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America’s Wilderness Years
PJMedia ^ | 11/12/2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 11/12/2013 5:37:56 PM PST by rktman

Most two-term presidents leave some sort of legacy. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. George W. Bush prevented another 9/11, and constructed an anti-terrorism protocol that even his critical successor embraced and often expanded.

Even our one-term presidents have achieved something. JFK got Soviet missiles out of Cuba. LBJ oversaw passage of civil rights legislation. Jerry Ford restored integrity to the White House. Jimmy Carter finally issued the Carter Doctrine to stop Soviet expansionism at the Persian Gulf. George H.W. Bush won the first Persian Gulf War and got Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.

And even our impeached or abdicated presidents at least left some positive legacies. Richard Nixon went to China and enacted détente. Bill Clinton through compromise balanced the budget and incurred budget surpluses.

But Barack Obama?

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhoeconomy; decline; obamalegacy; prosper; vdh
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Fine article by Mr. Hanson. Except I think it's worse than portrayed.
1 posted on 11/12/2013 5:37:56 PM PST by rktman
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To: rktman

Great summary by VDH.


2 posted on 11/12/2013 5:43:41 PM PST by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
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To: rktman

LBJ and his civil rights legislation.
That was a real treat for the country.


3 posted on 11/12/2013 5:44:29 PM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: rktman

Only one question about Obama:

American Mohammed, or lesser fascist?


4 posted on 11/12/2013 5:46:23 PM PST by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/nicolae-hussein-obama/)
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To: rktman
In a way, yes. He has mesmerized the media in a manner entirely unknown in past presidencies. No matter the scandal or policy failure, it will be almost impossible for Obama’s popularity to dip much below 40%. Yet even more importantly than hypnotizing a once-free press into a Ministry of Truth ...

Did Obama do that? Or did the press do it to themselves?

5 posted on 11/12/2013 5:49:47 PM PST by x
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To: rktman
Richard Nixon went to China and enacted détente.

In my opinion, Nixon's greatest foreign policy achievement was to save Israel. He may have saved Pakistan as well, which from today's perspective might not have been such a good thing.

6 posted on 11/12/2013 5:51:15 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Farmer Dean

Worked out well so far hasn’t it. LOL! Just our tax dollars wasted.


7 posted on 11/12/2013 5:54:05 PM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: rktman

Hubris (0bama) meet Nemesis (Reality).


8 posted on 11/12/2013 5:59:50 PM PST by Hardastarboard (You can keep your doctor - if you lock him in your basement.)
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To: rktman
Not since Richard Nixon have we seen such a record of scandal.

Oh, please! Nixon was pure as the driven snow compared to Obama. Nixon made mistakes, but he really wasn't a crook. Obama is most definitely a traitor. A thousand times over.

9 posted on 11/12/2013 6:01:53 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: rktman

Obama’s legacy is to destroy any and everything that is good, decent, and uniquely American in the US.


10 posted on 11/12/2013 6:14:17 PM PST by Girlene (Hey, NSA!)
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To: rktman

VDH is leaving something important out...LBJs great society is the socialist knife that destroyed the republic. Quite the legacy IMHO.


11 posted on 11/12/2013 6:27:20 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Nuc 1.1

But, but, but. Look at all the good it’s done. Oh, wait. I forgot. Negative results. REAL negative results. I’ve been around since 1947 and I’ve never seen so much hate and discontent in my 66 years. Discourse? I think not. Disaster? I think, yes.


12 posted on 11/12/2013 6:49:17 PM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: rktman

Our personal wealth has been destroyed. Only the crony casino market is available for investment. Entire industries have been decimated. Bootstrap capitalism has been cut off at the knees.

Our health care infrastructure has been turned into a nightmare. The environment has been filled with ugly and polluting structures designed to prevent us from having access to affordable energy.

We are divided along every imaginable demographic demarcation. Our culture is a degraded swamp. Our education is a bad joke. Our cities are deteriorated and bankrupt. We have traded self rule for slavery. We are occupied by an elected coup enforced with violence.

Our tax dollars were not just wasted. They were extorted and used to destroy us.

Americans have withstood this attack and so far refused to even resist. We are exposed as shallow blowhards who fell without a fight. America has been rendered irrelevant in five short, brutal years. I cannot even stand to be in the same space with the supporters of this debacle.


13 posted on 11/12/2013 6:50:11 PM PST by reformedliberal
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To: reformedliberal

Roger that. When I see asshats driving around with stickers on their bumpers from BOTH “elections” I’m real tempted to do a spin and pin on them. Thanks for coming in from the dark side. (If your screen name means what it says.)


14 posted on 11/12/2013 6:54:10 PM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: rktman

Yes, Barack Obama will certainly leave a legacy.

He’s destroyed the American economy for the next several decades, utterly f*cked up the Middle East, and set back race relations in the United States fifty years or more.

Heartwarming.


15 posted on 11/13/2013 3:24:43 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: rktman

While I agree with Hanson’s overall take on Obama I do have 2 quibbles.

First he says the Clinton “incurred budget surpluses”. That seems a strange turn of phrase, why doesn’t he say “achieved” budge surpluses?

Second - he says that “...no one was surprised at home about the untruth about Obamacare.” I don’t know what he means by “at home”. If he means his own home I suppose he’s right. But if he is referring to something else, he’s way off base.

Ok, we here, in our home on the right, were not surprised by the disaster of Obamacare (except for the website failure, that, to me, remains astonishing) but obviously most people have been gobsmacked to learn they are losing their plans, etc.


16 posted on 11/13/2013 3:33:16 AM PST by jocon307
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To: rktman

Agreed.


17 posted on 11/13/2013 3:52:40 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: rktman

WRT my screen name, it was long ago. In brief, I was in situations on the left where I was told to essentially shut up and do as I was told, there was no freedom of thought and any sort of bootstrap capitalism was unacceptable. My husband experienced the same at a different time/place, before we met. We were halfway out (no longer aspiring to cadre status)by the 1980s. Experiencing the Reagan years was the clincher.

Back then, it took less strength of character to change your mind. We were validated during the 1990s when we saw/experienced the scope of hatred and intolerance on the left.

There are a lot of us on FR. The younger folks likely have had a rougher time of it. I joined FR in 2000 and because I had some then more recent interactions and still knew some cadre, I felt the screen name might allow me to share what I knew. I’ve done this, from time to time.


18 posted on 11/13/2013 6:06:55 AM PST by reformedliberal
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To: rktman

Pretty soon we will hear most people (except for the blacks) denying voted for Obama. “No, not me, but my neighbors /in-laws /co-workers/... did.” something like that.

OR ‘I knew he’s a complete fraud.....’ yada yada yada


19 posted on 11/13/2013 6:26:10 AM PST by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: reformedliberal

Thanks. Probably at one time, in our younger (more of the “DUH” years) years, a lot of us were more, uh, left leaning until we opened our eyes and viola! (some leaning more than others, some less) Again, thanks for your escape. Even if it was some time ago. Never could tolerate the intolerant.


20 posted on 11/13/2013 6:35:23 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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