# Why does everyone blame GWB for everything? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 4, 2012, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197 "2012-07-04T09:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/21 "2012-07-04T19:13:54Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > How long does a country take to recover from 2 wars, deficit of over a trillion dollars, financial meltdown and recession, and the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history? Three days of Obama? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/22 "2012-07-04T19:15:55Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > \*he endorsed torture, built Gitmo. George Bush built Gitmo, huh? What alternative reality are we living in? I guess you mean the detention camp! But Gitmo itself is much older than that. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/23 "2012-07-04T19:16:05Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Both “everyone” and “everything” are strong generalizations, requiring only a single counterexample to refute. Thus: I do not blame GWB for my bread being moldy this morning. Ergo, your assertion is proved incorrect. OK, if you insist on my being absolutely literal: Why does just about everyone insist on blaming GWB for virtually everything? Better now? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/24 "2012-07-04T19:19:21Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > OK, if you insist on my being absolutely literal: > > Why does just about everyone insist on blaming GWB for virtually everything? > > Better now? I’ve noticed that people insist on blaming GWB for the many stupid, horrible things he actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/25 "2012-07-04T19:23:22Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > OK, if you insist on my being absolutely literal: > > Why does just about everyone insist on blaming GWB for virtually everything? > > Better now? Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/26 "2012-07-04T19:24:42Z")
George W. Bush was not a particularly stupid man. He has a solid intelligence, the ability to be a team builder, and the ability to focus on getting things done if he chooses to. I suspect many people would find him a more affable casual conversational companion than either Obama or Bill Clinton. The problem with Bush is that he was arrogant about his own opinions and insanely sanctimonious.The President he most closely resembles on a number of levels is Jimmy Carter. Sanctimonious people with power often make extraordinarily bad decisions and he did again, and again, and again. There was no re-setting course or re-considering a plan of action that was obviously failing. He doubled down on everything even when it was shitting it’s pants. I voted for Bush the first time as a change of pace from Clinton’s incredible disrespect of the office of POTUS. Bush (IMO) did not grow in office. He was lazy, and easily manipulated by Cheney et al. on topics that did not engage him emotionally or intellectually. It’s easy to be a day after arm chair quarterback, but in reading the generally well respected book “Fiasco” about the build up to and execution of the Iraq war, the level of arrogance, obtuseness and ignorance involved in the top down operational decisions that were involved in starting and running the war simply beggar the imagination. Bush is hard to defend because (in retrospect) he made, and allowed to be made by his underlings, so many bad decisions. How history will treat him in the long run is unknown, but to see people “blaming Bush” as piling on is absurd. He earned the historical disrespect he is receiving. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/27 "2012-07-04T19:25:08Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > So no, it’s not all Bush’s fault personally; a lot of what happened during his tenure likely wasn’t driven by him anyway. But the wider Republican party has done an awful lot of damage and while I would hardly absolve Obama from any responsibility for things he has done, neither can the GOP wash their hands of things that they did both before and after January 2009. If you drive a bus off a cliff, you can’t hand the wheel over to someone else and then blame them when it crashes into the ground, especially if you are flinging shit at them the whole time as well. Your metaphor would be more accurate if you had said that Obama wrestled the wheel away from GWB/the Republicans, on the premise that he alone was a good enough driver to prevent the imminent crash. That the bus was already going over the cliff simply proves that, depending on your point of view, Obama was disingenuous/a starry-eyed optimist/unrealistic/a liar. I actually approve of Obama’s presidency, but I greatly dislike the way his campaign strategists deflected any examination of his virtually nonexistent resume by excoriating the incumbent and emphasizing how wonderfully _different_ he was going to be. He said approximately 11,254 times (CITE, DAMN YOU! CITE!!!:rolleyes:) that he would not continue “the failed policies of George W. Bush.” Yet, as he more or less had to unless he wanted to change our entire system of government, he continued most of his predecessor’s policies and ways of doing things–which Bush had in turn “inherited” from his predecessor, President Zipper. I also disapprove of the way the current Obama campaign is continuing to try to scare us with The Ghost of Dubya. At what point is Obama himself responsible for the current mess? When will The Buck Stops Here sign appear on Obama’s desk? ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/28 "2012-07-04T19:26:54Z")
I blame Margaret Thatcher. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/29 "2012-07-04T19:31:01Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I also disapprove of the way the current Obama campaign is continuing to try to scare us with The Ghost of Dubya. You keep saying this, but you have yet to show it. Cite please, your dislike for facts be damned. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/30 "2012-07-04T19:36:41Z")
Most thinking people comprehend that it takes time to retrieve the world economy from the brink of collapse. When Obama bailed out the auto companies, all the pubs said it was the end of the free market, socialism was around the corner, when this doomed policy fails we’ll be back in the white house. Talk about trading in fear. Yet again, they were wrong, the auto industry _was_ saved and _has_ bounced back. They will keep moving their lips but Joe voter can see for himself - Obama was right. He was also honest when he told the American public that it would take time to get them out of the mess. American’s are clever enough to know that was true all along, and that anyone who’s got a quick fix, is probably full of hot air. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/31 "2012-07-04T19:38:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You keep saying this, but you have yet to show it. Cite please, your dislike for facts be damned. I don’t record every (or any) Obama speech or Demo campaign ad. He has compared Romney to Dubya many, many times in the last few months, and not flatteringly. If you can’t find an instance of that, don’t expect me to do it for you. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/32 "2012-07-04T19:39:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Cite please, your dislike for facts be damned. Cite and Cite! What is cite!? ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/33 "2012-07-04T19:44:00Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Most thinking people comprehend that it takes time to retrieve the world economy from the brink of collapse. > > When Obama bailed out the auto companies, all the pubs said it was the end of the free market, socialism was around the corner, when this doomed policy fails we’ll be back in the white house. Talk about trading in fear. > > Yet again, they were wrong, the auto industry _was_ saved and _has_ bounced back. They will keep moving their lips but Joe voter can see for himself - Obama was right. > > He was also honest when he told the American public that it would take time to get them out of the mess. American’s are clever enough to know that was true all along, and that anyone who’s got a quick fix, is probably full of hot air. It’s a commonplace that the current state of any economy is the effect of policy decisions made five years before that time. So we should attribute the current bountiful economic conditions to the wise policies of GWB, instituted in 2007. Which means that Obama can’t rightfully take credit OR blame for anything. I don’t know how true the five-year assertion is, but you can’t point to the auto industry as an example of how Obama has saved The World As We Know it and then claim that he hasn’t solved our peristent unemployment and general economic malaise because These Things Take Time. Taking credit for what has worked has to come with taking responsibility for what hasn’t. Anything else is disingenuousness to the highest degree. Edit: It’s far from proved that the bailout of the auto industry was, in fact, beneficial to the economy. It was beneficial to the auto industry and the workers in it, but that’s not the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/34 "2012-07-04T19:45:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Cite and Cite! What is cite!? It’s an internet chant performed by people who disagree with someone but are too lazy to articulate why. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/35 "2012-07-04T19:46:53Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I don’t record every (or any) Obama speech or Demo campaign ad. He has compared Romney to Dubya many, many times in the last few months, and not flatteringly. If you can’t find an instance of that, don’t expect me to do it for you. Obama speech June 25th [NameBright - Domain Expired](http://www.politicalruminations.com/2012/06/full-text-transcript-of-obama-financial-speech-in-durham-new-hampshire-june-25.html) 1 reference to the Bush tax cuts in relation to Romney’s and the GOP’s tax proposal on extending them. … well colour me unimpressed by this relentless blaming of the prior Whit House resident. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/36 "2012-07-04T19:49:32Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I don’t record every (or any) Obama speech or Demo campaign ad. He has compared Romney to Dubya many, many times in the last few months, and not flatteringly. If you can’t find an instance of that, don’t expect me to do it for you. That’s not the way it works. _You_ made the claim-_You_ back it up. Since it would be easy to find all those examples if they existed, at this point we can only assume that they don’t. Come up with some actual facts, and you might change some minds. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/37 "2012-07-04T19:50:17Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Bush had been in office only 8 months before 9/11. Clinton was in office for 8 YEARS without getting Bin Laden. If you people weren’t so blinded by your idiotic hatred, you would be blaming Clinton instead of Bush. according to [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden): Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. So, Clinton had about 2 years and IIRC tried to bomb but missed Bin Laden in the Sudan. If my math is correct, then Bush had 8 years. If you want to pick nits, and quibble that the FBI top 10 terrorists lists wasn’t Bush’s list, then counting from 9-11 Bush had more than 7 years to get Bin Laden from Bush’s (in)famous “Dead or alive” broadcast. Yep, sure looks like partisan spin.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/38 "2012-07-04T19:52:22Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > It’s an internet chant performed by people who disagree with someone but are too lazy to articulate why. Let me articulate for you-you’ve made claims you will not and/or can not back up, thus rendering your premise useless. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/39 "2012-07-04T19:52:51Z")
Oh June 14th Ohio speech [Full Text Campaign Buzz June 14, 2012: Ohio Showdown Over the Economy: President Barack Obama & Mitt Romney Give Opposing Speeches on the Country’s Economic Choice & Path — Transcripts | History Musings](https://historymusings.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/full-text-campaign-buzz-june-14-2012-ohio-showdown-over-the-economy-president-barack-obama-mitt-romney-give-opposing-speeches-on-the-countrys-economic-choice-path/) Again a speech inundated with 2 whole references to Bush tax cuts as current Romney/GOP tax policy. You’d think a President would have speech writers with a little more imagination when spewing excuses all the time. Man it’s Bush Bush Bush all the time. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/40 "2012-07-04T20:02:51Z")
Greenslime, whatever you do, it’s not nice to steal Spock’s brain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197.md?page=3)