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Comments appreciated.
Zinja

Rarely in history has an American president faced as much adversity as George W. Bush has in his first two years in office. Probably only Washington, Lincoln and FDR have had as tough a time as Bush, becoming president during tumultuous, difficult times, having so much happen so quickly.

Perhaps President Bush would be one of the greatest American Presidents ever, even better than Ronald Reagan. I just think that may happen.

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REAL MEN LOVE JESUS

Many many thanks - hope W has seen this

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bump for excellent commentary

Sorry, but while I think G.W. Bush is a decent man, he screwed up. Big time. And we are still suffering the consequences -- without Bush, Obama would still be a back-bencher in the Senate, and Hillary would be baking cookies for her grandchildren.

If I could go back in time, I'd tell GWB several things he must do:

Post 9/11: go into Afghanistan, and start leveling the government, until they give up Bin Laden. If Al Queda tries to flee into Pakistan, tell them: if you don't hand them over to us, you'll suffer the same fate.
No troops on the ground, aside from Special Forces hunter-killer teams. No nation-building: Afghanistan will have to stop fighting among themselves and build their own nation, when they are ready.
Finally, leave with a warning: if you don't mind your own business and we have to come back again, we won't leave ANYTHING standing. And, if we see you build anything bigger than an outhouse, we'll drop a bomb on it.
Stay out of Iraq. There's nothing to be gained by kicking out Saddam, and it will just make things worse.
This isn't hindsight. In the run-up to the second war in Iraq, I posted something to the effect of what Biden actually proposed later (and one of the few times I agreed with him): Iraq will just degenerate into factions fighting each other, and we don't have the political will to stay the course. The only way to a lasting peace is to separate them.
If the US did ANYTHING in Iraq, we should have said: We recognize the Kurds as a separate nation. If the other two factions try to attack them in any way, we'll bomb you back into the Stone Age. Let the Sunni's and Shiite's work out their differences, or keep fighting -- it's their choice, but we stay out of it.
Repeal the CRA and reign in Fannie Mae, like you attempted to do, but wimped out. Tell Frank and Dodd to shut up and get out of the way, or they'll go down for collusion. It might not have stopped the mortgage crisis, but it would have blunted the extent of the meltdown and the subsequent financial crisis.
Put Social Security and Medicare on a path to privatization, like you proposed, but again -- you wimped out. It will require decades, and a sacrifice by all parties involved (future recipients, current recipients, and current tax payers). But, this is our last chance to correct the mistake before it blows up in the 2030's.
Most important: avoid Dick Cheney, and pick a conservative running mate that is young and healthy enough to carry on after your second term. You left the GOP with tired, old, choices instead of experienced executives that know how to govern.

Yes, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, so I'll put my Nomex suit on.

But, I'll reiterate: I don't think Bush is a bad guy. I don't think he did anything intentionally to screw up the US, unlike his successor. But, he made mistakes, and they were colossal ones that he should have known to avoid.