Things Bush Has Not Screwed Up

Great Debates
#18

He hasn’t fucked up the stock market, nor did he create the current credit crisis. The credit markets and obviously the major stock markets are fucked up badly at the moment, but Bush didn’t fuck them up anymore than I did or anyone else posting in this thread.

The “policies of Bush coming home to roost” is an excellent campaign strategy because most people who vote are dumb enough to dimly believe that the President is God-King of the American (and Global) Economy who actually gets to control whether or not the financial markets perform well or not.

I voted for Bush twice, and have never regretted those votes. Yet I’ve always said he’s fucked up royally in a lot of instances. But he didn’t create a financial house of cards in which trillions of dollars in paper assets were created from the 1990s on until 2007, the banks did that. They’ve paid dearly for it, and we’re going to pay dearly for it. Maybe Bush should have done something to regulate this better, but Clinton never did, and FWIW banks all across the world were involved in the trading and creating of these paper assets (which have proven almost impossible to value when things get ugly), so if Bush failed in his duties then so did the leaders of every other major market economy on earth.

#19

He quickly signed off on the Great Lakes Compact which I appreciated. There was concern that, if it didn’t pass before the 2010 census, it may not pass at all.

Obviously Congress did the grunt work of the legislation but it still made my day to hear that Bush signed it quickly and it’s a done deal.

#20

I agree he didn’t fuck them up, he he has several powers and options to slow or stop the problem, and clearly has not done so. Whther or not they would have helped or whether or not anyone could have see this coming are other questions.

#21

He’s supposedly anti-abortion but I doubt it’s any harder to get one, anywhere in the U.S., now than it was in 2000.

#22

Except Wasilla :slight_smile:

#23

But on a serious note, I agree with the previous posters about women and minorities in position sof power. If Powell hadn’t had to lie to the UN we might have two African Americans running against each other for president.

Alternate History: Obama vs Powell 08
#24

Bush has improved relations with China and India: which may well be the two most important relationships for the US in the 21st century. In particular he personally took the intiative in pushing the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Arguably his economics team headed by Paulson is doing a decent job in a terrible situation with the current crisis. Certainly Bush has done the right thing by staying out of the way and he could have done a lot worse than Paulson and Bernake to take the lead in handling a crisis. I believe a true-blue ideologue of the Phil Gramm variety could have well tiggered another depression. Of course we could still get Phil Gramm as Treasury Sec if McCain wins but thankfully that prospect is looking less likely by the day.

Overall Bush will be most remembered for the Iraq fiasco but he does have a few genuine achievements to his credit as well.

#25

Of course, according to current conservative doctrine on affirmative action and discrimination, we’re not supposed to care about whether women and minorities are proportionately represented in positions of power. We’re only supposed to care about picking the best person for the job, regardless of race or gender.

So by that standard, the presence of women or minorities in high-level positions in the Bush administration is either a meaningless coincidence, or deplorable pandering to discriminatory affirmative-action liberalthink. In either case, by that standard, it’s not something Bush deserves any credit for.

(Mind you, I personally think it’s a worthwhile goal to increase the representation of underrepresented groups in positions of power, so I personally am willing to give Bush credit for that. I just don’t want to see any anti-affirmative-action conservatives coming along and hypocritically agreeing with this position.)

My picks: I think it was a good thing for the Bush admin to pursue closer ties with India, although I’m still doubtful about that nuclear-deal thingy. Speaking of nukes, I think it was wise for the Bush admin to reverse its original belligerent policy towards North Korea and get into serious talks, although I don’t know if they’ll actually accomplish anything significant by the time Bush cleans out his desk. Oh, and count me in for a thumbs-up on the new Marine Protected Area, too.

#26

Actually I’d like to add that his efforts to keep Cthulhu at bay have also been effective

#27

Our relationship with Israel still seems to be pretty solid. Great Britain, too.

#28

I have to take issue with the idea that “No Child Left Behind” is a positive achievement. This thread isn’t about its shortcomings, however, so I won’t debate those issues. However, I will say that it is a deeply flawed piece of legislation and never should have been supported by the president or passed by congress.

I do think that Bush has a sensible approach to immigration, in particular the problem with illegal aliens from Mexico. Many people seem to want to ignore the realities of the situation, but the president embraces them and says that we ought to find a way to manage immigration better. He’s right.

#29

Yeah, but he has another Cosmic Horror living at the Naval Observatory, so it’s kind of a wash.

#30

Don’t sell him short. He still has three months to go.

#31

On a positive note, he did sign the National Do Not Call Register Bill. Of course, he would’ve been impeached had he not.

#32

His initial economic stimulus package when he first got into office was fairly effective despite the mocking it got at the time. It kept things moving after the slowdown that occurred at the end of the Clinton administration (which wasn’t Clinton’s problem, either, just a natural end of a business cycle). If 9/11 hadn’t slammed the economy hard the stimulus package would have had a lot more visible impact.

Of course this year congress jumped on using the same concept again to try to deal with our current problems since when you have a shiny new hammer every problem looks like a nail. That doesn’t really work when the problem is a leaky bottle of nitroglycerin.

#33

I don’t see how Bush can be credited with doing a good job on terrorism when more Americans have been killed by terrorists during his administration than during every other administration combined.

Bush personally is not racist or sexist and he has women and minorities in his immediate entourage. But the Bush administration can’t say the same. There were more women and minorities appointed to government office during the Clinton administration.

#34

You’re wrong on the second one - anti-American feeling in the UK is far higher now than it was in 2000, largely because of the war.

#35

Cite? For pretty much all that, from SUV sales going way up from Bush too the housing market being from Bush to Mexicans doing all the cheap labor, to Bush being responsible for all the cheap shit from China.

I seem to recall a lot of SUVs on the road starting sometime in the 80’s (Bronco’s had to be the rage back then) so yes this caught my attention. And I just looked and sure enough all the toys I looked at that have dates prior to 2000 have Made In China just like the news ones do.

#36

I approve of the National Book Festival, although it was Laura Bush who co-founded it (with the Library of Congress). But President Bush has apparently managed not to screw it up.

#37

The Clinton administration was particularly proactive about including women and minorities in positions of power. An administration that operates without regard to race or gender would naturally end up with proportionally more white men because at this point in time there are simply more qualified white male candidates. Automatically chalking it up to racism and sexism cheapens the words.