Posted on 04/15/2013 10:49:04 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
George W Bush: was he really that bad?
More than four years after George W Bush left the White House, his record is being reassessed and throws up similarities with Barack Obama, writes Alex Spillius
By Alex Spillius
1:10PM BST 15 Apr 2013
It is George W Bushs particular achievement to be disliked by both sides in American politics.
Democrats of course excoriate the damage done to the budget by waging two wars while cutting taxes, his conduct after Hurricane Katrina and his shoot from the hip style, not to mention that fact that he presided over the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.
His own Republican party utterly rejected him during the 2012 campaign. Tea Party types saw him as a big-spender guilty of extending federal government, while few who once stood with him were prepared to defend his military achievements.
But presidents tend to look better, or at least different, from a distance, and with the opening of his presidential centre in Texas, there are suggestions that Bush the younger may be more fondly remembered than was thought possible when he left the White House in January 2009 as the most unpopular president in living memory.
He was certainly more socially liberal than his critics give him credit for. No Child Left Behind, whatever its faults and funding, was a centralised attempt to raise educational standards across the board.
A new prescription drug benefit scheme may have been expensive (though Bush himself argues its cost has been exaggerated) but its aim was to make medicines more affordable for the elderly.
Bush failed in his most ambitious social reform of immigration law, but he was defeated primarily by the Right of his party, not the Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
You betcha.
Compared to what?
Obama? OMIDEARGOD yes~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reagan? no way....not even close
....and what it’s worth, isn’t much. I’d take W, warts and all. I think with him, you at least know what you’re getting. That said, though, I’m tired of Bushes in public service and I hope Jeb doesn’t run. Same goes for other dynasties, especially one that starts with C and ends with linton.
A mediocre, yet underrated President.
IBFCM (In Before Fan Club Members!)
I would only say, Bush should not be alone in condemnation, but the entire GOP Congress bears as much fault with his failed Presidency....They didn’t have his back the few times he really needed it, i.e. Social Security reform.
GWB and the GOP controlled Congress spent much more than I was ever comfortable with.....I will agree to all of that. But it was NOTHING compared to what is being spent now. In FY year 2007 the last year the GOP controlled both houses of Congress, our annual budget deficit wwas only $180 billion. Sure wish we could go back to those days, yes I must confess I do miss GWB. And I liked his Supreme Court picks and tax cuts. Only problem with his tax cuts is they were not made permanent.
GWB (and yes even King George III) were saints compared to what we’re stuck with now.
Including Judas Roberts?
He wasn’t quite as bad as the useless waste of space currently squatting in the WH, but he did leave one big stinking turd: DHS. Can’t put that genie back into the bottle anytime soon, now can we?thanks for giving nobama his own personal internal security force (ie. STASI), dumbass.
To the Left he was too hard on this and that and to the Right he wasn't hard enough (immigration, Islamonazi terrorism, spending controls, investigation of Freddie/Fannie), etc.
Hahahaha... not as bad as the muslim- marxist in chief Ghazi, Hussein Barack Obama who is doing his best to destroy and marginalize America.
Other than his (and his brother’s) abandoning Terri Schiavo to a slow, horribly painful death in March 2005, I very much approved of almost all of his presidential actions . . . most of them.
W was an AMERICAN!!!!!!!!
When people ask this, I always respond ‘when the Democrats were elected to control the House and the Senate in 2006, unemployment stood at 4.7%. Do you really believe it was/is GWB who is destroying our economy?’
At least W appeared to love his country...............thats more than you can say about nowadays.
They are admire his liberal mistakes.
Totally PO’d with Roberts.....TOTALLY.....disgusted. But I had no problem with most of his rulings when GWB was in office.
Hmm. I think among his warts, you must count OBAMA. He and Rove led to that big wart IMO.
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