How Wold You Write The Legacy Of The Bush Administration?

[Scalliwag]

People have different takes on this so I am curious to hear your points and how you think history should record it.

Here is my take:
When GW was running for governor against Ann Richards he used clips with her and the current President at the time, Bill Clinton. Later on his own unpopularity would be used on people against them. Ironic.
During the 2000 debates GW stated that he would never deploy our troops without a clear exit strategy. When referring to Bosnia he said that he did not feel it was the role of the U.S. to be nation builders. Ironic.

He campaigned on being a uniter and not a divider and to fix the partisan attacking in Washington (that his own party had been the problem there to begin with) Yet after losing the popular vote and winning by such a narrow margin in a state governed by his own brother, him and his party taunted those that had trouble believing there may be something really wrong with that picture.
So he comes into office and instead of trying to reconcile he acted as though he had won by a landslide and did not even want the election spoken of. Immediately after taking office Dick Cheney called in the heads of different energy companies and went behind closed doors to write the policies.
Only a total fool would say that those policies did not 100% favor the energy companies.

He allowed the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, to pay $10,000 for robes for the naked statues at the Justice Department because they offended him.

During that same time the state of California had rolling blackouts with electricity. The governor of the state, a democrat named Gray Davis, pleaded with the Bush administration to investigate manipulation by the electric companies. They refused and members of the administration, mostly Cheney stated in several interviews that the cause was California's fault for not building more electric plants. Later on it was found that companies including GW's friend Ken Lay's company Enron were having power cut off so they could import electricity at extremely elevated costs.
During this time Gray Davis was recalled because of this problem.

Luck was in GW's favor even though his approval ratings were steadily falling and he was not holding press conferences at the time. That was until September 11th 2000 and we were attacked. The nation was angry and in mourning and wanted retaliation for the attacks. GW was good at sounding like a redneck and his popularity went up.
He used the attacks and his popularity politically against democrats and allowed without denoucing ads to be ran against a vietnam vet that lost three limbs there to be attacked for his patriotism. Too many instances where the republicans went on a McCarthy rampage against democrats during that time to cover.
The girl from the Dixie Chicks said that she was ashamed he was from her home state and was getting death threats for it and all GW had to say about it in an interview was that freedom of speech had it's consenquences. He was talking about the boycotts, but his tone during that time showed what kind of person he is. If I thought he was smart I would say he was Hitler, but since I thing he is stupid (in terms of the level of brainpower required for his job) I believe he was just way too shortsided to see what an evil thing it was to sit by while someone was receiving death threats and not intervene with maybe a presidential caliber remark to calm the situation. But he has never been presidential so it's not a shock.

GW the Decider decides that Iraq needs regime change (the whole time I felt like we needed regime change at home too) and manipulates through congress by saying he had no intention of going to war but he wanted to have that threat available to strongarm Iraq into conforming. So congress votes to give him that authority just before the midterm elections. Anyone to vote against it Bush would use that against them.
Even democrats that voted for things he wanted were still targets. For the first time in history a party leader, Bill Frist, campaigned in the other party leaders home state (South Dakota, Tom Daschle) against the leader. So even the senate that had been known to be more civil than the house became even more divided during GW's reign.

Fastfoward because there is a lot to cover... but apparently most people now believe that GW did selectively use intelligence to get us into war in Iraq. His popularity is getting down there with Nixon.
He can singlehandedly be accreditted for the loss of republican majorities in both the house and the senate as well as state and local level elections. All the way until the day of the 2006 midterm elections GW was saying things like a vote for the democrats is a vote for terrorists.
So in the waning days on the republican majority he was consistant. Consistantly partisan and creating as much division as possible in DC and the rest of the country.

Then the democrats win control of the house and senate and all of the sudden he is ready for bipartisanship for the first time since he took office. I didn't cover so many things like the outing of the CIA agent, but you get the gist.

So there is my take on his legacy. It's a legacy of corruption, McCarthyism, deceit, incompetence and above all failure. The only good thing to come out of this period is that all the years repubs mouthed off about how much better they would run things we now have the results. A HUGE mess is all they left behind and a bunch of excuses.

[Sonthert]

What did you expect?

You forgot to mention his tax cuts benefitted predominantly only the top 2% of Americans.

Its our fault as Americans, not taking ownership of our democracy. I would say we will go alot further down before we go up again. People who can buy and pay for an election will do so as long as we let them.

[Scalliwag]

You forgot to mention his tax cuts benefitted predominantly only the top 2% of Americans.

Trust me Eric I know I left out volumes when it comes to the things he has and has not done. We could have gone back to him selling stocks in his company after having been told not to because they were going to take a loss. It was insider trading at it's finest.
Or that the baseball stadium was built on land taken by eminent domain... so much for him believing in people having property rights like he would claim later. His corruption predates his presidency.

And people I believe are generally stupid. Anyone that thinks that you can spend record amounts of tax dollars and have tax cuts during continuously growing deficits ia a complete idiot. Republicans bitched about how democrats liked to spend "your" money, but it was the republicans that have actually raised the amount of debt allowed several times since Bush has been president to keep government from shutting down.
That is nuts. Stupidity on voters parts at it's finest.

I have heard tax and spend democrats all my life, but all I am seeing now is spend and spend republicans. They don't want to pay their own bills.

[art_official]

not a huge deal but the terrorist attacks against the world trade center, and the pentagon took place September 11th, 2001 not 2000

[Scalliwag]

oops, my bad!!! Thanks for pointing that out Art.

[art_official]

no problemo matey

[maggmaster]

First: I agree with you Bush ha snot been a good president. He has hung somewhere in the range of mediocracy for his entire term. I am a conservative republican, he did not handle himself like a conservative republican.

Second: What makes a president great? When was the last time that we ha a great president? In my opinion it has been along while. Our government is growing larger but our exports are getting smaller, why is that? I am required with money I earn, to pay through taxes for others laziness, why is that? Schools focus more on the mentally handicapped than on the mentally gifted, why is that?

I am not one of these nay sayers who call down firey vengeance upon America but I do see us slipping slowly into torpor like so many of the great nations of Europe have done. Socialism prohibits the changing of ones station, the American dream dies when there is no more need to strive.

[Scalliwag]

Second: What makes a president great?

Well, that is kinda like asking a guy (a straight one) if a guy is good looking. To me no guy is good looking, some are just uglier than others. Some are so damn ugly that everybody thinks they are ugly.
When it comes to presidents GW is the ugliest. Not only is he the least articulate but he has failed at pretty much everything.
He is ugly to his soul with some of the ways he has done people as in previous posts.
Conservatives think he is ugly for different reasons, he is not conservative enough for them.
They have no problem if he allowed a CIA agent to be outed for example. None of the prominent conservatives showed any sense of concern with that.

If the only bad things a person can see with GW is his lack of conservatism or his dismal Iraq policies then they have a pretty big appetite for failure.
I would think it would be very hard for someone with a straight face to complain about welfare in this country with the amount of money spent and being spent in Iraq. The figures are not even remotely close.
It is that spoonfed mentality that repubs were raised on with Reagan talking about Welfare Queens getting rich off the taxpayers backs and using an example that turned out to be a lie. But that did not keep him from telling it even after the truth was uncovered. The welfare queen he spoke of bilking 150k per year with all these social security numbers never existed.
To me that is the Reagan legacy. He never let the truth get in the way of a good story even if it was racially divisive.
But conservatives can conveniently forget some of those stories.

[OrangeLazarus]

look at the people he has appointed to various positions too, such as the recent news about gonzales and wolfowitz. he just surrounds himself with more shady shitbags.

oh and dick cheney, too. he's a real winner.


or weiner...

[newsman]

On January 18, 2001, two days before his inauguration, George W. Bush made the following statement:

"I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I'm going to be the president of everybody."

While I believe that this statement was probably a faux pas and that he meant to say that as president he would represent everybody, it kind of serves as a chilling foreshadowing of the kind of president he would ultimately be. He did act as thought he had a mandate from the people, even after a questionable victory. On top of that he is an uninformed, inept ideologue. Not good qualities in a leader.

Not much more needs to be said after all the previous posts, which spelled out some of the highlights of his administration, but I will add this. I truly believe that he is the one president we have had who will have left the world a worse place to live in as a result of his disastrous "leadership." He is probably one of the few world leaders in history to have done so as well.

[The King]

What did you expect?

You forgot to mention his tax cuts benefitted predominantly only the top 2% of Americans.

Its our fault as Americans, not taking ownership of our democracy. I would say we will go alot further down before we go up again. People who can buy and pay for an election will do so as long as we let them.

George Bush wasn't the best, but hey, better than Kerry would've done...

But with the tax cuts, it was perfectly fair... Those 2% pay a majority of the taxes.... The more money you make, the more taxes you pay. Now, isn't it only fair that when there is a tax cut the people who payed the money in the first place got the money back? Why would people who didn't pay taxes get tax returns?

[newsman]

George Bush wasn't the best, but hey, better than Kerry would've done...

Wasn't the best????? One of the great understatements of all time. I invite anyone to submit even a single positive thing that GW has done for this country or the world.

Let me list, here, a few of, what I would like to call, his greatest "achievements". I will do so with bullet points (and in no particular order):

• His so-called liberation of Iraq, which was supposed to have helped contain terrorism, has only served to foster an even more fertile environment for radical islamic fundamentalism, aimed not only at the west but at moderate muslims in the middle east as well.
• World opinion of the US is at an all time low.
• His implementation of the Patriot Act has achieved nothing other than a continued erosion of our civil liberties.
• His "If you don't support the war, you're supporting terrorism" posturing has returned us the halcyon days of 1950s McCarthyism and the House Un-american Activities Committee.
• More and more of his political cronies are going down in flames. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is facing a no-confidence vote in the senate; and Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq invasion, has just resigned from the World Bank in semi-disgrace. GW responds to questions about these as though nothing at all is amiss. If ever there was a modern day analogue to Nero fiddling while Rome burned, it is our own president, George Walker Bush.
• Day after day precious lives are lost for the sake of the big lie that Bush has perpetrated upon the world. You know, the one that said that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction and was inextricably linked to the perpetrators of 9/11...

I could go on, but what's the point? If I sound angry, it's because I am. Our "president" has created an environment of fear and loathing that I don't believe is true to the the American way.

I welcome the day that we no longer have to refer to Mr. George W Bush as Commander-in-Chief, President of the United States, but rather as an unfortunate footnote in the history of an otherwise great country.

[boulderkid303]

HAHAHAHAHA I just love how people say "hey better than kerry would of done". How the fuck can you say that? GW has fucked up every which way, the middle class is shit, we are fighting a war that never should of started, gas prices are over 310 a gallon, and worst of all people still support this man??? I swear, I have no clue how people voted for this guy for not one but two terms! That's crazy! I blame the people, my clueless friends who don't know what the hell is going on in the world. Most of Americans only care about whats happening here, not in the world, and that is what should matter! It's not all about us and if we don't change soon, we will face hard realites.

[Scalliwag]

I love the Kerry comment as well. Just because Bush sucked and they can't argue different they have to use crapola. This was probably coming from someone that thought Bush would be a great president. I was damn sure he would suck. So I don't have any confidence in anyone that expected anything good out of Bush.
The way I figure it is they were dead wrong on Bush so they would have probably been wrong on Kerry.
So far all the Bush supporters were at least wrong on him. The other we will never know.

Repubs used to say when Nixon got busted that every president does it, he just got caught. Yet another dumbass strawman argument. But I guess those come in times of desperation and it is easier than saying your party sucks

[Gaara]

As former president Carter said, the Bush administration is "the worst in U.S. history'.

Not sure if it's the worst but it's up there.

[Scalliwag]

it is definately the stupidest. They do not even believe in diplomacy. They honestly believe it is not neccesary. To me the obvious thing is that Bush cannot meet one on one with someone that does not agree with him because he would look like a fool. So he avoids speaking with those he does not agree with. He would rather have a war . At least early in the administration he acted as though it was a bragging right to say "I am a war President".

Also, I have never understood how some of the people running for 2008 are getting hit with criticisms that Bush obviously was never held to. He is a babbling idiot that never came across well on anything. Why in the hell he was given a pass is beyond me.
He could not get into the University of Texas because of his high school grades.
Maybe I have a higher expectation but I think that someone really needs to be a lifetime over-achiever to run the country. Not someone born into privaledge that all they ever accomplished was because of family connections.
I hope the nation has learned a very good lesson in all this stupidity.

[newsman]

I hope the nation has learned a very good lesson in all this stupidity.

Unfortunately, probably not...

[Big Boss]

i'd write it in three words: wah wah waaaah

[Scalliwag]

I hope the nation has learned a very good lesson in all this stupidity.

Unfortunately, probably not...

unfortunately I think you're right. Most people do not put much effort at all into learning history and buy into bullshit way too easy. When I would hear seemingly intelligent people talk about Bush like he had a clue a long time ago it would totally bewilder me. When I hear them now I just tell them that they are as smart as he is. Then when they get mad I tell them "well you do think he is smart right?" Then they get that confused look like they have no idea how to respond.

[Blue Midnight]

George Bush wasn't the best, but hey, better than Kerry would've done...

Worst. Opinion. Ever.


My cat would have been a better President than George Bush. Edited May 22, 2007 by Blue Midnight

[newsman]

i'd write it in three words: wah wah waaaah

Not quite sure what you meant there...

[PerznPerversion]

What did you expect?

You forgot to mention his tax cuts benefitted predominantly only the top 2% of Americans.

Its our fault as Americans, not taking ownership of our democracy. I would say we will go alot further down before we go up again. People who can buy and pay for an election will do so as long as we let them.

George Bush wasn't the best, but hey, better than Kerry would've done...

But with the tax cuts, it was perfectly fair... Those 2% pay a majority of the taxes.... The more money you make, the more taxes you pay. Now, isn't it only fair that when there is a tax cut the people who payed the money in the first place got the money back? Why would people who didn't pay taxes get tax returns?

How is that fair? it keeps the rich richer and the poor poorer. I know MANY rich people and they pay CRAP for taxes. My family probably pays more than them. hahaha the government is so crooked its not even funny.

As for Presidents, i believe there were very few GOOD presidents.. like 5 if that. Not to mention ive heard the majority of presidents were royal blood.. For the most part we have always been bullies, but recently people are getting more educated and finally realizing it.

In my eyes we would still be corrupt if gore or kerry went into office. But at least they wouldnt be idiotic dipshits about the situation. The patriot act has changed america for the worst and if we dont change it soon, we might as well get rid of the constitution. Im sure the government had spied on us before but now they have permission from us. Woopdeedoo!!

[Blue Midnight]

i'd write it in three words: wah wah waaaah

Not quite sure what you meant there...

It took me awhile, but I get it. Its like a sound effect for when something goes wrong, like in a movie. Wah Wah Waaaaaahhhhh. Get it? (I hope so, because if I could make the noise it would be much easier than trying to explain it in words).

[newsman]

i'd write it in three words: wah wah waaaah

Not quite sure what you meant there...

It took me awhile, but I get it. Its like a sound effect for when something goes wrong, like in a movie. Wah Wah Waaaaaahhhhh. Get it? (I hope so, because if I could make the noise it would be much easier than trying to explain it in words).

Yeah, the joke's on us...

[smoker6146]

Wow, strong liberals here.
Bush has made mistakes and screwed up, but he's not as terrible as everyone thinks. I agree that Kerry would have done much worse.
Also, Carter has no right to call Bush the worst president, considering he was by far.