Tax cuts and charisma, which would have been more than enough if the world hadn't changed overnight and exposed his naivete. In the same way that an aggressive opposition media and hostile Congress exposed B. Clinton's personal moral ambiguity.
bush's presidency can be summed up by numerous events and this one. so much arrogance on display at the event, but another thing. he ran his presidency like a continual marketing campaign instead of trying to actually run the country. and that pathetic display will always represent the way he thought he could run this country. the country doesn't run itself, i think people truly believed in 2000 that anyone could be put in place. things were going so well they just wanted a person they liked. and he ran his presidency to be likeable, building his brand. and then katrina hit and its been downhill since.
Bush was never anything more than an extension of the men whom did not get to see their policies completely come to fruition in his father's first term. He was a vessel that carried a plague into the white house. A trojan horse of a president, if you will. People voted for one thing, and got something completely different. Bush may be a decent man with good intentions, but good intentions do not a good President make.
He was a bad president, but I don't hate him. He seems more misguided, dumb and pathetic than evil. I think deep down, he has a good heart, and I also think he regrets many of the decisions he's made, whether he says so or not. That's my gut. And Laura, well she's another story. I like Laura.
The worst ever attack on American soil occurred during his presidency. That has to be taken into account, but, overall, I don't think history will be kind to George Bush. His father was far more competent.
haha... First off.. don't repeat yourself in order to make your argument look better.. it just makes you look ignorant. Also, Bush never tortured anybody, Bush does not control the weather, and secrecy?? Signing statements?? None of your reasons show me any evidence of George W being a bad human being.
He was groomed to represent the neoconservative agenda? That's strange since his father is not a neoconservative and considering he was decidely anti-intervention when he was elected. I guess he was deep deep deep undercover, lol.
Don't forget that a lot of the younger people who are just now being exposed to the political world will probably always see the republican party as the "evil" ones for the rest of their lives b/c of bush's doings.
I actually think he handled 9/11 the correct way all the way up until he invaded Iraq on either false pretense or false intel. The day before we invaded Saddam said he would allow UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Bush's Presidency would have had a totally different legacy had he decided to say OK and let the inspectors back in rather than attack. That single decision ruined his entire presidency. Because of that bad decision, he gets blamed for many things that were either out of his control, or not his fault anyways. So, as someone who still has core conservative values, I blame that decision, and the resulting administration on the sweeping liberal victories in the last 2 years. The elections in 2006 and 2008 have been, more than anything else, a referendum on Bush. Democrats can basically thank Bush's administration for the government power they have attained in the last 2 years. American politics always corrects back to the middle in cycles, so we've now reached the far left swing in the over correction of the Bush administration. My dream scenario after this 4 years is a Democratic President and Republicans retaking one of the houses of congress in the next 4 years. The country tends to perform its best historically with split government, and that mix.
I remember during 9/11 people were talking about him being one of the top 3 presidents ever? He handled 9/11 well, however, I think people were going to listen to anyone with a calming and assertive voice during those times.
George Bush's incompetence as a President is unquestionable and his destruction of the conservative movement is tragic. However everyone wants to pile on him now because its the easy thing to do. Democrats want to permanently depict him as evil and the root of all things gone bad in this country. Naturally, he deserves a lot of the blame for the current state of the country but some of that was beyond his control. 9/11 was less than a year into his term, blaming him for that would be like blaming Obama for the economic crisis he is going to inherit. Back in the 90s our government was in denial that terrorism was a legit threat even though we had been targeted numerous times abroad and even back home with the first WTC attacks back 93. We never held these foreign governments accountable for harboring such extremist until it hit us hard back home. Again you can't expect these weak governments in the middle east to shore up their country and go after these terrorists. The world does not play by the same rules and until countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the likes do so, we have to deal with this global crisis on our own. Katrina was an act of nature not some creation of Bush to punish the people of the gulf coast. This was the first of its kind and no one was really prepared for the reality of such a natural disaster. The response was slow and ineffective in some parts but local governments share the burden with their federal counterpart for failure to act. Look we as Texans just went through IKE and made all efforts to learn from Katrina and be prepared for the aftermath. Our mayor and county judge did a stellar job to ensure all measures are taken to save lives and get people the supplies they need. He was a bad president not a monster like some might lead you to believe.
If you have been around here for any length of time, you would know that the view that Bush is the worst president ever is not a recent development. It's just that no one had the misguided idea of creating a thread claiming he was a great man.
Yet he seemed to fill the role rather admirably, don't you think? It doesn't matter what he said ... it matters what he did. And what he did was attempt to enact the agenda of the PNAC. I believe he was clueless about the inentions of his handlers ... and I believe he still may be.
The bolded part is what I've been saying about Bush since late 2003. One very long campaign event masquerading as governing. He didn't stop the ruse until last fall.
