Comments on: Bush’s Legacy

By: Alan Stewart Carl

Alan Stewart Carl — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:03:13 +0000

Pat, yes, probably true. But maybe the screaming hordes can get some fresh catch phrases.

By: mdd4696

mdd4696 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:21:37 +0000

Snooper said:
He rallied the country together immediately following 91101 and saved the country from itself.

Why does everyone keep saying this? I don’t think Bush rallied the country at all! I certainly don’t recall ever being motivated or comforted by anything Bush said. I never felt optimistic about his leadership or the direction in which he was taking the country.

Does anyone have any evidence that Bush rallied the country? Any evidence that we even needed "saving from ourselves"?

By: Rudi666

Rudi666 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:43:56 +0000

Pat - Nice job of tieing the Nazis and Japs into one nice neat little Goodwin’s Law package. The Christian Puerto Rican terrorists, civil rights and riots, the Bay of Pigs and Rosenberg’s giving away nuclear secrets also happened. It’s a wonder the Fox special on Sunday night forgot to link Bush and Truman, the Lincoln/Bush comparison was a hoot.

Maybe a trackback to Komrad SM is appropraite…

By: C Stanley

C Stanley — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:41:27 +0000

The ‘finished the job in Afghanistan’ really annoys me. Agree with Iraq or disagree (there’s ample reason to disagree) but if anything, the fact that we were backed into a corner in Afghanistan (unable to cross into Waziristan) means that it made more sense to open the front in Iraq, not less. We didn’t fail to make more progress in Afghanistan because troop resources were diverted- we failed (so far) because of the tenuous political situation in Pakistan and the ungovernable terrain along that border.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:37:11 +0000

Pat, I will give Bush credit for keeping the country calm and under control in the aftermath of 9/11. In fact I think he did great right up to when the war in Afghanistan was well under way and Iraq started to be trumped up as having WMDs. Don’t mistake me for a peacenik, I’m not. I was and continue to be for the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban were hiding and aiding the perpetrators of the worst terrorist attack in our history, in addition to brutalizing their own people in one of the most fearsome theocracies in the world. I agreed with his decision to invade, though I really wish he had actually finished the job there instead of high-tailing it to Iraq instead, going after fictional WMDs and mushroom clouds.

By: Michael van der Galien

Michael van der Galien — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:32:22 +0000

What else did he do right? His tax cuts were well-aimed and well-timed. We’re bringing in more tax revenue now, with lower rates, than we were before the tax cuts, because the tax cuts stimulated the economy and caused significant GDP growth. The economy has in fact been purring along quite nicely during the Bush Administration. Look at the numbers, and it compares extremely favorably to the economy during the Clinton years, particularly given the economic downturn Bush had to face right when he took office.

Yes, those are among the things I would cite as well. You have to keep in mind that he was president when the economy had trouble, yet he was able to turn it around. Low unemployment, good revenue, constant economic growth… it all happened.

Under his watch.

Seriously, if you can’t think of anything he did well, you’ve been reading too many liberal blogs and bloggers. He did more than one thing right - I think that Alan put it quite well. An average president in extraordinary times.

By: PatHMV

PatHMV — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:16:53 +0000

Alan, I hate to be cynical, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about things getting any better in the next administration. The Bush Hatred has nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with the distorted view of history and reality held by the people who suffer from it. With Bush gone, they will transfer it to the next guy or gal.

By: PatHMV

PatHMV — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:14:25 +0000

There are any number of things, Claudia, which don’t seem real apparent to you and others simply because they’re the things that should have happened anyway. Also, you don’t see them because the left is often entirely blinded by the frequent comparisons of the Bush Administration to the Nazis.

Take the reaction to Muslims after 19 Muslims killed 3000 of us on 9/11. After Pearl Harbor, the nearest similar historical event, the president interned all the people who were from the same nationality as the people who attacked us. President Bush had very public meetings with Islamic leaders and went very far out of his way, in his speeches and in his conduct, to make the point that those who attacked us had a perverted view of Islam, that our battle was not with all Muslims.

Many on the left disparaged that, they claim it was belied by the rush to war in Iraq, but that’s crap. If the Iraq war was a cover for a war against Muslims, we would have pulled out the day after we found Saddam, and left them to stew in their own juices. Bush has risked his entire Presidency trying to put the pieces back together again, something which, while of benefit to the American strategic interests, is also of great benefit to the Muslim world, certainly the Muslims who live in Iraq.

How many incidents of American on Muslim vigilanteism did we have after 9/11? Almost none. The few that did happen made the news precisely because they were so rare. This is in no small part to the extreme efforts President Bush took to make clear that our fight was with those who would pervert Islam into a violent religion, not with the millions of worshippers of peaceful Islam.

What else did he do right? His tax cuts were well-aimed and well-timed. We’re bringing in more tax revenue now, with lower rates, than we were before the tax cuts, because the tax cuts stimulated the economy and caused significant GDP growth. The economy has in fact been purring along quite nicely during the Bush Administration. Look at the numbers, and it compares extremely favorably to the economy during the Clinton years, particularly given the economic downturn Bush had to face right when he took office.

So those are just a few things off the top of my head. There are plenty more.

By: C Stanley

C Stanley — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:13:19 +0000

I agree with ASC. He didn’t always rise to the occasion, but few people could and probably no one could have met all of the challenges without some failures.

What I found most frustrating with Bush was the way he chose his battles. He decided to coapt some centrist positions that I found really inappropriate and unhelpful, and for the most part those are his biggest failures (No Child Left Behind and the Medicare act were passed and are pretty lousy, and on immigration he failed to get his more moderate proposal passed)

Then on other issues he tacked quite far to the right and alienated a lot of potential support.

Just doesn’t seem like he knew when to hold em and when to fold em.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:10:19 +0000

First off, the United States hasn’t lost a city to anybody and to my knowledge, there haven’t been any cities declared AWOL, either.

Maybe you ought to tell that to the people of New Orleans.

He rallied the economy up to its current stature

What you mean the deficit? Or do you mean the value of the dollar (now almost $1,50 per Euro)? Or maybe it's just the overall success?