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So George W. Bush isn't a monster, after all
Yahoo News ^ | 5/8/14 | Matt Bai

Posted on 05/08/2014 9:51:24 AM PDT by TangledUpInBlue

If you've just crash-landed from the planet known as Kepler-186f and have no experience with the human life form or its recent history, let me just clarify something for you: George W. Bush was a divisive and unsuccessful president. Economically, internationally, culturally — you name the category of leadership, and the results pretty much range from disappointment to disaster. A CBS News/New York Times poll clocked Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent, which is about as low as you can go in politics without needing a parole officer.

You may get confused about this, because lately Bush is enjoying a public restoration. The Bush you read about these days is the kind of inclusive conservative you can deal with, a guy who bikes with wounded veterans, a sensitive portraitist of world leaders. A graphic this week on FiveThirtyEight.com showed how fewer and fewer Americans blame Bush for the country's economic morass, even though his successor, Barack Obama, won two presidential campaigns based on precisely that premise.

Bush's critics will argue that this is testament to how quickly we forget the past. But it has more to do, really, with how we distort the present.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush43; dubya; georgewbush
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To: TangledUpInBlue

He’s no monster. He was unfit to be president, left the country worse than when he started, and got the job because he comes from a political family.


41 posted on 05/08/2014 11:00:16 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Verbosus
Linking Yahoo and news into something coherent is a stretch. Consider that Mother Jones and the Huffington Post are their primary sources for most articles.

The introduction to the article was as hate filled as anything ever written about W. That much rhetoric, hyperbole and opinion in an introduction indicates "why bother" unless it's what you want to read..

42 posted on 05/08/2014 11:03:56 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: Moonman62

Sadly, he was a liberal, big govt RINO like the rest of his family.

He was key in comrade obamatollah’s victory.

GWB is a disgusting pile of crap.

My apologies to crap....


43 posted on 05/08/2014 11:07:21 AM PDT by newfreep
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To: Tenacious 1

President Bush didn’t have the political backing to do what was necessary to actually win in Iraq, and he had zero ability to articulate what needed to be done in order to generate that backing. We won in WWII because our enemies were virtually incapable of continuing resistance even if they wanted to. I don’t think we had the political will to do the same in Iraq.

I don’t mean to disparage the troops who fought in Iraq. They fought honorably. It’s not their fault they were hamstrung from the beginning.


44 posted on 05/08/2014 11:07:59 AM PDT by CitizenUSA (We can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it!)
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To: TangledUpInBlue
Clinton was the second worst president in history. Caused 9-11, and most of the success of radical Islam is his fault. He enabled China to rise as a world power by leaking (selling?)critical technology on our nuclear weapons and other military tech. Severely damaged law enforcement by firing US attorneys-illegally, allowing Jamie Gorelick to divide the agencies’ communication network, making Janet Reno AG which led to the Waco massacre, among other things. Encouraged all abortions, including late term. Illegally confiscated funds of, and illegally investigated pro-life organizations. Brought us NAFTA, which gutted the US economy, losing 90-plus percent of US businesses. Even if you ignore the many, many scandals, suspicious deaths/unsolved murders, he was one of the crookedest leaders this country has ever seen.
45 posted on 05/08/2014 11:10:05 AM PDT by Missouri gal
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To: ilgipper

I never meant that Bush was solely responsible for the 2007 financial crisis. However, he was the man at the top—the so-called buck stops here guy. When one assumes the presidency, one also assumes responsibility for what happens on their watch.


46 posted on 05/08/2014 11:11:06 AM PDT by CitizenUSA (We can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it!)
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To: StolarStorm

Great first term, terrible second....but much better than Kerry would have been. What do ya do?


47 posted on 05/08/2014 11:13:18 AM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Vigilanteman

Have to agree based on your list that W would not be considered “great”.


48 posted on 05/08/2014 11:14:13 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

bttt


49 posted on 05/08/2014 11:14:20 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: TangledUpInBlue
Yea, too bad the story is tripe...

Since one can make the case for liberty lost in the name of DHS, Patriot Act, His actions are nothing more than an abysmal failure.

Added the bail outs it is nothing more than a candy coated democrat lite administration, fraught with treason, and anti-constitutional power grabs.

After so much money that went to "too big to fail" corporations who the hell did it really help?

50 posted on 05/08/2014 11:17:20 AM PDT by SERE_DOC ( “The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” TJ.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

However, he would be near the top of my “most mediocre presidents” list. Along with Harry S. Truman.


51 posted on 05/08/2014 11:17:32 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: CitizenUSA
President Bush didn’t have the political backing to do what was necessary to actually win in Iraq,...

The war was won in about three days. What followed was an occupation / police action / nation building, waste. How do you "win" that??? The keyboard Pattons called it "war" for political reasons.

52 posted on 05/08/2014 11:20:28 AM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (Peace On Earth! Purity of Essence! McCain 2016)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

bump for later


53 posted on 05/08/2014 11:21:38 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: eCSMaster; TheMom; humblegunner; Eaker

***By the way, where’s Allegra?***


She hasn’t posted since Dec 2011.Any FReepers talked to her lately?

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:allegra/index?brevity=full;tab=comments


54 posted on 05/08/2014 11:45:28 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (The Second Amendment is NOT about the right to hunt. It IS a right to shoot tyrants.)
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To: eCSMaster
I think some of them made it to Libya.

And Canada, though not "shovel ready".


55 posted on 05/08/2014 11:59:25 AM PDT by caveat emptor (!)
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To: TangledUpInBlue
Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent...

Imagine what obammy's rating would be if exposed to the same treatment by the media as Bush. Single digits for sure.

56 posted on 05/08/2014 12:13:20 PM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To win the country back, we need to be as mean as the libs say we are.)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-blame-bush-era-may-be-at-an-end/

“But over the past year, polling data has begun to suggest that Bush is no longer quite the liability he once was for the GOP, and that most Americans no longer see the current economy as something Obama inherited.”

“Since April, Bush’s favorable rating has averaged 49.3”


57 posted on 05/08/2014 12:20:28 PM PDT by 1035rep
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To: ncfool
Dubya is and was, great, good, and honorable.

I would also add brave and undaunted in defense of this fine Country.

Lesser leaders would have folded under the nonstop, withering attacks from the media, but Dubya persevered.

As a Dad, with two "kids" in uniform, I always knew that Dubya was their admirer and ally.

Did Dubya get everything right? Nope, and neither did Reagan, and neither would any of us.

Dubya restored dignity and purpose to the WH, and the contrasts between he and Wm Blythe and Mister Obama are breathtaking and instructive.

.

58 posted on 05/08/2014 5:06:01 PM PDT by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: TangledUpInBlue

Still suffering from BDS I see.


59 posted on 05/08/2014 5:12:45 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
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To: StolarStorm
He may have not been a monster, but he was not a great president.

After Ronald Reagan, GW Bush is the greatest president to serve in my 60 years. Including Reagan, Bush was the greatest war time president during my lifetime.

60 posted on 05/08/2014 5:14:20 PM PDT by upsdriver (Palin/West '16)
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