It's a shame that he was such a poor president. He's a Shakespearean Tragedy in my opinion. A compassionate, warm, sincere man who was just not capable of properly executing the office he won. He surrounded himself with snakes and fossils believing they were the best minds to guide his hand. It's not an excuse for him, because in the end it was by his own hand that his legacy was written, but it's a shame. MacBeth could have been remembered fondly and so could have Bush. Pity. Hopefully Obama will live up to the potential his character provides him.
he should have remained governor of tx. the perfect post for him... (figure head w/ limited powers) im sure he feels used and abused.
He had the right family, he had the right look and he wouldn't ask too many questions. The perfect sockpuppet.
Your OP totally refutes the title of your own thread. I don't believe he's compassionate, warm or sincere but even if true it doesn't make him great. It makes him like millions of average, not great, people. A great man wouldn't have surrounded himself with "snakes and fossils". Bush wasn't "great", he was simply not up to the task. This also proves that when voting for president, you aren't just voting for one man, you are voting for an administration. Whether in business, government, churches, etc, the true measure of a leader is the people he puts in positions of power around him. George W Bush was an epic failure in this regard.
He was the fall guy for everything. Probably will be for the next couple of years. I think Bush made a lot of mistakes and mishandled numerous things, but he takes criticism that wasn't due to him. I wonder what his legacy would have ultimately have been if the Iraqi War had gone the way he intended, instead of lingering on this long. I bet he wishes he could just dissappear. I don't know how long it will take before people will move on.
Bush the man and decider failed to be a uniter with debt run amok his legacy sucks impeaching would be righter DD
GW has done nothing but ***** up his whole life. He would be nothing if it weren't for his family connections.
I have no data to back this up ... but I believe, if George W. Bush hadn't been born to a wealthy and prominent family, that it would never have occurred to him to run for any sort of public office. He doesn't really seem to have the drive or personality that seeks these things when they're difficult to achieve - I think he would have been perfectly happy to hang out in Texas and do his thing had he not been groomed for so long to represent the neoconservative agenda on a national level. Without the political needs of Rove, Cheney, et. al, and without the easy life of privilege that tends to produce so many children who grow up to have a dangerously illusory faith in their own capabilities simply because they've had the advantages of great wealth ("I'm rich, so I must be smart! Everything's been so easy for me!"), George W. Bush would have just stayed home.
I'm pretty sure most people would agree with you, and it was pretty obvious that was true in 2000 when he first ran -- so why did people vote for him??
It's a total pipe dream to imagine Iraq having gone the way Bush intended since that was impossible. I don't want to derail the thread but I think we can all agree Bush's understanding of Iraq's culture and society was fatally flawed. A more realistic pondering is what would have happened if he hadn't invaded Iraq to start with. Would that have saved his presidency from being such a failure? thadeus, if George W Bush weren't the son of George H W Bush, he never would have sniffed being governor of Texas or president of the United States. His father's career and name allowed W to overcome mediocrity and get promoted way beyond his abilities. Too bad for our country.
Actually, Saddam Hussein was probably the only effective leader ever in the Middle East. He was a strong leader who didn't let foreign entities exploit his countries natural resources and he held together a country containing 3 ethnic and religious groups that all wanted to kill each other. Too bad he decided to go crazy and gas entire villages.
I like the guy outside of the White House. Poor president, but 8 years later, I'd still have a beer with him. Well, he'd have to have an O'Douls or something, though.
The Middle East seems doomed for war that will never end. I admit I was so happy about removing Saddam that I never thought about what it would take to start-up a whole nation basically in the middle of a war-torn area. And we never could have just left, because when we've done that in the past, we've just put another enemy in charge i. e. Castro. It definitely would have been a different story for him. It actually makes me feel kind of sad.
Rafer Alston in a great basketball player. It's a shame he just isn't currently capable of executing a NBA caliber jump shot. I wonder what his legacy would be if his shots had fallen instead of bouncing off the rim?
