Free Republic

When President Obama first ran for the White House in 2008, it was with the promise to turn the page on the presidency of George W. Bush. But for all their political differences, it turns out the American public pretty much view the two men in the same light, according to new polling data. In the first week of November in the fifth year of their presidencies, Obama and Bush have nearly identical approval numbers, according to the latest Gallup polling. The Gallup daily tracking poll for November 5th 2013 puts Obama’s approval at 39 percent, with 53 percent disapproving...

Editor's note: This article was adapted from the authors’ Hoover Institution essay, "Observations on the Financial Crisis." It is now five years after the financial shocks of September 2008. The two of us were members of the problem-solving team at the time, serving in the White House as Director of President Bush’s National Economic Council (Hennessey) and Chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers (Lazear). In a booklet that we released last week through the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (“Observations on the Financial Crisis”), we review the crisis, its causes, remedies and implications for the future. A major theme...

<p>Bashar Al-Assad is what he is today thanks to democrats- specifically Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.</p> <p>George W. Bush has never been a fan of Assad. Bush had been trying to isolate Syria since 2005, believing it was up to nefarious activities but democrats knew better. In 2007 then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi undercut Bush's foreign policy by paying a visit to Assad.</p>

In addition, and most importantly, George W. Bush was a conviction president on foreign policy matters, driven by a clear sense of the national interest. President Bush emphatically made his case to the American people and to the world, explaining why he believed the use of force was necessary, and dozens of countries decided to follow him. In the case of Barack Obama, whose foreign policy has been weak-kneed, confused and strategically incoherent, the president hasn’t effectively made the case for military intervention in Syria, and has made no serious effort to cultivate support both at home and abroad. President...

President Bush knew how to build a coalitionGeorge W. Bush was widely mocked by the Left during the Iraq War, with liberals jeering at the “coalition of the willing,” which included in its ranks some minnows such as Moldova and Kazkhstan. Michael Moore, in his rather silly documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, went to great lengths to lampoon the Iraq War alliance. But the coalition also contained, as I pointed out in Congressional testimony back in 2007, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy, Poland, and 16 members of the NATO alliance, as well as Japan and South Korea. In Europe, France and...

“You have one metric, and that is preventing all attacks. . . . If there’s one attack, you are unsuccessful,” he said. By that measure, the FBI’s record has been stained in recent years by April’s Boston Marathon bombing and by the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009. Asked what he would consider to be his least-proud moment, Mueller cited those two atrocities. “I hate to lose people, and I would say you feel most pain from what happened in some place like Fort Hood or what happened up in Boston,” he said.

Imagine the Left's reaction if the shocking, inter-racial murder of Christopher Lane had occurred when G.W Bush was president and he had stated, "If I had a son, he'd look like Christopher," or "Christopher Lane could've been me 35 years ago." Undoubtedly, the race-peddlers and entire grievance industry would've interpreted his comments as a subtle war declaration against Black America. Yet, when President Obama made these statements about Trayvon Martin, the Lefties claimed that he wasn't being divisive, he was simply "keepin' it real." The racial dynamics of both Christopher Lane and Trayvon Martin's scenarios have many people focusing on...

Over the years, I’ve meticulously chronicled progressive haters and their rank hypocrisy. It’s time for yet another refresher course as the libs go nuts over a rodeo clown. Without further ado, drawn from my blog archives, here are 10 images/signs/agitprop items mocking George W. Bush that were far, far worse than any of the silly Obama gags causing prog conniptions.

The office of George W. Bush revealed the former president had heart surgery Tuesday morning. According to a press release, doctors discovered a blockage in an artery in Bush's heart during the former president's annual physical examination at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. Bush agreed to have a stent placed to open the blockage and successfully completed the surgery Tuesday morning without complication at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Bush 43 underwent procedure this morning to put in stent to relieve artery blockage. Said to be in good spirits and set to go home Thursday.Correction: Bush 43 will be released from hospital tomorrow and back to normal schedule Thursday.

Former President George W. Bush underwent a procedure on Tuesday to have a stent inserted after a blockage was discovered in an artery, his spokesman said.

For decades, the Bushes were a dominant clan of the GOP, starting in the 1980s when patriarch George H.W. Bush became vice president, then president. But the family fell out of favor with the American public as well as with a chunk of the Republican Party in the waning years of his son's wartime presidency, and George W. Bush was deeply unpopular in its aftermath. But that's started to change; a Gallup Poll last month showed nearly half of Americans now view him favorably, a post-presidential high. With their image on the rebound, family members are openly criticizing their own...

President Barack Obama may be most linked to overhauling immigration policy, but on Wednesday, his predecessor, George W. Bush, will have a chance to weigh in on the issue. Bush will deliver opening remarks at a citizenship ceremony and immigration forum at his Dallas presidential center.

Former President George W. Bush today cheered on the “progress” in pushing comprehensive immigration reform through Congress. “The legislative process can be ugly,” Bush said with a chuckle in an interview aired today on ABC’s “This Week.” “But it looks like they're making some progress.”

President George W. Bush cautioned against criticizing gay couples, saying in an interview on “This Week” that you shouldn’t criticize others “until you’ve examined your own heart.” Bush had waded into the revitalized same-sex marriage debate last week - if only barely - in a comment to a reporter in Zambia, who asked whether gay marriage conflicts with Christian values. “I shouldn’t be taking a speck out of someone else’s eye when I have a log in my own,” Bush said last week. In an interview in Tanzania with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, the former president...

U2 frontman Bono, who moonlights as an activist for the poor and sick in Africa, is crediting evangelical Christians and former President George W. Bush for saving 9 million from the ravages of AIDS, a campaign the musician said is blessed by God. "This should be shouted from the rooftops. This is a heroic American story," Bono said in a remarkable radio interview with Jim Daly, the president of Focus on the Family, to be broadcast by the group Tuesday. Talking freely about God, his marriage, and his relationship with Jesus in the interview provided in advance to Secrets, Bono...

On Saturday, a plane carrying former President George W. Bush was diverted to Louisville, Ky., after the pilot smelled smoke, CNN reported. The aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt, but liberals were upset the plane did not crash and kill the former president, Twitchy reported Sunday. "What a shame George Bush's plane landed safely," one Twitter user said. "Dang bush plane made emergency landing. He has good pilots with his stanking a*s (sic)," added another Twitter user. "Too bad it didn't crash," said "Jay." Some readers at CNN also appeared upset that Bush survived the incident. "We need...

It's a milestone any former president would love: For the first time since 2005, more Americans approve of George W. Bush than disapprove, reports Gallup. He now stands at 49-46—up 9 in the "view favorably" category and down 13 in "view unfavorably" since he left office in 2009. (He still registers only a 24% favorable rating among Democrats, 60 points below his score among Republicans.) All the recent former presidents are at 60% favorable or above, including Bush senior at 62%. He turns 89 tomorrow, incidentally, and his foundation wants everyone to wear brights socks (and photograph them) to mark...

The outrage over President Barack Obama’s authorization of a nearly limitless federal dive into Americans’ phone records obscures a hiding-in-plain-sight truth about the 44th president many of his supporters have overlooked for years: For all his campaign-trail talk of running the “most transparent administration” in U.S history, Obama never promised to reverse the 43rd president’s policies on domestic anti-terrorism surveillance — and he’s been good on his word. Obama’s effort to strike what he’s repeatedly called “a balance” between personal liberty and homeland security has exposed what amounts to a split political personality: Candidate Obama often spoke about personal freedom...