Things I don’t miss about George W. Bush (Michelle Malkin)

Michelle Malkin ,com ^ | February 9, 2010 | Michelle Malkin

[sickoflibs]

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but someone has to do it.

The “Miss Me Yet?” billboard (inspired by Jonathan Maney’s t-shirts) is cute. But let’s not get carried away with nostalgia.

President Bush put America on the proper war footing after 9/11 and deserves much credit for doing so, but he also:

1) joined with open-borders progressives McCain and Kennedy to try to force shamnesty down our throats;

2) massively expanded the federal role in education;

3) championed the Medicare prescription drug entitlement using phony math;

4) kowtowed to the jihadi-enabling Saudis;

5) stocked DHS with incompetents and cronies;

6) pushed Hillarycare for housing;

7) enabled turncoat Arlen Specter;

8. nominated crony Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court;

9) pre-socialized the economy for Obama by embracing TARP, the auto bailouts, the AIG bailout, and in his own words:

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” – George W. Bush

No, I don’t miss having a corporate socialist Republican in the White House any more than I like having a corporate socialist Democrat in the White House now.

[metalurgist]

For keeping silent and letting the crats attack him over and over until their lies were accepted as truth.
For not dumping Cheney when running for a second term when Cheney let it be known that he wasn't interested in running for president when Bush's term was up.
It was Bush's duty as president of the United States and as head of the Republican party to groom a successor. Now look at what we got.
Bush had the veto pen. He should have used it and kept pork and proliferate spending under control. If he would have done this we would still have control of Congress or at least be able to force grid lock.
Bush should have vetoed McStains campaign finance reform.
Bush got us bogged down in Iraq with his desire to nation build. He said he owed it to the Iraqi people.
No Mr. President, your first allegiance is to the American people and to the American mothers that sent their sons and daughters to war. He should have smashed Iraq and Saddam and got out.
I could go on and on, but this is enough for now.

[Impy]

She’s one of our best “pundits”.

[Balding_Eagle]

We won the Cold War thanks to Reagan.

You really can't say anything like that about Bush.

GWB may be responsible for the overturn of RoevWade, no small feat.

Chief Justice Stevens has already indicated they are ready to hear a case.

[metalurgist]

Deeply.

[jwalsh07]

We won the Cold War thanks to Reagan.

You really can't say anything like that about Bush.

Seems a bit myopic. The Middle East boil was way out of control and ready to explode. Bush lanced it. Now we wait and see where that leads us.

[A.Hun]

You really can't say anything like that about Bush.

Bush set the entire tone for our ongoing war on terror by killing/capturing everyone he could find that was responsible for 9/11 or planning another...that might be as important as the fall of the USSR in the future.

But, I will have to agree, bringing down USSR was an awesome accomplishment. Thanks to Thatcher also.

[ohioWfan]

LOL! Funny request coming from you, who have posted fact-less posts left and right. (Or is that just "left?")

If Clay Shaw blamed President Bush for his loss in 2006 and did not stand up in support of our troops and their mission in his campaign, then he is a coward and caused his own loss.

Don't feel bad though, there were lots of people just like him all over the country, my own RINO Senator DeWine among them.

btw, your "where are the WMD?" gave you away, Mark. You need to learn to be more stealthy on a conservative website where people are well informed...

[BufordP]

Thanks for feeding my BDS!
;-)

[metalurgist]

GWB got us Supreme Court Justices Alito and Roberts both of whom will be with us for 20-30 years.

Did he? Or was the grass roots conservative Republicans that screamed holy hell when he tried to nominate his mushy moderate crony that got us Alito and Roberts? You decide.

[valkyry1]

I hear yah

[metalurgist]

Thanks to Bush we never had to suffer a President Gore or Kerry. Thank you! Think about it, people.

I will thank him for that, but also I will blame his actions and inaction's for giving us Obama.

[ohioWfan]

Remind me of the "grass roots conservative Republicans" who caused the nomination of John Roberts. With links, please.

Oh......and it was Mier's failure to get through the Senate hearings and Bush's having Alito at the ready that resulted in Alito's presence on the SC.

Facts are stubborn things.

[Sudetenland]

"Hoover/Ike/Nixon/Ford/Bush/Bush all ended up hurting the Republican party.

Yeah, like it's all their fault...having a Republican Congress that spent like drunken sailors was Bush's fault.

"Judges are big especially the SC and I think they were W. Bush’s only major saving grace. Most of the tax cuts sadly were passed with sunset clauses.

Bush's fault!????? Best he could manage with the Congress he had.

"I don’t give much extra credit for “preventing attacks on US soil” cause that’s a basic minimum job requirement. Many freepers extol Truman for winning WW2, that was his minimum job requirement."

NIce sentiment, but hardly reasonable or predictable. I don't know of anyone who would have taken that bet back in 2001 after 9/11. I'd say due diligence and a fair amount of luck was involved.

"As for personal integrity I’d rather have a modern day Calvin Coolidge with a sex and booze addition than the most honorable big government Republican. Maybe that’s just me."

I'll take an honest man over what we had when Bush was elected and over what we have now however to be fair, Bush 41, Reagan, and Ford were all honorable men, as was Eisenhower.

"On several issues Bush was the “second best after Reagan” but that says more about the deficiencies of his predecessors."

Fair ctiticism, I'm not attempting to beatify Bush, just be fair about him.

"Bush is a lot like Nixon vis a vis his image. The left hates them both to an extreme degree but that’s not a reason for the right to like them."

Frankly, I liked Nixon...somewhat too "moderate" (that is to say liberal) for me, but kicked but on a lot of issues.

On balance Republicans have all been head and shoulders over the Democrat alternatives.

[BufordP]

You have to put MY name in the To: box, Guns. Otherwise I don’t see it. But trooprally pinged me just the same.

[lone star annie]

I don’t miss Bush at all. I blame him for the debacle we have now called Obama. He did not lead to promote the party such as cracking down on voter fraud and making sure only citizens vote. Instead, he wanted blanket amnesty which would have made the GOP a minority party forever.

When he called the Minute Men “vigilantes” and said he would “see you at the signing,” ripped it with me. I liked his “temporary” tax cuts and his USSC picks and that is about it.

NO I don’t miss Bush, I miss Ronald Reagan.

[A.Hun]

mushy moderate crony

Perfect libspeak! Congratulations.

I like "longterm, stalwart, and trusted advisor".

[molybdenum]

"...before the 2006 elections, he pledged that he would not fire Don Rumsfeld.."

Then GB apparently asked for Rummy's resignation soon after the election. That's firing in anybody's book. Rumsfeld was IMO a great asset to GB, but he Bush)weakened because of the disastrous election and the continuing flak from the left directed at Rumsfeld. GB could not take that pressure. Passive-aggressive, and it was a shame. He did make us proud a lot of times--at Ground Zero, going after the enemy (yet he diluted that by ignoring the Religion of Decapitators); he defended the unborn, I loved the guy when he rode in on the carrier at San Diego declaring "Mission Accomplished!" (That particular mission was accomplished, forget the sarcastic left's remarks). But he fell into the liberal-left-communist trap. And was perceived as a wimp.

Oh, and where is Rumsfeld these days? Healthy and strong, I hope.

[x]

The Middle East boil was way out of control and ready to explode. Bush lanced it. Now we wait and see where that leads us.

If it turns out Bush did the right thing, people will think better of him for it, but the jury's going to be out on that for a long time.

Looking back, though, Reagan did just about everything right so far as the Soviets were concerned, and it's much harder to say that about Bush and the Middle East.

Maybe Reagan was lucky and maybe he'd absorbed the lessons of forty years of Cold War, but he certainly showed more skill and mastery than Bush did.

[valkyry1]

//a corporate socialist Republican in the White House any more than I like having a corporate socialist Democrat in the White House//

Okay sure Michelle, whatever you say. Michelle goes over the top every now and then, but it generates traffic on her website.

[metalurgist]

Nixon also began the EPA and the Endangered Species Act. Nixon also ended up giving us Gerold Ford which begat Jimmy Carter. Damn them all.