Yesterday, five living presidents gathered in Texas to pay honor to George W. Bush on the opening of his presidential library.
They were all polite; they all lauded the man whose "Mission Accomplished" brought us two unpaid-for wars; tax cuts for the richest among us that were unpaid for; the largest cabinet-level bureaucracy in US history, Home Land Security; the Patriot Act; the Valerie Plame scandal; the wildly expensive Medicare Part D, which prevented any negotiations with drug companies on prescription prices; US sanctioned torture--an international crime; Guantanamo detention colony where men still are being held with no charges (shame on the Obama administration); dozens of US consul and embassy attacks; plus Bush's bungling of Hurricane Katrina response; and, sadly, having 9/11 happen on his watch.
Did I leave anything out?
On the plus side, Mr. Bush did a tremendous job in the fight against AIDS in Africa. And he gave us hours of entertainment from his Bushisms.
Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post:
"Bush didn’t pay for his wars. The bills he racked up for military adventures, prescription-drug benefits, the bank bailout and other impulse purchases helped create the fiscal and financial crises he bequeathed to Obama. His profligacy also robbed the Republican Party establishment of small-government credibility, thus helping give birth to the tea party movement.
Thanks a lot for that. As I’ve written before, Bush did an enormous amount of good by making it possible for AIDS sufferers in Africa to receive antiretroviral drug therapy. This literally saved millions of lives and should weigh heavily on one side of the scale when we assess The Decider’s presidency. But the pile on the other side just keeps getting bigger.
Michael Tomasky, from The Daily Beast:
"If you suspect (or hope!) that this is the point at which I’m going to segue into a 'maybe George W. Bush has been underappreciated' column, sorry. At the present moment, and certainly today here in Dallas, Bush is being wildly over-appreciated. The rub here for Dubya is not that Democrats detest him. It’s that Republicans have no use for him.
How quickly people forget all that talk from so many Republicans about how “we lost our way” under Bush, the big-spending and bureaucracy-expanding statist. Republicans have almost been harder on him than Democrats have. I expect this era of good feelings to last about another 24 hours. [...]
Rehabilitation is going to be a reach for Bush because more than most presidents, he made his fate. True, he was in office when 9/11 hit, and in that sense history thrust a heavy burden upon his shoulders. (But one he should have done more about after that August 6 warning? Someday, Americans might yet know the whole story about that.) But in legacy terms, 9/11 was an incredible opportunity. Here was a moment when all the world, almost all the world, was feeling sympathetic toward America. He blew that moment terribly. Very few people beyond the conservative base are going to buy his freedom argument. The lessons of the 'freedom agenda' were mostly inadvertent or tragic."
GEORGE W. BUSH BY THE NUMBERS, via The Houston Chronicle.
12 comments:
He does, however, have a deep, personal, relationship with Jesus. That fixes everything doesn't it?
ORAXX
Here is a graphical presentation of Bush's "accomplishments".
And your political messiah was there praising Bush, what a creep.
there may have been a worse president.........maybe....lemmee think......hmmmmmmm.....Nixon? Naw, hmmmmmm Harding?.....Nope, ah..... it might come to me.
When is dabama going to quit blaming Bush and try leading. If Syria uses chemical weapons there would be dire consequences. Oops I didn't mean that we would take any action we would just think about it for a few months.
It seems to be taking the same direction as Benghazi, just ignore it and it will go away only this time he is trying to blame Bush again. Guess he could blame this on Hillary but she is out campaigning for 2016 and not available.
daskud,
So, are you advocating that we should go to war with Syria? Tell us all exactly what the United States should do in Syria. Should we bomb them back to the Stone Age?
PS. No one ignored Benghazi, it just didn't turn out to be the scandal you and other conservatives were foaming at the mouth hoping it would be.
I feel you pain. It must be awful when other people don't hate this administration on the same level as you do.
So sad.
"Anonymous said...
And your political messiah was there praising Bush, what a creep.
April 26, 2013 at 12:00 PM"
Tsk. Tsk. Anon. How uncharitable of you to call Bush a creep!
Jerry,
There isn't a Republican I know who admits to voting for Dubya. How did he manage two terms without any GOPers voting for him???????
shaw...your "friends" in the conservative blogsphere:
"beamish said...
Shaw and I are still stunned from learning we share responsibility for the bombing.
False. The urinary incontinent Shaw is merely criticized for seeing herself as a "victim" of a bombing she saw on TV.
You, Ducky, are merely pressed to begin campaigning for a mosque to be built at the Boston Marathon finish line before your fellow imbeciles on the left start calling you a bigot."
Anon, I'm not surprised. The beamish troll has said that Boston deserved to be bombed and the people deserved to be maimed.
Something's not right with him, you know, but people still try to be kind to him. It's the decent thing to do when dealing with those who've gone all "funny."
It is interesting, though, how obsessed he is with urine. Might have something to do with how he was toilet trained.
Poor dear.
Well Shaw I've been saying all along GBW is and was NOT a true fiscal conservative. By your accurate citing of his legacy it it apparant he was a STATIST if not a collectivist.
Reagan and papa Bush were not fiscal conservatives either. In fact statistics show Republican presidents lead the debt building group of presidents, by far.
The right says Obama is the biggest deficit spending president ever. I have not checked the figures, no matter; each succeeding president will have that distinction unless we kill off government (goal of the Republicans) or drastically raise taxes.
That is unfair to younger generations, but is the decisions of the baby boomer generation. The most selfish generation of Americans.
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