George W. Bush's legacy: now anyone thinks they can be president
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 09:27 AM
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Thanks to his presidency, and the utterly lost decade he presided over, America has now reached the point where anyone - anyone - thinks they'd make a fine president.
How else to explain the clown car of 2012 Republican presidential contenders currently running? These are not world class political operatives by any yard stick - most of them are not even sophisticated enough to head up a suburban Rotary Club - but they'll probably be the last to know.
Why? Because, thanks to the Bush years - where bombast replaced brains and soundbites replaced strategy - people like Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain can now look in their mirrors and see what no one else does: competence.
Call it the real Bush legacy.
There was a time in American politics when no millionaire politician would have dreamed of blaming the unemployed for their misfortune. There was a time when an audience would have booed hearing that sentiment expressed, rather than cheered.
But last night the mean minded smallness of right wing ideological extremism was on full display at the Republican debate in Las Vegas. It was a vision for the future so narrow you can sum it up in three words: I've got mine.
America used to be much better than this. We used to praise ordinary workers, not insult them for lack of industry. We used to want them to succeed, not remove every social net that helped to raise them up in the first placed.
We used to care about the country as well as ourselves.
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DennisQ | Oct 19, 2011, 01:39 PM EDT
Historians will puzzle over the Bush presidency - how it came to be, and why nobody had sense enough to rein him in before he did so much damage. Today's GOP presidential contenders knock themselves out to claim Reagan's legacy, but they pretend they never even heard Bush's name.
We probably won't know for many years the extent of actual criminality in the Bush administration. When Cheney boasted about going over to what he called "the dark side," he gave his underlings permission to break the law. He should have been prosecuted - it's an ugly precedent to set when high-ranking crooks get away with it by saying it's all just politics.
We probably won't know for many years the extent of actual criminality in the Bush administration. When Cheney boasted about going over to what he called "the dark side," he gave his underlings permission to break the law. He should have been prosecuted - it's an ugly precedent to set when high-ranking crooks get away with it by saying it's all just politics.
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allentown | Oct 19, 2011, 01:06 PM EDT
Many voters who voted for Bush did so, because they didn't want to see John Kerry as President. Kerry still has not given the Navy Department permission to open his medical records to the public to let us all see what wounds he received for those three purple hearts.
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TheOldPerfessor | Oct 19, 2011, 12:42 PM EDT
@Maryo137 - Excuse me, but do we live in the same world. I live in the world where Bush's "hands off" policy led to the worst stock market crash in history (and if you want to check your history for actual facts, every market crash in the last hundred years has been under a Republican regime). Obama got elected because the other choice was holding the banner "More of the same."
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PatriciaMarya | Oct 19, 2011, 11:57 AM EDT
GWB enabled Dick Cheney to do some very scandalous acts - closed door Energy Policy meetings for one with his ex-employer Halliburton prominently protected and Outsourced-Contractor Underwritten Military Invasions, again featuring his ex-employer, Halliburton prominently, without a draft and without a War Tax created to cover the costs. So the time as time to "bite the bullet" and pay for those two invasions with the War Taxes finally enacted. In other words, that is one of the primary legacies of GWB and DC. And GWB's other hideous legacy: Plan D which will now carry a $320 deduction as of January along with its co-pays and monthly premiums and financial fines if Seniors do not enroll. Republicans signed this into law without one iota of consideration given as to how to underwrite it financially. An out and out gift to the Big Pharma and the Investor-driven Health Insurance Industry. And you can find fault with Obama Cares?
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maryo137 | Oct 19, 2011, 10:52 AM EDT
I guess this article was paid for by George Soros. History will show GW Bush as a good president and Obama as a How in Gods name did he get elected. Blame Bush, Blame Bush doesn't work.
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micky74007 | Oct 19, 2011, 10:45 AM EDT
You are right in one respect.
Anyone now thinks he can be president.
Just look at the clown in the white house right now.
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TheOldPerfessor | Oct 19, 2011, 10:26 AM EDT
Congress used to be filled with two parties who disagreed about methods but wanted the same thing for America. It would have been inconceivable for Barry Goldwater to put loyalty to party over loyalty to country.
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beaumax99 | Oct 19, 2011, 10:19 AM EDT
The downslide started with Bush, and was so bad when Obama took over, that there is very little that he could do to remedy the damage that was previously done by Bush. It just keeps getting worst and worst. Our forefathers are probably rolling over in their graves. SAD, VERY SAD!!!!
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rgray222 | Oct 19, 2011, 10:11 AM EDT
You have missed the entire point of the GOP candidates.Obama has done such and appalling job that "anyone" can do better. Obama has done three things well, spend money, break promises and bailout Wall Street. Anyone but anyone can spend, lie and give money to his friends. It takes a real president to do the hard work, something the USA is currently lacking!
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Conchubar | Oct 19, 2011, 10:11 AM EDT
@johhnyb: because then the Obumma-ites would have to take the blame for electing him! Now they can blame their poor choice on Bush! They've worn out blaming all their other ills on Bush so they had to come up with something else!
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johhnyb | Oct 19, 2011, 09:28 AM EDT
Why go back as far as George Bush? What's wrong with using President Obama as an example of total incompetence?
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