At 'Frost/Nixon' Debut, It Became About Bush and Nixon

The reason the U.S. hasn't been attacked after 9/11 has little to do with George's leadership and a lot to do with security agency complacency being corrected. The first attack on the World Trade Center was akin to a mainland Pearl Harbor and the bombings overseas gave us the opportunity to tighten security once intelligence discoverd the financing and source of those attacks. The day the towers came down was very revealing as to how slow GW reacted in front of those children when given the news versus how fast he moved (to save himself) when a shoe was flying towards his head. You would have thought by his dazed look that he had the same oblivious mentality as those kids.

Bad, Worse or Worst - does it really matter? Thousands died unnecessarily here and abroad in a war that has gained the U.S. nothing thus far, least not better security. Nixon lived in the same bubble as GW and to his dying day believed he was morally right having made the policy decisions that ignored congress and divided the country. Instead maybe the question that should be asked is, who lead the most divisive party in history and divided the country, bringing it to a standstill? What administration had typified immorality more than any other and stood by those that severly hurt the nation economically?

Iraq is at the precipice of civil war, not because of political tactics to sway voters as was used by the Nixon and GW teams, but because of historical hatred and mistrust in a culture far different than the west's. Nixon believed more death would force a peace in Vietnam and end in a win; GW believed that improvisation in Iraq from WMD's to the seeding of democracy in the Arab world would make the war honorable and worth the montrous costs. Both were dead wrong. The means were squandered and the ends unrealistic.

Time will be as unkind to GW's legacy as it was to Nixon's and for reasons that are recorded and open to the public. Though Nixon was far more intelligent than GW, he, like many of presidential top advisors that have hurt America, let faulty reasoning neutralize realities that ignored unrealized expectations.

Fox network rants and the outdated GOP mantra have been firmly rejected by voters. Change was inevitable and not just because Obama won. McCain would have rejected most of GW's policies and maybe faced grave problems that need correction. Or maybe not. It's just a shame that GW was incapable of realizing that history didn't start the day he took office and that when historical lessons are ignored, things end badly. Power has indeed, corrupted.

Frank Manuele of NY 9:22AM December 19, 2008