74 days, 12 hours, 24 minutes We all have our opinions on Bush. Most of these opinions are negative, while other will defend him to no end. Here is your chance to reflect on GWB's presidency and say goodbye!
I can only hope he brings about change in the GOP. Get back to the ideals our party is based on. Few presidents were faced with so much, and you were a president for calmer times. Would you have have succeeded if not for 9/11, Katrina, Arthur Andersen, Enron, WorldCom, etc.? Would you still have invaded Iraq? How long before we know the legacy left in Iraq? Will it manage to become a Middle East ally? Will it become a capable democracy? Will it just end up as your worst failure as President? Hopefully you can just enjoy the rest of your life relaxing at your ranch.
I won't miss you, Bush. As a fellow Texan, I would have liked to see you to have a better success but that didn't happen.
I bet GWB is just asking himself W....T...F happened to my ass? I got elected with a consevative, christian mandate; as a reformer, a small government guy and every thing I touched turned to sh**. After 9/11 we all little overboard with the jingoism. This economic crisis is the inevitable bust after a long boom. It's always so clear in the rear view. Deregulating accounting practices and mortgage oversight was really begun as a response to the dotcom bust, to soften the landing but it was too successful, too much wealth was being created, no one had a vested interest in stopping the housing bubble, including local and state governments that were hauling in property taxes. Katrina was a public relations nightmare, but I don't know how you really evaluate the response competence. Would another administration done better with the same resources? Yep, Gonzales was just way overmatched for the job. Bremmer screwed up Iraq, and once he did Bush was stuck for a 100 years. ///That was a strange 8 years.
To take but one of your points, the answer is yes. No modern president of either party would have allowed that to happen the way it did and no other president... ever!... would have allowed NOLA to fester after the fact like this one has. Here's a bonus Bush quote... Well, that's 8 years this country will never get back. Thanks Republicans. Thanks even more Greens.
Low key, but high-dollar. Definitely some Energy and/or Finance sector corporate boards, speeches and I guess a nice gig at Carlysle. Unless he wants to run Major League Baseball (which would actually be kind of cool).
Cronyism got overboard (Brownie and Bremer) and Congressional corruption grew under Bush's watch. Bush's part in Congresses' excess was rubber stamping everything they asked for without any semblance of a fiscal conservative mentality and also his admin's cheapening of the rule of law which made it hard for any semblance of consistency or authority when it came time to put corrupt Congressmen up to task. This is one nightmare we can't wake up from.
Maybe the cronyism and resultant incompetence was a function of the idealogical litmus tests required to serve in the Bush Administration. By eliminating the possible choice of anyone who didn't hold the same ideas on say, abortion or flag burning, even though those issues were not relevant to the job , the pool of competence was reduced so that the chances of getting anyone really capable was near zero. I guess that is the lesson, ideological purity reduces the chances of competence. Yes-men reduce the chances of options being explored. The tunnel vision of certainty blinds one to the vagueries and complexity of reality. I think Obama has a a good handle on that and a good start at trying to encompass a broader more pragmatic vision. The risk on that tact is becoming so broad as to risk inaction. We used to call it "paralysis by analysis". Trying to come up with plans that address every nuance can lead to ineffectively broad actions.
