Bush May Be Gracious Toward Obama, but He's Still Divisive
In his final days as president, Bush remains very polarizing
Reader Comments
Executive Skills...
One mark of a good exec is to choose the right team. Instead, we got Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gozales, Michae D. Brown (and 7 others at FEMA), John Bolton, Douglas Feith, Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove, and leastly - Donald Rumsfeld.
In incredible track record for history books...
Mr. Walsh's 1-9-09 post
Mr. Walsh, there has never been a President in modern times who has been subjected to the tidal wave of villification, lack of respect, character asassination and concerted lies that the media pushed at Bush. Journalism as a profession offically committed suicide during his administration by openly (and later admittedly) doing all it could to destroy this man.
When the Founding Fathers gave the press the incredible power of free speech, they assumed that with great power came great responsibility. Little did they anticipate that Americans would be failed by an irresponsible press that has lost the most important ingredient necessary for truthful journalism: objectivity.
The American people merely want to hear the facts and to be allowed to make up their own minds about the issues of the day. They do not want or need some talking head or columnist hack telling them what to think. As the willing and eager tools of the Democratic party, media sources almost uniformly took every opportunity to hammer out a continuous drumbeat of negativity about any concept or action that the Bush administration took. And in doing so, proved Adolph Hitler's adage that " if a lie is repeated often enough, people begin to believe it as true".
Now, did the Bush administration make mistakes? Certainly. As a conservative Republican, I believe there are many: Harriet Meiers nomination to the Supreme Court, his stance on immigration, his seeming lack of discipline in holding down core Republican beliefs like reduced spending and smaller government, and a raft of others. NO president is without a list of misteps that they have made while President of the United States. I would say it goes with the territory.
Yet his successes have been minimized and it will truly take the hindsight that can only be found by looking backwards in time to view his presidency in the proper perspective.
George W. Bush will perhaps never be viewed as a great president in the mold of Washington, Lincoln or Regan; however, he should be remembered as a great leader, a man of tremendous princples and deep faith in both God and his country. His character certainly has more depth and honor than Clinton or Carter could have ever hoped to possess. It is indeed a pity that such a good man should be subjected to so little HONEST examination by the press...and I mean not just the "warts only" tone of almost all the reporting, but the "warts and ALL" view that the American people deserve to see at the end of his presidency.
In the end, I give my thanks to President Bush for his 8 years of service to our country. Another Truman? Yes, that is an appropriate legacy for a great American.
To Bad You Do Not Get It
Most folks do not know who represents them in either legislative branch of our government which is the very people that vote and sign to send to the President for approval, the policies you all speak of.
All the back and forth matters not till (The people) understand this. Yes the President does lead but only by signature of your Representative (YOUR REPRESETATIVE). Congress runs this boat and they should shoulder most of the blame for the fix we are in. But sadly we as in this Great USA, always blame it all on the President as the tenured Congress sits by and watches which way the ball bounces. I wish our next President as well as I have all our past ones. Sir God Bless!
OK you O-bots and "disgruntled conservatives", tell me something.
What was Bush supposed to do to stop 9/11? Obviously, you hate the idea of pre-emptive war so that's off the table right away.
How about shutting down every major airport or installing mass security checks? We just HAD major airports shut down during the blizzard and it was almost reported by the moron.org media as a scandal. As for increased security, well even seven years after 9/11 that's cause for outrage (BY THE SAME PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT LACK OF SECURITY). So both of those? Seeya.
We won't even go into the Patriot Act. Cause we all know your plan would be better.
I know, how about a U.N. condemnation?! Those ALWAYS work!
Well, fortunately for us, Barry has the answer to what REALLY should have been done (when he decides it isn't above his paygrade). We'll just keep playing Monday morning QB!
9/11 security at the Pentagon
A former Pentagon employee has filed a lawsuit against Rumsfeld & Bush Administration figures for lying down on the the job on 9/11.
She said: "We had so many evacuation drills every week, it was annoying. But on 9/11? The day the US was under attack, not one evacuation alarm."
Protection vs. Reaction
A lot of Bush supporters like to mention how he has protected us against futher 9/11 attacks, but forget to realize that we were attacked on his watch.What good is a watch dog or alarm system if your house was broken into and all the valuables stolen before the police arrive.
Would you really give the alram company credit not protecting your home properly, I doubt it. or would you find another alarm company
So I can't give President Bush credit for our security "he never stopped or minimize the 9/11 attacks". He just reacted to it.
Doing what he should have done in the first place. Sorry Bush Heads President Bush gets a C for national security.
Scorn vs Adoration
Let's be clear. Those who scorn Mr. Bush, at last count, amount to anywhere from 75 to 89% of American voters. The adorers comprise the remmaining 11 to 25%, depending on whose numbers you believe. I'd say the Scorns have it.
President Bush
President Bush will go down in history as one of our finest Presidents. If you doubt it, examine the depth of feeling he engenders on both sides - this depth of feeling can only happen when the character of a man intersects with events of great import. Even as he leaves office, his opponents in the media seem AFRAID that he will be seen as great. And they should. President Bush stood for freedom and its expansion around the world in the wake of 9/ll - something the academics were all for until it came from a conservative. He restored dignity to the office of the Presidency; he began the discussion about Social Security; he supported our military and our troops, and he would not accept defeat for this great nation in Iraq, regardless of his media-generated "unpopularity". I only hope President elect Obama can do half as well.
nugunnahappen
Mr. Bush , who was president on 9/11 and did not protect us, is leaving behind an economy in ruins, a shredded Constitution, a deteriorating environment, a world that no longer respects and in many cases hates us, and deficits that my yet-to-be-born grandchildren will be working to pay off.
Oh, and by entering into a war for unknown reasons and without proper planning, he and Rumsfeld and Cheney got a friend of mine killed in Iraq by putting him in harm's way in a Humvee without proper armor.
And I'm supposed to be OK with all of that?
The notion that Mr. Bush will be somehow redeemed by history is laughable. The young people of today are far more politically educated than the average Bush voter, who still believes that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 and that he had weapons of mass destruction. If anything, the view of Mr. Bush will harden against him.
Eight days. Eight days. Only eight more days.
President Bush's alleged divisiveness
Members of the news media continue to parrot the Democrats' assertion that President Bush is divisive and polarizing. Yet they cannot produce a single comment or speech in which the President said anything hostile or even harsh about his Democratic opponents. Despite the harshest, most vicious and vile attacks the Democrats have made on President Bush's character, he has never responded in kind. Not once has he attacked his opponents' character or motives. He has demonstrated superhuman patience and will power in his determination to remain a gentleman.
Despite Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reed's repeated statements that they were willing to compromise, they did everything possible to block the President's initiatives. They even refused to discuss strengthening Social Security funding. This seemed both odd and inconsistent in view of the fact that they said Bush should not be afraid to negotiate with Iran. Why were they afraid to negotiate with Bush?
