# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/161 "2012-07-06T15:24:08Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > OK, everybody. You don’t seem to realize what the title of this board means: “In My Humble Opinion.” As in, something said here should be construed as offering an OPINION. > > To require someone to “back up” an OPINION with citations is absurd. And for you all to claim that there is some requirement here to do that is likewise absurd. The hypocrisy here is that you don’t hold yourselves to the same standard–everyone here gives unsupported assertions ALL THE TIME. this is a discussion board, where people ask questions directly or give their thoughts and others ask them how they came to that thought. people have conversations, discussions, arguments and debates on this board. you might be more interested in a blog where people just publish their thoughts for others to read. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/162 "2012-07-06T15:27:48Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > This whole thread is a trainwreck. I blame Bush, frankly. if it wasn’t for King John none of this would have ever happened. i’m blaming him. ---
**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 6, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/163 "2012-07-06T15:30:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > This whole thread is a trainwreck. I blame Bush, frankly. Yeah, but you’re _always_ blaming Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/164 "2012-07-06T15:33:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yeah, but you’re _always_ blaming Bush. Well, that’s Bush’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/165 "2012-07-06T15:46:23Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > OK, everybody. You don’t seem to realize what the title of this board means: “In My Humble Opinion.” As in, something said here should be construed as offering an OPINION. Please go back and read the first paragraph of your original post in this thread. Here’s what you wrote: > [@greenslime1951](#): > > The guy wasn’t a great president. But the current mantra, from everyone from late night comedians to newspaper columnists, is “It was Bush’s fault.” Obama has spent the last four years blaming GWB for everything, including his own failure to fix what he said he would when we elected him. The economy is being blamed on GWB even though there’s no rational reason to do so (his fiscal policies may have angered liberals but the current/recent economic mess had very little to do with those policies; there are/were larger forces at work). Other than “The guy wasn’t a great president”, everything else you posted there wasn’t “your opinion” (or, at least, if you had meant it to only be your opinion, it didn’t read that way to numerous other posters). Statements like: “Obama has spent the last four years blaming GWB for everything, including his own failure to fix what he said he would when we elected him.” …do not read as opinion; they read as a statement of fact. When you use this sort of statement as part of your argument, I’m sorry, but, at least on this board, people **will** ask you for evidence to back up your statement. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/166 "2012-07-06T16:31:16Z")
This is blatantly stolen from talk.origins, but works here: How can you tell a true Doper? When his/her spouse says “I love you” the immediate response is “cite from a peer reviewed scientific journal?” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/167 "2012-07-06T19:01:15Z")
In 4 pages, we’ve gone from discussing whether Obama blames Bush to everything, to the difference between opinion and fact. The OP appears to have successfully _hijacked his own thread._ ---
**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 6, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/168 "2012-07-06T19:11:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > In 4 pages, we’ve gone from discussing whether Obama blames Bush to everything, to the difference between opinion and fact. > > The OP appears to have successfully _hijacked his own thread._ Clarification: The OP started with _everyone_ blaming Bush for everything. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/169 "2012-07-06T21:16:21Z")
> [@mister\_nyx](#): > > You consider Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson “great”?! Holy goddamn. No, that’s why I said “generally considered”. Both are highly ranked by historians and Wilson is only slightly before FDR in the Liberal pantheon. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/170 "2012-07-06T21:49:47Z")
I’ve visited DC a couple of times & have seen the major monuments. Tell me, where’s the Liberal Pantheon? I must have missed it… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/171 "2012-07-06T21:55:29Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > No, that’s why I said “generally considered”. Both are highly ranked by historians and Wilson is only slightly before FDR in the Liberal pantheon. He is? And here I always thought he was a right-wing racist whackadoodle who re-segregated the White House, praised _Birth of a Nation_ and the KKK, drummed up a fictional threat from Mexico and Germany as an excuse to enter World War I, reinstituted the draft for the first time in 50 years, snubbed Ho Chi Minh’s plea for the US to support Vietnamese independence from France, was a major architect of the treaty of Versailles which lead ultimately to World War II, failed to get the US into the League of Nations, passed the Espionage Act which could (and still does, for that matter) allow the government to arrest pacifists, anti-war activists, and leftists, failed to provide for the veterans when they returned home, and spent the last year of his term incapacitated, letting his wife run the country and hiding from his own veep and Cabinet lest they try to impeach him. Didn’t know that “liberals” like myself were big fans of that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/172 "2012-07-06T22:31:06Z")
> [@gyrate](#): > > this whole thread is a trainwreck. I blame bush, frankly. Cite! 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/173 "2012-07-06T22:43:45Z")
Still waiting on those ten, count 'em, TEN links to speeches where Obama says our current economic malaise is Bush’s fault. He sure didn’t mention him in [today’s speech about the economy.](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/06/1106869/-Remarks-by-President-Obama-at-Poland-OH-campaign-event-July-6-2012) ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/174 "2012-07-06T23:24:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Still waiting on those ten, count 'em, TEN links to speeches where Obama says our current economic malaise is Bush’s fault. He sure didn’t mention him in [today’s speech about the economy.](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/06/1106869/-Remarks-by-President-Obama-at-Poland-OH-campaign-event-July-6-2012) You don’t get 'em for free. Read my post where I mentioned that. And certainly, if you don’t get them, it will have been Bush’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/175 "2012-07-06T23:31:27Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > This is blatantly stolen from talk.origins, but works here: > > How can you tell a true Doper? When his/her spouse says “I love you” the immediate response is “cite from a peer reviewed scientific journal?” I think this is a witty reflection on the intellectual snobbery that is in the very title of this website: “Fighting Ignorance…” As if intelligent people didn’t mutate into intelligentsia–which is what’s happened here. I’ve been flabbergasted that no one seems to realize that this particular sub-board is for the posting of OPINIONS, despite that being part of its title. And that no one recognizes hyperbole, even in jest. And that if I don’t precede EVERY SINGLE UTTERANCE with “It is my humble opinion that…”, I am somehow misrepresenting that utterance as fact. There’s nothing worse than a gang of broomstick-up-their-butts intelligentsia. especially when they don’t even themselves obey the rules they so vehemently try to impose on others. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/176 "2012-07-07T00:13:43Z")
Do you read anything anyone has posted and legitimately try to understand what people are saying? ---
**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 7, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/177 "2012-07-07T00:18:29Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I’ve been flabbergasted that no one seems to realize that this particular sub-board is for the posting of OPINIONS, despite that being part of its title. [Ahem!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15241080&postcount=123) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/178 "2012-07-07T00:39:21Z")
So may I assume the OP has entirely given up on attempting to convince any of us of his point, and has now decided to simply bemoan the fact that we’re being mean to him for attacking our Liberal Mantra™? ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/179 "2012-07-07T02:06:51Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So may I assume the OP has entirely given up on attempting to convince any of us of his point, and has now decided to simply bemoan the fact that we’re being mean to him for attacking our Liberal Mantra™? Exactly that. If he spent 1/3 of the time looking up cites that he has dodging and blaming we’d be done by now. The funny thing is how he keeps blaming all this on **internet kiddie tricks** when the real internet kiddie trick is to blame everyone for being mean to draw attention away from the fact that you are making stuff up. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197/180 "2012-07-07T02:49:57Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I’ve been flabbergasted that no one seems to realize that this particular sub-board is for the posting of OPINIONS, despite that being part of its title. One could certainly argue that the topic of your thread here isn’t really an IMHO topic at all, but better belongs in Great Debates (or perhaps Elections or General Questions). Since you started out on these boards posting in GQ, and got tired of being asked for cites there, I suspect you posted this thread here in IMHO in an attempt to avoid being asked for cites. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-blame-gwb-for-everything/627197.md?page=10)