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George W. Bush Reconsidered (Some perspective on the much-derided 43rd president)
National Review ^ | 01/02/2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 01/02/2013 7:10:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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To: livius

I agree 100% with everything you say.


21 posted on 01/02/2013 8:06:23 AM PST by Old Grumpy
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To: xzins

If Terri Schiavo had been Terri Bush Schiavo, she would still be living. The Bushes are respecters of persons.


22 posted on 01/02/2013 8:07:06 AM PST by Theodore R. ("Hey, the American people must all be crazy out there!")
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To: what's up

The HST record was really bad too, but Goldwater did a lot to resurrect the image of HST. We might have been better off with Thurmond, as Trent Lott once said but apologized and still got the GOP boot.


23 posted on 01/02/2013 8:09:23 AM PST by Theodore R. ("Hey, the American people must all be crazy out there!")
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To: I cannot think of a name
“He squandered the greatest opportunity since Pearl Harbor!”

I agree completely. After Pearl Harbor, FDR had three immediate, critical tasks:

1. Protect the homeland.
2. Win the war in Europe, and in the Pacific.
3. Eliminate German and Japanese imperialism as a threat to the world.

Sure, FDR was weak in many areas, but he completed all three of the above, in less than four years!

Now consider Bush II after 9/11. He had to:

1. Protect the homeland.
2. Win the war in Afghanistan.
3. Eliminate radical islam as a threat to the world.

Bush had seven years, and he failed in numbers 2 and 3, failed miserably.

I'm sure Bush is a good person, and he'd make a great next-door neighbor. But his failures will haunt this country for generations. Like Vietnam, only much worse.

24 posted on 01/02/2013 8:11:40 AM PST by Leaning Right
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To: SeekAndFind
W was certainly an imperfect President.But then,so was Reagan.But he was 1000 light years better than algore and John Friggin Kerry would have been and 100,000 light years better than the Community Organizer-In-Chief has been...and ever will be.
25 posted on 01/02/2013 8:12:40 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (When Robbing Peter To Pay Paul,One Can Always Count On Paul's Cooperation)
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To: SeekAndFind

I met W once here in Texas when he was Gov.

He seemed like a really nice persona and was personable.

He just let the media win...

We wanted Regean and were sick of Clinton.


26 posted on 01/02/2013 8:15:49 AM PST by Rightly Biased (Avenge me Girls AVENEGE ME!!!! ( I don't have any son's))
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To: SeekAndFind
Forgot to mention one vitally important fact about W's presidency....it's recently become obvious where Sadaam’s WMDs went.They went to Syria,just like Colon Bowel told the UN General Assembly a few weeks before the invasion.
27 posted on 01/02/2013 8:15:57 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (When Robbing Peter To Pay Paul,One Can Always Count On Paul's Cooperation)
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To: Leaning Right

” Now consider Bush II after 9/11. He had to:

1. Protect the homeland.
2. Win the war in Afghanistan.
3. Eliminate radical islam as a threat to the world.”

And perhaps the worst of these:

1. Would anyone have argued on 9/12 with the need to properly secure the boarders?

2. Would anyone have argued with a program to make us not dependent on Middle East oil (drill baby drill).

3. And to recover from the financial disruption caused by 9/11, roll back the Clinton tax hikes PERMANENTLY.


28 posted on 01/02/2013 8:22:29 AM PST by I cannot think of a name
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To: SeekAndFind

I reconsidered him. He still sucked.


29 posted on 01/02/2013 8:29:24 AM PST by montag813
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To: SeekAndFind

Bush was a disaster that the Republicans and America in general are a long ways from recovering from. His failure to stop illegal immigration alone should be the end of the discussion, all but assuring the death of the GOP and really all hope for restoring republican government by demographics. He destroyed any credibility the GOP might aspire to have on deficits.

His signature on the TARP bailout renders Republican claims to standing for free market accountability as just irrelevant prattle, not to mention that he should’ve stepped in to reign in Fannie and Freddie years earlier. Though I certainly shed no tears for Mullah Omar and Saddam, he committed the U.S. to exactly the kind of foolish nation-building that he campaigned against, and that inevitably results in failure amid massive losses of blood and treasure, especially when attempted in any past of the world under the sway of Mohammad. He never met a freedom he wasn’t willing to sacrifice for “security”.

The best that can be said for him is that he kept Gore and Kerry out of the Oval Office, which I suppose is no small thing.


30 posted on 01/02/2013 8:29:57 AM PST by Behind the Blue Wall
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To: Leaning Right
I'm sure Bush is a good person, and he'd make a great next-door neighbor. But his failures will haunt this country for generations. Like Vietnam, only much worse.

When comparing W to FDR regarding war it's **essential** to point out that under FDR no Republican sided with Hitler or Tojo whereas,under W,a good percentage of the opposition party sided with our enemies...as was seen in Vietnam as well.

31 posted on 01/02/2013 8:32:06 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (When Robbing Peter To Pay Paul,One Can Always Count On Paul's Cooperation)
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To: Gay State Conservative
Forgot to mention one vitally important fact about W's presidency....it's recently become obvious where Sadaam’s WMDs went.They went to Syria,just like Colon Bowel told the UN General Assembly a few weeks before the invasion.

...and yet Bush's own 'bi-partisan' Iraq Intelligence commission deemed that the intelligence community had it wrong about Saddam's WMD program leading up to OIF, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary that had dems and republicans alike warning of it for over a decade prior.

32 posted on 01/02/2013 8:34:10 AM PST by TADSLOS (I took extra credit at the School of Hard Knocks)
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To: what's up
Read carefully...

This Bush family doctrine of post presidential politeness is handing Dems the keys to the revisionist bulldozer.

Think about the last Republican presidencies...Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush. No one wanted to defend the Nixon/Ford presidencies. At the end of his second term, Reagan was done with politics and GHWB was a reluctant defender of Reagan's policies. Clinton quickly learned he could say anything about his predecessor, and nothing would happen. The press will repeat any accusation a Dem makes, and as long as the Bushes maintain their family policy of remaining "above the fray", Obama's absurd claims about the economy, and the Pelosi budget he inherited, are morphing into revised history.

33 posted on 01/02/2013 8:37:39 AM PST by Tex-Con-Man (<-------currently working through post-election anger issues.)
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To: Gay State Conservative
under W, a good percentage of the opposition party sided with our enemies

True, but there was also sizable pro-German "America-first" movement back in 1941. FDR solved that problem by declaring war. Opposition to the war became treason.

Bush should have made it clear how serious he was after 9/11. As you said, 9/11 was another Pearl Harbor. Bush should have declared war.

34 posted on 01/02/2013 8:44:22 AM PST by Leaning Right
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To: Pining_4_TX
The Bush family has done so much to destroy the Republican Party and the conservative movement

So totally disagree with that. You haven't been enjoying the tax cuts?

I blame the GOP for the problems with conservative movement.

35 posted on 01/02/2013 8:51:26 AM PST by beachn4fun (Lost: sense of humor. If found please return.)
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To: Leaning Right

“Bush should have made it clear how serious he was after 9/11. As you said, 9/11 was another Pearl Harbor. Bush should have declared war.”

Bush went to ground zero against the advice of his advisers.

Bush got on top of a burned out fire truck - against the advice of his advisers - and spoke the only words of his that will be reprinted in history books.

Without asking his advisers, during impromptu questions Bush responded, “you are either with us or against us.”

Thus endith the actual GWB.

From that point on, he ‘listened’ to advisers.

And the rest is history (rather depressing history).


36 posted on 01/02/2013 8:52:37 AM PST by I cannot think of a name
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To: Leaning Right

” Now consider Bush II after 9/11. He had to:

1. Protect the homeland.
2. Win the war in Afghanistan.
3. Eliminate radical islam as a threat to the world.”

on #1 - we now have DHS. It should go without saying but it is the most invasive freedom-crushing bureaucracy ever conceived, and is now in the hands of a communist wannabe dictator.

on #2 - he stated that “Victory would not be like our fathers or grandfathers.....” (WTF?) in Afghanistan - setting the stage for the disaster it is.

on #3 - he repeatedly defended “Religion of Peace” mantra that diluted his stated goal, and made it impossible to achieve.

What else ya got?


37 posted on 01/02/2013 8:54:34 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer
Excellent points in your last post. As much as I despise LBJ for what he did regarding Vietnam, LBJ had no prior history to guide him. I suppose LBJ thought that, at worst, Vietnam would end in stalemate like Korea.

But Bush II had the Vietnam experience as a guide in what not to do. But Bush ignored it. LBJ's “win the hearts and minds” campaign became Bush's “nation-building.”

So, yes, I rate Bush II as a worse president than LBJ for that fact alone. Unlike Vietnam, Afghanistan simply had to be won decisively. Radical islam is MUCH more dangerous than Vietnamese communism.

I will now shut down my Bush-bashing machine for the day.

38 posted on 01/02/2013 9:19:18 AM PST by Leaning Right
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To: SeekAndFind

W and his father were both poor presidents and not actual believers in the conservative cause. Their damage to the GOP and the country has been substantial.


39 posted on 01/02/2013 9:40:47 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Leaning Right
Bush should have declared war.

He couldn't, he was president.

40 posted on 01/02/2013 9:42:39 AM PST by Darth Reardon
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