Posted on 03/04/2009 9:29:35 AM PST by SeekAndFind
George W. Bush had the misfortune to become president when two long-term trends that predated his presidency reached historical tipping points: First, decades of militant Islamic ferment culminated in 9/11. Second, a combination of a decades-long buildup of debt, reckless financial practices (abetted by government policies) established in the ‘90s, and habitual inflationary policies by the Federal Reserve System, finally culminated in the great financial panic of 2008. Twice, Bush reaped what he had not sown and, fairly or not, those historical events are what he will be remembered for. Of course, this is not to say he hasn’t made mistakes.
We are all armchair quarterbacks when it comes to the war in Iraq. I didn’t see how any president in a post-9/11 world could adopt a passive response to that attack. Whether toppling Saddam was the best possible alternative is something we can never know. What we do know is that Bush merely carried out the official U.S. policy, adopted under his Democratic predecessor, of removing Saddam Hussein because of his potential for providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. (In response, the not-so-loyal opposition twisted the CIA’s incompetent intelligence-gathering into vicious charges of “Bush lied,” rather than stimulating bipartisan efforts to shore up our intelligence capacities; like the far left’s pro-Viet Cong cheerleaders in the ‘60s, they embrace Saddam as more trustworthy than Bush; cynically, they repaid our troops’ sacrifices by prematurely declaring the war lost.) What we also know is that there have been no terrorist strikes on American soil since 9/11. Yes, it looks like we will have to play whack-a-mole with terrorists for a long time, but does anyone seriously believe that this wouldn’t be the case if we had allowed Saddam to continue his sadistic, terrorist-financing rule?
If Bush were a lesser man, he could have declared victory in Iraq once Saddam was captured and brought the troops home. Many politicians would have done so. Bush did not. He refused to break faith with two groups of people—the Iraqi population, who would have suffered massive bloodshed, and the American military, whose great sacrifices would have been for naught. Bush’s willingness to accept vilification rather than break faith with those most directly affected by the war showed great character. In the economic realm, Bush has been a major disappointment. When government expenditures soared to finance the war, he never once proposed that Uncle Sam reduce other spending by even a token amount to help pay for it. His “compassionate conservatism” has helped bankrupt the country. He was the first president to preside over a $2-trillion budget and also the first to preside over a $3-trillion budget. A 50 percent increase in federal spending and a near-doubling of the national debt in only eight years is neither conservative nor compassionate.
On the positive side, Bush’s strategic tax cuts during his first term were his greatest economic achievement. They strengthened the economy. However, he allowed federal spending and deficits to soar out of control due to his own spending initiatives and his refusal to veto any of the pork-laden bills passed by the Republican-controlled Congress during his first six years in office. Thus, Bush must share the blame, both for his own party’s self-destruction and for the flood of red ink that he leaves behind.
To his credit, Bush tried unsuccessfully to rescue Social Security as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their collision courses (one still pending, the others already past) with bankruptcy, but Congress foiled him. By 2008, he was the lamest of lame-duck presidents, resigned to being unable to stop the political tide, and so he meekly went with the flow and signed on to the massive bailout scheme favored by Democrats and Wall Street insiders.
Bush has been likened to Truman (unpopular war) and Hoover (gigantic financial panic), but I think the most striking parallels are with the other president from Texas, Lyndon Johnson. Bush is the first president since LBJ to have created a new federal entitlement (the Medicare prescription drug benefit). Like LBJ, Bush conducted a “guns & butter” policy—waging an expensive, unpopular military war while massively increasing domestic spending. Like LBJ, Bush’s runaway spending has sown the seeds of stagnation and inflation. Future stagnation, the “War on Terror,” and the financial collapse of 2008 will comprise the legacy of our 43rd president.
Right now, it seems unlikely that anyone will ever long for “the good old days” when Bush II was president, although what happens in the future may alter our perceptions. If Barack Obama tries to conciliate Islamic militants and they, in turn, inflict a devastating strike on an American city, or if, in his zeal to be the second coming of FDR, Obama drives the economy into a second Great Depression, then the American people might gain a new-found appreciation for the presidency of George W. Bush.
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Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is a faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.
I believe the constant congressional votes to defund or set withdrawal timelines forced the Bush administration to compromise its principals and accept big government spending from democrats. Bush was a war President first, last, and forever.
Making China a permanent favored trading partner didn’t help our job economy either.
Pres. GWB took the fight to the terrorists grounds. I commend him.
Bush saved this country by not surrendering in Iraq.
Missed a lot of opportunites.
Good man, great War time leader, so-so President.
I give it a low F!
GWB, IMO, will go down in history along with Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, U.S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as among our worst ever!
“then the American people might gain a new-found appreciation for the presidency of George W. Bush. “
Anyone in America think we WEREN’T going to get hit again after the slaughter on 9/11 by those cowardly scum? I’ve got plenty of appreciation right now, thank you...
I agree with almost everything here, especially his comparison of Bush with Johnson.
I disagree.
LBJ had the good sense not to seek a second term; otherwise he'd fall in the category of "worst presidents" too. Currently, he ranks just slightly ahead of them...his only claim to fame is Civil Rights legislation.
I think that Bush was average. I agree with all of his Iraq decisions, and I was in Iraq, Sept. 2004-Mar. ‘05. However, his tax cuts were too small, and his spending increases were too large. He wanted to give amnesty to illegal aliens, and he signed a few bills that gave money to Planned Parenthood.
He was/is a social liberal. He did not agree with the immigration issues. He excused them Not republican values in my mind.
A (compassionate conservative ) is how he described it. He won the election on it. He delivered to them. At least he was honest.
Sorry. A war President must unite the country. This needed a real Declaration of War. Bush failed to unite the country in the same way as Truman and Johnson didn't. Roosevelt was a war President.
Wow. You don't leave much room for something worse, like a McCain or Obama presidency. I'm guessing you think that either one would be better than Bush right?
You disagree because of his GWOT I presume? If so, I counter with why didn't he finish the job first in Afghanistan before committing treasure and blood to Iraq to take out the dictator his old man left in power? It was, IMO, a reckless gamble especially so because he was so apparently reluctant to commit overwhelming, crushing force in the initial stages of OIF. If he had canned Rumsfeld and initiated the surge that Gen. Prateus and others were urging in 2004 instead of 2006, pehaps we'd be celebrating another GOP president instead of the idiot now in the White House. Then I might agree with you that he would at least be a mediocre precident (Katrina, his dry VETO pen on spending and penchant for bailouts keep him from being considered fair to good).
I believe McCain would have been far superior to Bush and, in fact, I worked hard on campaigning for him to be the GOP standard bearer in 2000. Bush was, IMHO, just the lucky sperm respient of "Read My Lips" and, like his old man, tried to undo the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan with "compassionate conservatism" whatever the heck that means.
I'd say it's an even money bet that obama will do both!
All in all I agree with this assessment of Bush's Presidency. I admire him for some things and condemn him for others.
Finish the job in Afghanistan? Exasctly what would that have entailed? You forget the complication of the refuge that the Taliban has found in Pakistan. The situation is a bit like Johnson put himself into when he refused to invade North Vietnam, or when Truman decided not to push north in 1951 after we had broken the momentum of the Chinese army, and to accept the division of Korea. The trouble is that we don’t know what would have followed a different policy in any of these cases.
Yeah...right. Now I understand.
You want to reflect back on George Bush, reflect back on this:
The 2001 World Series opening pitch - Right Down the Middle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xGZujzkrA
Reflect back on the address to the Joint session of congress where he holds up a fireman's badge who was killed in the towers.
Reflect back to when he stood on the rubble of the twin towers megaphone in hand. Did you know that when he drove through NY on the way to the site, crowds of spectators, many of them volunteer emergency workers lines the street cheering him on and waving flags shouting USA, USA, USA - Mayor Rudy who was riding with him said to Bush, Do you see those people cheering? None of them voted for you.”
That was George Bush in the first years after 9/11, the George Bush that too many people forgot.
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