Posted on 04/26/2013 4:28:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
As President Obama joined four ex-presidents for the dedication of a facility honoring his immediate predecessor, comparisons were unavoidable.
Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were teenagers during the depression. The childhoods of Bill Clinton and the honoree, George W. Bush, spanned the 1950s.
Generational and political differences jump out from any perusal of these five presidencies. But on a cool, sun-splashed morning in Dallas, there was harmony all around for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
But as soon as the kind words of the morning were concluded, I dove back into the messy remains of a week containing tough, pressing issues: What to make of the Boston bombers? How to fix immigration? And what to do about an administration forcing pain onto citizens to make them fear spending cuts?
And that’s just today.
Who knows what the future will bring in the remaining 45 months of the Obama presidency?
With those prospects wrapped around us constantly, amid a week of revisitation of the Bush years, a diverting exercise occurred to me. What if Bush were president today?
I don’t mean at the beginning of what would be a fourth term. Who knows what Bush policies would have yielded during the years since 2009? (Although I dare say the product would have been preferable to what we have lived through).
No, for the sake of this flight of political fancy, we’re going to roust Mr. Bush from the retirement he seems to be enjoying so profoundly and put him back in the Oval Office right now.
This is made more adventurous by 43’s steadfast refusal to weigh in on meaty issues since he left office. This is a show of consummate class and restraint that is foreign to the likes of Jimmy Carter, who remains embittered by the pink slip handed him by the American people 32 years ago.
So with no archive of articles featuring George W. riffing on events of the last four years, we are left with his record and the handful of quote nuggets he has offered up in interviews this week.
As Vice President Joe Biden returns from a Boston memorial service where he referred to the Tsarnaev brothers as “cowardly, knock-off jihad’s,” the first thing I know is that a Bush administration would not be trying so hard to block any narrative assigning deep terrorist roots to the bombings.
We have much to learn about the brothers’ influences and motives, but as we learned of the jihadist flavor of their lives, it was another example of the term “radical Islam” sticking in this White House’s throat.
Say what you will about the methods and strategies of Bush’s war on terror. At least he waged it, and he never failed to identify the enemy by name.
Obama fans grow frustrated that despite killing bin Laden, keeping Guantanamo open and launching the (brief) Afghan surge, the 44th president does not carry the image of a brave protector of America.
That is because we cannot truly fight terror unless we recognize where it comes from. When Obama wants to protect our lives with the same energy he expends protecting Muslim feelings, we will be instantly safer.
On immigration, I suspect Bush would favor the Rubio-led “Gang of Eight” reform plan. I get that feeling because I have big problems with that plan, and they match up with some of my criticisms of immigration policy under Bush, who was never the border warrior many conservatives wanted him to be.
Nor was he the spending-cutter Republicans supposedly require. This makes me suspect he might work to erode the sequester, which I love more with each passing day.
But if W were to plug back in, even with all of his “big-government conservative” instincts, in no way would he approach the severity of the plunder we have seen under Obama. And if he were to spend more than I would like, at least it would be fueled by the engine of an economy energized by lower taxes.
If the fiscal issues would be a mixed bag, at least the social agenda would be returned to some level of human decency.
There is a reason why Barack Obama knows any remarks he makes to Planned Parenthood are an invitation to a reputational barbecue. He knows-- or should know-- that we are reminded of his Illinois State Senate votes against protecting babies who happen to survive the carnage of abortion. And we are stunned by the silence of this White House amid the ghoulish revelations of the Kermit Gosnell trial.
I don’t pretend that President Bush would be issuing daily Gosnell laments as the trial goes to the jury, but we would regain a President who believes the unborn deserve protection, and who would nominate Supreme Court justices who would see to it that states wishing to issue that protection were not thwarted by the constitutional obscenity that is Roe v. Wade.
But I do not suggest that a reinstalled Bush would seek a national abortion ban, any more than he would seek a federal definition of marriage as one man and one woman.
Much is made of Laura Bush’s quote favoring “the same sort of rights” for gay marrieds. That is not “marriage equality” in its strictest sense, and she made clear to an advocacy group that she does not wish to be joined in an ad with various figures who have boarded the equivalency train.
I believe the Bush approach would be to push for strong abortion limits and unique recognition of man-woman marriage in every state, with the knowledge that states may ultimately do what they wish on those issues.
Would that the current administration respected the states’ right to run their own affairs on matters not specifically described in the Constitution.
In short, a new Bush presidency would probably satisfy conservatives in some ways and annoy them in others, much as his eight actual years did.
But at the dawn of a second term of Europe-style neo-socialism, insufficient attention to global evil and hard-left social leanings, it would be a substantial improvement.
If Bush were President today, we’d have Euro Socialism Lite instead of Full Blown Anti-American Marxism.
Neither scenario is attractive to conservatives who are tired of picking the lesser of two evils every damn election.
The situation would be the same but there would be large, well-financed anti-war, anti-drone rallies.
“Neither scenario is attractive to conservatives who are tired of picking the lesser of two evils every damn election.”
The only non-lesser-evil vote I have ever cast was for Ronald Reagan. I’m annoyed at the conservatives who will perpetually wait for the “perfect” candidate and therefore perpetually leave us in Hell with full-blown Marxists. I’d definitely prefer a pro-American Marxist-lite. Romney, Dole and McCain were terrible candidates, but that’s the reality of politics. Let’s deal with reality. We can work towards perfection, but we must vote for the lesser evil or suffer the greater evil.
as all of you will find out when it is implemented Obmacare will turn the U.S.A. into a socialist state , where many actions of the individual are controlled by the state.
Bush did some terrible things but not the unconstitutional executive orders, Obmacare, treason like with the UN arms treaty that Obama wanted to use to overide the 2nd amendment, and a million other crimes this traitor Obama.
say what you all will against Bush, the Republicans only added medicare part d and DHS , the rest of the government and other ills were added by the democrat congress who controlled congress the 40 years prior to 1992. Bush nor gop gave us socialist healthcare nor Amnesty even though Bush wanted it and he was wrong for that but he's just one dumb individual. what's coming you will all wish we were back in the Bush years
The “media” would have propagandized the sheep to the point his approval ratings would be in single digits.
Yes, reality is something we have to deal with, and socialism lite is indeed better than full blown Marxism - no Obama care is better than having Obama Care, etc. Having said that, Bush was a major disappiontment and set the stage for full fledged Marxism to prevail in subsequent elections.
“Having said that, Bush was a major disappointment and set the stage for full fledged Marxism to prevail in subsequent elections.”
Jesus Christ could not have survived the slime-job done on Bush and Republicans by the mainstream media. Bush looks better every day. If there is any justice, Obama will spend the rest of his life in prison for treason.
Well, perhaps, but we’ll never know, because Bush never even tried to fight back. That was unforgiveable....because it is us, and not him, who pay the price now.
The media would be scouring New York and New Jersey looking for victims of Sandy who are still houseless.
> Who knows what the future will bring in the remaining 45 months of the Obama presidency?
He will use EO’s to disarm the people, declare martial law, have DHS and UN strip the people of their weapons and render portions of the Constitution null and void
He will attempt to implement “Project Beast Mark” and force people to take their Obamacare implant with data storage and tracking capabilities
He will be shot. Rise again in 3 days with horns and rain hell on earth
Jesus will show up and slam him around like a toy ala Hulk in the Avengers style...: )
Thanks for DHS, “W”. Our worst fears have come true.
Mccain just joined Dems on the Senate gun law vote, the internet tax (on us) law vote and he is working with Schumer and Durbin on the amnesty bill.
When you support rats in GOP clothing then how can you be critical of Dems?
Lets see :“OH, but Obama’s versions are even worse”
or:“OH, but Democrats would have criticized him if he didnt do that.”
“When you support rats in GOP clothing then how can you be critical of Dems?”
Yes, I’m sick of liberals too. But you have to deal with reality. By voting in Obama we got 8 years of ever increasing socialism. Only the Democratic agenda ever gets to a vote. With a Republican we could (perhaps) have blocked the worst of it. Now, what if conservative activists sit out the next election and the next? At what point will the country be so wrecked it can’t recover? I think we’re close to that point right now. REALITY. You will never get 100% of what you want. You are lucky if you get 50%. Let’s not leave a national Detroit to our grandchildren. (Er...do it for the children?)
Up to 2010 and years before there were real worship threads posted to him here religiously. Now don't cry at these pictures LOL
With the GOP supporting giving full US citizenship (and the vote) to illegals and those playing candidates Rub, Ryan and Paul leading on it, it is getting more and more difficult to find a reason to vote at all anymore.
They seem to think that Hispanics will come out and vote for them if they betray us.
“With the GOP supporting giving full US citizenship (and the vote) to illegals and those playing candidates Rub, Ryan and Paul leading on it, it is getting more and more difficult to find a reason to vote at all anymore.”
Support your conservative candidates in the primary so that, perhaps, they’ll get enough votes to become a VP pick. Then, they have a pole position from which to run for president. A President McCain might have given us a President Palin.
Rubio is apparently an opportunist who ran under a false flag to get elected. He’s trying to develop a racial identity group who will vote for him because he’s the same race. BTW, he’s less popular with Hispanics than GWB was. So, what’s he really thinking? I have no idea. But 12 million new people on welfare will help the economy how? Not a clue what’s going on there. Apparently, people go to DC as one thing and then get converted like Pod People. (Science Fiction reference.)
“If George W. Bush Were President Today”
Democrats would still be calling the shots
If Bush were still President....we would have ObamaCare....but only for Illegal Aliens
Do not forget Bush led the huge Medicare expansion while in office
all you can pin on the GOP is medicare part d ("great medicare expansion") and DHS. the rest of government belongs to your beloved democrat congress locusts who created that government
Gop congress slapped bush's Anmesty down and your hillary care too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.