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 ...
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.
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..
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....
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.
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.
Great first term, terrible second....but much better than Kerry would have been. What do ya do?
Have to agree based on your list that W would not be considered “great”.
bttt
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?
However, he would be near the top of my “most mediocre presidents” list. Along with Harry S. Truman.
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.
bump for later
***By the way, where’s Allegra?***
Imagine what obammy's rating would be if exposed to the same treatment by the media as Bush. Single digits for sure.
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, Bushs favorable rating has averaged 49.3
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.
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Still suffering from BDS I see.
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.
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