Pierce won a rapid rise in politics because of his father, NH Gov. Benjamin Pierce.
As president, Pierce mainly tried to appease Southern Democrats as a "uniter, not a divider."
Pierce's good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many friends, but as president he subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
After his presidency, Pierce continued his lifelong struggle with alcoholism as his marriage to Jane Means Appleton Pierce fell apart. His reputation was destroyed during the American Civil War when he declared support for the Confederacy, and personal correspondence between Pierce and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was leaked to the press. He died in 1869 from cirrhosis.
Historians reflected the views of many historians when they wrote in The American President that Pierce was "a good man who didn't understand his own shortcomings.
He was genuinely religious, loved his wife and reshaped himself so that he could adapt to her ways and show her true affection. He was one of the most popular men in New Hampshire, polite and thoughtful, easy and good at the political game, charming and fine and handsome. However, he has been criticized as timid and unable to cope with a changing America." Pierce has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the worst U.S. Presidents.
Bush's failure is that he could not finish the war that he started because he relied on a limited warfare strategy in both Afghanistan and Iraq due to his promise of keeping the tax cuts--there is a tried and true economic principle that you can have guns or butter but you cannot have both. IMO, his legacy will depend on the success of Iraq and Afghanistan. If Iraq becomes another Bahrain, amid a successful and thriving democracy and economy with tourist pouring in to sample the history of Babylon, then Bush's legacy will be restored. However, if Obama's pulling the rug out from under the fledgling country means that it sinks into anarchy with warlords ruling the various providences, Bush goes down with Pierce which is my belief.
As a pro-ILLEGAL alien RINO who destroyed the GOP and beget us Obama.
I think after 4 years of Obama we will look back on the Bush years fondly.
If the middle east has a couple of democracies in 10 years, GWB will be lauded as a great man. If the middle east is a mess in 10 years, he will be ignored.
Liberal Bla-Bla-Bla. Goodbye GWB and please stay away from cameras for at least two years. I believed in you on Iraq and you betrayed my trust. You expanded the fed gov beyond belief. You gave the country to Obama/Pelosi along with un presidented power and created a new desire for less freedom for security (wont last) But now we have a group of dems that will find out how that feels to be let down, big time. Good bye, I wont miss you. Go!
IMHO, he operated far more like the CEO of a large corporation than like the head of a country.
Pretty well until he went treasonous with the “emergency bailout” October surprise. I know I need to forgive, but I am having a hard time with this one.
You really are sick you know ...you need proffessional help,
maybe you should take up drinking if you havent already
What could have been...
Personally, I don’t feel it’s any coincidence that four years of Bush, Sr., was followed by Clinton, and four years of Bush, Jr., has been followed by a Republican disaster and an impending Obama administration.
Rats demand public humiliation and personal destruction of GOP opponents, and too many pubbies are happy to oblige.
D.L. Moody once said, “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.” You have done the former, now leave the rest up to your God - He vindicates His own in His time.
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I think that it can be said based on his 8 years that he was not a conservative.
Rove gave us the monkier “compassionate conservatism”. I didn’t see the conservative part of the equation in the Bush administration.
Compassionate Conservative punching bag.
He made some difficult and courageous decisions after 911, but ultimately he let his enemies define who he is.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/a_brief_history_of_bushs_time.html
A brief history of Bush’s time.
One can say roughly the same thing on school choice, where we will eventually (I believe) end up with parental choice, and market solutions to the health care funding dilemma, where Bush again defined the correct solution but didn't have the votes in Congress to get over the hump. Bush will be remembered with respect as having helped mainstream constructive reform, though ahead of his time.
We will eventually win the war on terror, but it now looks like some thousands more Americans -- and we'll be lucky if the toll is only in the four digits -- will have to die before the left sobers up. Bush will be lauded by the postwar historians, and todays crop of leftists will be viewed with contempt.
Bush has performed personally with decency, grace, integrity, and humility. The BDS democrats will be seen by historians as, again, contemptible.
Bush let Congress run away with spending and will be fairly criticized for that. He will also be open to justifiable criticism on immigration, but I very much doubt that our Spanish speaking successors will care very much about that, as we will be majority hispanic before 2075. Any English speaking holdouts will be like the Gaelic remnants in Britain today.
I think I agree with your assessment.
I add only that Bush has done an amazing amount of damage to the GOP. I won’t go into what I think his many policy failings were or the positions he took that alienated conservatives.
But the worst of his failings were his pathetic communication skills. His incoherence and frequent lack of any attempt to communicate at all gave his legions of enemies a huge opening to define him and his policies and all Republicans as incompetent and/or malignant fools. I believe Bush bears a great deal of the blame for the election debacles in 2006 and 2008.
9-11 happened and Bush has said in every speech that "9-11 changed everything". He was not a nation-builder and in debates with Gore had criticized the Clinton administration of overstepping in its foreign policy. However, he became a "democracy-builder" and without hesitation or conflict believes that establishment of solid, capitalist democracies in the Middle East is the path to peace in that region. Over 130,000,000 votes have been caste in free elections by people in Afghanistan and Iraq and places that democracy has not long been the tradition (e.g., Ukraine). If you can hold onto democracy, voting is habit forming and this is a sea change in the way those countries have governed themselves. If for nothing else, and for our security for the past seven years, he should be praised.
In spite of being portrayed as a boob, his speeches have been worth reading and keeping and, unlike many Presidents, he does actively participate in the speech-writing process. When not spun or spliced, his delivery has been Churchillian and many, such as the one to Congress in September 2001 after 9-11 show a world vision that is inspirational.
One of the minor miracles that happened prior to 9-11 was the lowering of tax rates that allowed our economy to heal in spite of the most devastating attack ever on American soil. This was no small feat and supports the importance of keeping the Bush tax rates, especially because we do not know what is around the corner, financially or militarily.
Rather than being scorned he should be lauded for getting money to Africa for AIDS. Nobody else is doing it and he has committed nearly the entire amount of funding they need to fight AIDS. AIDS could literally wipe out Africa, which is I guess what everyone wants to happen. Between AIDS relief and nets to protect children from malaria, Bush has been a savior to those people.
Is he perfect? No, and he would be the first to admit it. He's a former alcoholic who has been brought to God through humility. But he knows who he is and right from wrong and polls are just distractions from doing the right thing when you have the chance. He's not Clinton, looking for glory in his legacy. He's not a Jimmy Carter trying to make trouble everytime he opens his mouth. Unlike the Clinton's, he and his wife are welcoming and gracious to the incoming President.He knows, and trusts, that when it's all over, the only acceptance that's needed is God's welcoming you to Heaven.
History will treat President George W Bush kindly, and deserves our thanks and our Respect.
He did not hand the Presidency to the Obamanation: a disorganized Conservative movement did. Disorganized Conservatives that couldn’t field a credible candidate until Sarah Palin came along, and couldn’t give adequate support to the candidate that they did field, John McCain — who, given decent support throughout, should have won easily.
Most brothels are better organized than that. Sorry, but that’s the sad truth.
The challenge is now to rebuild and to make sure that the Obamanation doesn’t get away with one dam’n thing. And above all, don’t let them tarnish GWB’s legacy, because in four years’ time that is all that many people will remember about Conservatism in America.
Just my $0.02