# Why does everyone hate Bush?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [February 2, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564 "2007-02-02T17:20:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/81 "2007-02-03T22:28:17Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister]
Just out of curiosity, Sept 11, 2001 supposedly established “Dubya” as a strong leader and President. Why? What did he say that was so inspiring? What did he do?
[/QUOTE]
He took action. Firm, decisive action. He implemented extensive security measures to protect the country internally; he stated to the world that we were henceforth at war with terrorism (Muslim or otherwise); he implemented, with the cooperation of many other countries around the world, efforts to hamper terrorists’ funding and ability to move money and assets around; he toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan; and demanded than Hussein take his shithead sons and leave Iraq, as he/they couldn’t be trusted to live up to the inspections that were agreed to as part of the Gulf War’s resolution. Hussein refused to leave, and he was too great a risk to remain, so he was toppled.
And on preview, I see that the gang of usual suspects has begun to assemble and that the predicted hue and cry has begun…so, given that I have other things to do today than argue with twenty people at once, I’ll bow out now and leave you all to your various rantings.
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### Author:  [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/82 "2007-02-03T22:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist]
He took action. Firm, decisive action.
[/QUOTE]
Big woo. So did Saddam in his day. Firm action to do stupid things is not laudable. But thanks for playing.
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/83 "2007-02-03T22:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
Big woo. So did Saddam in his day. Firm action to do stupid things is not laudable. But thanks for playing.
[/QUOTE]
_Big woo?_😃😃😃😃😃
I haven’t heard that one since the _sixties_! How the hell old are you anyway?
Sorry, had to come back for that one. Everyone please carry on…
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### Author:  [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/84 "2007-02-03T22:41:50Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist]
_Big woo?_😃😃😃😃😃
I haven’t heard that one since the _sixties_! How the hell old are you anyway?
Sorry, had to come back for that one. Everyone please carry on…
[/QUOTE]
There was a thread on Big whoop and related expressions earlier this week.
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/85 "2007-02-03T22:49:10Z")
There’s a difference between ‘big whoop’ and ‘big woo,’ subtle though the distinction may appear. The former is more like something a middle-age Jewish lady, ala Mike Myers, would say; whereas the latter is more like something a sophomore in high school would say.
Not that I’m making any accusations, mind you…you know, this not being the Pit and all.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/86 "2007-02-03T22:55:58Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist]
He took action. Firm, decisive action.
[/quote]
By Finishing reading “My pet goat” 🙂
> [@](#):
>
> He implemented extensive security measures to protect the country internally;
The 9/11 commission realized it was not good enough, and then the full recommendations by the 9/11 commission were not implemented.
> [@](#):
>
> he stated to the world that we were henceforth at war with terrorism (Muslim or otherwise); he implemented, with the cooperation of many other countries around the world, efforts to hamper terrorists’ funding and ability to move money and assets around; he toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan;
Up to here he was OK, putting a lie on the idea that we can not find anything good with dubya.
> [@](#):
>
> and demanded than Hussein take his shithead sons and leave Iraq, as he/they couldn’t be trusted to live up to the inspections that were agreed to as part of the Gulf War’s resolution. Hussein refused to leave, and he was too great a risk to remain, so he was toppled.
There were reports that Hussein and sons offered and were negotiating to leave into exile, there was a chance to set up a Haiti maneuver, Bush refused to consider it, but in context it was too late, like Rufus T Firefly in Duck Soup:
> [@](#):
>
> **Trentino** : I am willing to do anything to prevent this war!
> **Firefly** : It’s too late. I’ve already paid a month’s rent on the battlefield.
[http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/timeline/index.php?&table\_name=timeline&function=search&where\_clause=&page=7&order=date&order\_type=ASC](http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/timeline/index.php?&table_name=timeline&function=search&where_clause=&page=7&order=date&order_type=ASC)
> [@](#):
>
> A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme. […]
>
> -Mr Bush told Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of “flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours”. Mr Bush added: “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]”.
>
> -Mr Bush even expressed the hope that a defector would be extracted from Iraq and give a “public presentation about Saddam’s WMD”. He is also said to have referred Mr Blair to a “small possibility” that Saddam would be “assassinated”.
>
> -Mr Blair told the US president that a second UN resolution would be an “insurance policy”, providing “international cover, including with the Arabs” if anything went wrong with the military campaign, or if Saddam increased the stakes by burning oil wells, killing children, or fomenting internal divisions within Iraq.
>
> -Mr Bush told the prime minister that he “thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups”. Mr Blair did not demur, according to the book.
> [@](#):
>
> And on preview, I see that the gang of usual suspects has begun to assemble and that the predicted hue and cry has begun…so, given that I have other things to do today than argue with twenty people at once, I’ll bow out now and leave you all to your various rantings.
See ya, you are taking yourself too seriously when you assume one is replying just for you, I reply so others can read and see for themselves how incomplete is the information the right gets.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/87 "2007-02-03T23:02:34Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/88 "2007-02-03T23:13:26Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> There’s a difference between ‘big whoop’ and ‘big woo,’ subtle though the distinction may appear. The former is more like something a middle-age Jewish lady, ala Mike Myers, would say; whereas the latter is more like something a sophomore in high school would say.
Baloney. I’m in high school, and many of my friends say ‘big whoop’ in appropriate situations. I have never heard anyone say ‘big whoo’, nor had I heard of the phrase itself before this thread.
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### Author:  [@Heckxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckxx)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/89 "2007-02-03T23:18:53Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves]
He created the Iraq war. Anybody who wasn’t similarly deluded or deludable, which is most of us, would have handled it better.
[/QUOTE]
You really believe you could’ve been a better president than Bush? People are consistently underestimating how “hard” it is to be the president of the United States. I think there is no way we can sit here and imagine what its like to be the president and get a good realization of what that job is like.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/90 "2007-02-03T23:24:57Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx]
People are consistently underestimating how “hard” it is to be the president of the United States.
[/QUOTE]
As Duhbya keeps telling us. :rolleyes:
Of course it’s a difficult job. But I can’t remember a President who botched things so badly.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/91 "2007-02-03T23:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx]
You really believe you could’ve been a better president than Bush? People are consistently underestimating how “hard” it is to be the president of the United States. I think there is no way we can sit here and imagine what its like to be the president and get a good realization of what that job is like.
[/QUOTE]
Regarding Bush, that IMO makes it worse. Sure it is hard, so hard that one needed to have and administration that under political pressure could not have risked to blow the cover of several intelligence efforts. The administration has shown that it is preferable to risk long term intelligence efforts in exchange of quick political gain.
If you think I’m only talking about the Plame affair you are mistaken:
> **[CNN.com - U.S. leak 'ends al Qaeda sting' - Aug 9, 2004](https://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/08/08/terror.wrap/index.html)**
> [@](#):
>
> ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) – The effort by U.S. officials to justify raising the terror alert level last week may have shut down an important source of information that has already led to a series of al Qaeda arrests, Pakistani intelligence sources have said.
There were other examples like that, as I said before, Bush and his cabinet do put party before country.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/92 "2007-02-03T23:40:24Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx]
But count me in the group of people that says he really did think Saddam had WMD, but unfortunately, he was mostly wrong.
[/quote]
Can I ask what you mean by “mostly,” rather than “completely?” He had no weapons, he had no Al Qaeda ties, he had no 45-minute strike capability, blah blah blah.
> [@](#):
>
> I don’t see how any of us can disapprove OR approve if he is “the kind of guy you’d sit down and have a beer with”. How can you even remotely derive what his personality is like?
I don’t care what his personality is like on a one-on-one basis; his personal skills are supposed to be extraordinary. Or at least they once were. I think way too much attention is paid to what people are like in politics, and not enough to what they do. Maybe Bush is a very nice guy who has done some terrible things in office, maybe he’s an ogre who’s done terrible things in office. I can’t say I give a damn which is which.
> [@](#):
>
> Maybe Bush was stuck in a situation in our history that was going to cause this problem, no matter who was the president at the time.
History didn’t force Bush to invade Iraq, although I do think anybody would have been required to go into Afghanistan. It was something he wanted to do, and he did it with little attention paid to what the consequences might be.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/93 "2007-02-04T00:00:01Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx]
You really believe you could’ve been a better president than Bush?..
[/QUOTE]
My dick would have been a better president.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/94 "2007-02-04T01:24:30Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim]
Heh, this is like that episode of Scrubs last night where J.D. is reading “Iraq For Dummies” (not that I’m calling the OP a dummy). “I don’t understand, I just got to the part where Bush made his speech in front of a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner and there’s still like 400 pages to go…”
[/QUOTE]
The scary thing is, while my Amazon search didn’t turn up “Iraq for Dummies,” the main competitor of the “for Dummies” books has published [The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Iraq](http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Understanding-Iraq/dp/0028643984/sr=8-1/qid=1170552053/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8780688-8028014?ie=UTF8&s=books).
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### Author:  [@Heckxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckxx)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/95 "2007-02-04T01:38:03Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Can I ask what you mean by “mostly,” rather than “completely?” He had no weapons, he had no Al Qaeda ties, he had no 45-minute strike capability, blah blah blah.
[/QUOTE]
Simply because I haven’t been following politics closely to know that he screwed up every single thing he’s tried to do.
[QUOTE=Marley23]
History didn’t force Bush to invade Iraq, although I do think anybody would have been required to go into Afghanistan. It was something he wanted to do, and he did it with little attention paid to what the consequences might be.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe someone else behind the scenes pressured Bush into invading Iraq; my point is that we can’t really know for sure.
[QUOTE=elucidator]
My dick would have been a better president.
[/QUOTE]
I agree.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/96 "2007-02-04T01:45:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And on preview, I see that the gang of usual suspects has begun to assemble and that the predicted hue and cry has begun…so, given that I have other things to do today than argue with twenty people at once, I’ll bow out now and leave you all to your various rantings.
When twenty people are all pointing out the errors you’re making, you can listen and maybe consider the possibility that you’re the one who’s wrong. Or you can just ignore anyone who isn’t saying what you want to hear. Just ask yourself, “What Would George Do?”
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### Author:  [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/97 "2007-02-04T01:54:36Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx]
It seems its really easy to hate the guy nowadays. Now, I’m not really big into politics, but like, didn’t we elect him twice? How popular was he when he won against Kerry?
[/quote]
Well I never voted for him at all. But he had Karl Rove who used a lot of dirty tricks to smear Bush’s opponents. I think there are a lot of people who saw Bush for what he was, and that’s why the election was so close, but there were _enough_ people who are basically like you, who “aren’t really big into politics”. These people are ignorant enough that they fell for these tricks, and believed that Bush was o.k.
Some of the mistakes people made in their voting decisions, in my opinion:
1. Equated Bush’s bluster and aggressive, ill-conceived foreign policy as being “tough on the terrorists”, when in reality, he’s made the problem of terrorism _worse_.
2. Mistook Bush’s Texas-drawl and “good ole’ boy” demeanor as being the characteristics of a “guy they’d like to have a beer with”.
3. Thought that being “a guy they’d like to have a beer with” was a good quality for a U.S. president to have.
4. Were impressed with Bush being a born-again Christian and his talk about removing the seperation of church and state, and thought that was the right direction for our country.
5. Were completely uncritical of smears against Bush’s opponents, and believing any bad thing said about Bush’s opponents, whether true or not.
> [@](#):
>
> And this whole Iraq thing: Again, i dont follow politics or world news much, but wasn’t he trying to protect us from future terrorism?
No. He _said_ that, and you believed it, because you haven’t bothered to educate yourself about the issue. There actually was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. For a long time, Bush _said_ there was, but the evidence was so overwhelmingly contrary to that assertion, that Bush finally admitted, years later, that there never was a connection. And Saddam had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the 9/11 attack. Al Qaeda is more involved in Iraq _as a result_ of Bush’s war than they ever were before it.
Iraq was never a threat to the U.S., and the invasion has made the global terrorism problem much, much _worse_.
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/98 "2007-02-04T01:57:43Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
When twenty people are all pointing out the errors you’re making, you can listen and maybe consider the possibility that you’re the one who’s wrong.
[/QUOTE]
Or I could consider that I’m on a board dominated by a small but very vocal coterie of hardcore lefties that routinely reviles anything Bush says or does…which is what I do.
If you may recall, Bush garnered around 50% in both elections in which he ran for president, and his/my team only lost the last election as a result of 5 or 6 people out of each hundred voters changing their votes.
It is in no way accurate to hold that “everyone hates” Bush, as everyone clearly does not. I hold no illusions that I’m going to prove to any of my adversaries here that they are wrong; I’m merely speaking to the OP in order to illustrate that he/she should not be misled by the rabid anti-Bushism that goes on around here. The fact that twenty people here may claim I’m wrong in no way whatsoever serves as any sort of indicator as to whether or not I actually am.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/99 "2007-02-04T02:11:32Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist]
It is in no way accurate to hold that “everyone hates” Bush, as everyone clearly does not. I hold no illusions that I’m going to prove to any of my adversaries here that they are wrong; I’m merely speaking to the OP in order to illustrate that he/she should not be misled by the rabid anti-Bushism that goes on around here. The fact that twenty people here may claim I’m wrong in no way whatsoever serves as any sort of indicator as to whether or not I actually am.
[/QUOTE]
Of course, can you point then to evidence that shows the twenty or so are not correct?
You are indeed entitled to your opinions, but not to the facts.
And as I found before, it is you who is prone to mislead others. (Debunking, anyone? 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-bush/390564/100 "2007-02-04T02:20:23Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist]
If you may recall, Bush garnered around 50% in both elections in which he ran for president, and his/my team only lost the last election as a result of 5 or 6 people out of each hundred voters changing their votes.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, you mentioned that in the 50 Most Loathsome People thread, and I rebutted you [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8183453&postcount=100'').
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