George W. Bush Reconsidered (Some perspective on the much-derided 43rd president)

National Review ^ | 01/02/2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Alaska Wolf]

His failure to stop illegal immigration alone

Who in the house or senate supported securing our borders. Only Gov. Brewer of Arizona has taken measures to do so.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Who in the house or senate supported securing our borders. Only Gov. Brewer of Arizona has taken measures to do so.

It's well within the authority of the POTUS to secure the borders. Bush failed to do so, and made the situation substantially worse by pushing for amnesty, even the promise of which attracts additional people across.

[Moonman62]

W and his Daddy put us on the road to ruin. No more Bushes.

[Osage Orange]

The total difference in both POTUS being able to do the right thing...is the MSM.

PERIOD.

GWB had a damaging, overwhelming, adverse opposition to his Presidency....Nothing like what FDR faced. Nothing!

[TChris]

Nothing like what FDR faced. Nothing!

FDR deserved every ounce of opposition he ever got.

Worst. POTUS. ever.

[Osage Orange]

Whole different argument.......

[RJL]

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.

Well said.

[Alaska Wolf]

It's well within the authority of the POTUS to secure the borders

Who in the house or senate supported securing our borders?

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Enough to kill an amnesty proposal at least, but that’s not the issue. Securing the borders doesn’t need legislation, it’s an executive function. Any President who decided to get serious could do it.

[hinckley buzzard]

I generally like VDH a lot, but this effort is strained and disappointing. Maybe it's the best he could do, but it is a terribly weak defense of G W Bush is to say, "Well, Obama is worse."

No sh-t. Don't like genital herpes? Well, AIDS is worse.

[hinckley buzzard]

Good observations. I recall the weeks after 9/11 when even the liberal media whores talked about "moral clarity" with respect to Bush. That talk didn't last long, but then neither did Bush's "moral clarity."

[Pelham]

“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”

His refusal to enforce immigration law certainly guaranteed that California will permanently be a fortress for the Democrat left. And what starts here eventually spreads to the rest of you.

Apparently the oath he took to enforce our laws was something he regarded as optional.

[Alaska Wolf]

Securing the borders doesn’t need legislation, it’s an executive function.

Where does the POTUS get the funds to secure the borders?

[Pelham]

Rumsfeld was a replay of Robert McNamara.

[Pelham]

‘Mark my words. I am going to have more problems with members of my own party than I will with Democrats…If anybody comes to me demanding this and telling me to do that, they’ll be finished. They tried to do that in Texas with English-only [an attempt to dismantle bilingual education]. But I said: “No. You are going to destroy this party by being extremist”…I had to change the imagery in [sic] my party. I had to change the idea that my party was against things. Against immigrants. Against public schools. I wanted people to know I was for something, so that people wanted to hear what I stood for.’

- George W. Bush, quoted in London Financial Times, December 12, 2000.

[Alaska Wolf]

Mark my words.

The questions remain. Who in congress supported securing our borders and when was the funding passed.

[Pelham]

Rohrbacher, Tancredo, Lamar Smith, there were enough to keep the amnesty loving Dubya from putting the interests of scofflaw Mexican nationals ahead of American law.

[Alaska Wolf]

Rohrbacher, Tancredo, Lamar Smith,

How much funding did those provide for border security?

[Alaska Wolf]

Rohrbacher, Tancredo, Lamar Smith,

How much funding did those three provide for border security? What legislation did they get passed to secure our borders?

[Treeless Branch]

Good list. Don’t forget the crap load of money he gave to Africa.