Posted on 09/16/2010 5:06:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
Former President George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon. In reaction, for nearly two years President Barack Obama won easy applause by prefacing almost every speech on his economic policies with a "Bush did it" put-down.
But suddenly Bush seems OK. Last week, the president did the unthinkable: He praised Bush for his past efforts to reach out to Muslims. Vice President Joe Biden went further and blurted out, "Mr. Bush deserves a lot of credit." Biden topped that off with, "Mr. President, thank you."
Even liberal pundits have now called on Bush to help Obama diffuse rising tensions over the so-called Ground Zero mosque and Arizona's illegal immigration law.
What's going on?
For one thing, recent polls show an astounding rebound in the former president's favorability -- to the extent that in the bellwether state of Ohio, voters would rather still have Bush as president than Obama by a 50-42 margin. Nationwide, Obama's approval ratings continue to sink to near 40 percent -- a nadir that took years for Bush to reach. It has become better politics to praise rather than to bury Bush.
Iraq seems on the road to success, with a growing economy and a stabilizing government. Don't take my word on that; ask Vice President Biden. He recently claimed that the way Iraq is going, it could become one of the Obama administration's "greatest achievements." Obama himself seconded that when the former war critic called the American effort in Iraq "a remarkable chapter" in the history of the two countries.
Then there are the growing comparisons with Bush's supposed past transgressions. Compared to Obama, they're starting to look like traffic tickets now. Take the economy and the war on terror. Americans were angry at the Bush-era deficits. But they look small after Obama trumped them in less than two years.
For six years of the Bush administration, Americans enjoyed a strong economy. So far, there hasn't been a similar month under Obama. Bush had a one-time Wall Street meltdown, but Obama's permanent big-government medicine for it seems far worse than the original disease.
If Hurricane Katrina showed government ineptness, so did the recent BP oil spill. Maybe such problems in the Gulf were neither Bush nor Obama's fault alone, but are better attributed to the inept federal bureaucracy itself -- or to freak weather and human laxity.
On the war on terror, Obama has dropped all the old campaign venom. Bush's Guantanamo Bay detention facility, renditions, tribunals, intercepts, wiretaps, predator drone attacks, and policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer dubbed a shredding of the Constitution. All are now seen as national security tools that must be kept, if not expanded, under Obama.
In comparison to Obama and his gaffes, Bush no longer seems the singular clod whom his opponents endlessly ridiculed. The supposedly mellifluent Obama relies on the teleprompter as if it were his umbilical cord. His occasional word mangling (he pronounced "corpsman" as "corpse-man") and weird outbursts (he recently complained that opponents "talk about me like a dog") remind us that the pressures of the presidency can make a leader sometimes seem silly.
Bush now seems cool because he has played it cool. The more Obama and Biden have trashed him, the more silent and thus magnanimous he appears. Bush's post-presidency is not like that of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton -- both have criticized their successors and hit the campaign trail -- but similar to that of his father, who worked with, rather than harped about, Bill Clinton. That graciousness not only has helped George W. Bush in the polls, but it finally seems to be mellowing out Obama as well.
Criticism of Bush got out of hand the last few years of his term. Writing novels or making documentaries about killing the president, or libeling him as a Nazi, is not the sort of politics that we want continued during the Obama years. So it makes sense before the general election to halt the endless blame-gaming, before what goes around comes around.
The frenzy of Bush hatred and Obama worship that crested in the summer of 2008 is over. We now better remember the Bush at Ground Zero with a megaphone and his arm around a fireman than the Texan who pronounced "nuclear" as "nucular." Meanwhile, hope-and-change now seems to offer little hope and less change.
America woke up from its 2008 trance and is concluding that Bush was never as bad, and Obama never as good, as advertised.
Huh? The economy thriving and unemployment practically nonexistent under President Bush and a Republican majority in the House and the Senate was a train wreck? *rme*
IMHO, equating President George W. Bush with McCain and Graham is completely ignorant.
Bush was a globalist who wanted to see America lead the world. Not in a dictatorial way, but in a democratic way.
Obama is a globalist who wants to see America be put in her place, which is apparently below all other nations.
This explains a lot of the difference between the two men.
Correct.
I agree with that statement. Bush did have conservative principles that he would stick to. Can’t say the same for the other two where it is always negotiable.
Peddle to meddle?
Peddle is a verb meaning to travel about selling wares.
Meddle is a verb meaning to interfere where you are uninvited and unwanted.
Peddle to meddle makes no sense, the closest meaning would be to travel about seeking to interfere where you are uninvited.
I need to research US economic performance charts and graphs to see if that’s the case.
Jet Jaguar has done the research for you-go here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2451468/posts
Once a black dimmicrat voter told me that George W. Bush was a liar. “Yes”, I replied, “he certainly is, he just said on TV that Islam is a religion of peace and that is as big a lie as anyone has ever told.” She looked dumbstruck, I think it may be the only time I ever agreed with her about politics.
Kennedy needed a vote of confidence from (Supreme Commander, Allied Forces in Europe) Eisenhower to help him out of the sickening loss of face entailed in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. So he Called Eisenhower to meet with him - at Camp David, IIRC - and they took a private walk together during which Eisenhower ripped him a new one. Then Eisenhower publicly gave Kennedy the support he had to have.
President Bush was a leader and he spend a lot in the 8 years he was in office less, then the arrogant pos, who currently occupies the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. As a matter of fact 0bama spend in the first six weeks what President Bush spend in his entire year and any president before him
I felt very safe under President Bush. Now I don’t.
Bookmark. Thanks for posting.
Bump
President Bush did no such thing and you know it
You are welcome. Big thanks to Jet Jaguar.
Peddle to meddle?
Petal to the metal....Sister Theresa, my 7th grade grammar teacher would have me write that phrase 100 times as a reminder.
Thanks!
That is a lie and you know it
You just increased my vocabulary...thanks.
You just increased my vocabulary...thanks.
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