving him, just grit and conviction.
Dubya’s a weird Anti-Grant. Grant was spectacular in war–instinctive, “3 a.m. nerves”–but a lousy executive. He had the experience of war but not the patience, cunning or fine ruthlessness to deal with government. He wanted to succeed in business; he just happened to excel at war, not to mention a PR nightmare.
Dubya pointedly evaded actual war while still genuinely honoring the ideal. He wasn’t great at actual business either. But he’s a natural, canny, ruthless political campaigner. Both of 'em ended up stumped, ineffectual and stymied. They just arrived at the same point from diametrically opposite directions.
Sorry, probably just sucked the fun right outta this thread. I don’t do whimsy well when addled by muscle relaxants.
Well, it’s that part about “drawing forces away from the hunt for Al Qaeda to support the Iraq war” where things seriously and irrevocably go off the rails.
Of course, it has since been claimed that the administration was salivating to go into Iraq from the get-go, and secretly regarded the whole Afghan campaign as a diversion from the very start, so I guess my support for Bush’s foreign policy during that period was probably based on false premises anyway.
I supported it then too for the same reasons, MEBuckner, as did most of us. There was a golden opportunity to gain some true friends then and there, even build the beginnings of a tolerant democracy, and some progress was being made, but even that is squandered now. I’d like to know if Afghanistan will really be noticeably better off in ten years than it was with the Taliban, or if it’s going to be just another fractionalized pseudo-country run by local warlords holding power by force.
It’s depressing sometimes to think that all our progress as humanity is three steps forward, two and a half steps back. Under Bush, it’s at least three and a half back far too often.