The Enigma In Chief

I think Pres. Bush should be left alone. Although mistakes were made, he has shown a considerable amount of growth in the last years of his Presidency. This includes the decision not to Invade Iran and his support of the Bailout bill against the wishes of his party. I remember that he even spent a holiday with the troops. I did not even think he would admit his mistakes, but he did. The country got what the country voted for-- an ultraconservative president, so we all share in the blame for things that have happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of his, but we should move foward and not backwards.

Twenty years from now, the history books will reflect that the only time the non-elite Dubya held a position he was qualified for was when he was the head chearleader at his prep school in Massachusetts.

I think it will cause too much intropection headaches and idle chit chat if we needle out the reasons of his decisions in the past, this only makes us more smug about our own satisfaction for his departure. The real question we should be asking ourselves is where should we go from here? Lets hope the next administration has those answers.

All Americans who voted for Bush share in his Presidenital failures. especially those voting for a second term. I especially love it when they say they trusted Shrub as a military leader when no one can prove he ever completed his Air National Guard service.

"Did Bush's own innocence and incompetence drive his missteps? Or was he manipulated into his bad choices?"

The correct answer would be "yes". I'll comment more after I finish reading the article fully.

Maybe once Bush is finally gone the rest of the world can stop blaming America for EVERY ONE OF THEIR PROBLEMS, Ha someone tried to actually balme the Russian-Europe gas crisis on America!

I am a long time proud Democrat and I am suprised at the bias in this reporting. I think you need to leave out the personal opinions and just provide the facts. I did not vote for Bush either electiion and of course was not happy with the outcome, but you on the other hand still seem bitter.

Another instance of clear and biased attempt at reporting. I find it encouraging when media makes an attempt to report truth; however, in this case that was not the case. I can tell you from personal experience that multiple instances of chemical weapons have in fact been found in Iraq. That is just from my own experience this year. I suspect the author of this article would choose to not believe that, but there are those that know the truth. Someday hopefully the rest of America will as well.

Well said. My personal opinion is that Bush has a weak persona and caved in to both overt and insidious pressure from his advisors. The evidence as stated is his previous record as more of a moderate as governor of Texas. I do not believe the elder Bush had much input, especially considering his prescient stated opposition for invading Iraq during the gulf war in order to avoid an inevitable quagmire. Some of the problem is also what plagues Congress and that is that modern politicians appear all too willing to trade ethical principles and behavior for re-election funding. After seeing who voted for him, I beleive Rove pressured Bush during his formative first term to swing more to the right with the 2004 elections already in mind. I agree that there appeared to be a change towards moderation after 2006, with an especially good example being the hawkish stance towards Iran. On the other hand it is obvious the kind of forceful personalities that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have. Rove's zealously ideologic intention of writing history while ignoring intelligence assessments is no secret. One particular galling aspect of the presiden't personality is his inflexibility and lack of penance for what should have been obvious mistakes. This kind of inflexibility I believe is one of the worst characteristics a person in his position can have and the effects are plain to see. People in power with influence must be able to learn from their mistakes on the fly and adjust course to mitigate disaster and perhaps salvage some measure of success with regards to faltering policies. The previous administration appeared to be the polar opposite with this regard and will be much better remembered by historians. The incoming administration appears to have the this flexibility so this bodes well, but time will tell. I am afraid that most of Obama's term will be spent cleaning up the mess this president made and failed to stop from happening. With regards to the secrecy issue, an old addage states that if you do not know what is going on it is probably something bad. Once again the incoming administration intends to be open and transparent with regards to their policies.

Its not GWB fault, its the 50% of Voting Americans who voted for him

Wisdom to President G W Bush is alien as would be slippers to a snake. President G W Bush once said, ???There is book wisdom and there is practical wisdom,??? and the later is of interest to a manly man such as him. He also once believed that one obtained wisdom visiting a library. One of the effects of President GW Bush presidency has been explosion of unprecedented feelings of empowerment amongst the dim hacks in the world and unearned intellectual superiority demonstrated by him.

President G W Bush is a meglomaniac who loved bullying and intimidating the world with bombs, missliles and bullets. President George W Bush still believe that America should "inspire fear" and attack Iran with its full might before it is too late. He has shown the same disrespect to the world opinion as would a dog show to a lamp post. President G W Bush is duplicitous and lacks direction of history and believes in cowboys mentality, ???Kill you enemy before he hits you,??? has made America hated more than ever before in the world and the American dim-hawks still love him. President Bush uses power that authorizes him to be the judge of the universe applying his universal principles of justice.
President Bush committed war crimes as an institutional necessity to terrorize the world and in consequence propagated law of jungle, where the strongest attempts to kills the weaker. I remember reading that US Colonel Steve Butler was suspended from duty after he wrote to a newspaper calling Bush "a joke" whose presidency was going nowhere before September 11. "He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. His daddy has Saddam Hussein and he needed Osama." Mr Bush alleged silence about intelligence failures was "sleazy and contemptible", the colonel added. President G W Bush has wasted over three trillion dollars of American taxpayers money fighting an illegal war and occupation of Iraq war and still considers USA economy is strong and he is wining.

I believe that his departure will be sigh of relief and joy for the whole world. 20 January 2009 should be a day of celebration for billions of people around the world to see the back of one of the biggest warmongers in the world history.

.

"Once this country is rid of Bush", makes this president sound like some disease. What a well crafted message.

"Once this country is rid of Bush" makes the sitting president sound like some sort of disease. What a well crafted image!

"Once this country is rid of Bush", makes the sitting president sound like some sort of disease. What a well crafted image!

Are we now going to go on a witch hunt to see who the person was behind President Bush. Just like going through classified information to see who was responsible for the programs of the CIA concerning torture of terrorist suspects. How was life changed her in America after we went into Iraq. Who suffered hardships other then the families of the troops. Name one car bomb that went off. Name one mall that suffered so much damage that they never opened again. What children were kidnapped by terrorist and beheaded in protest of the war in Iraq. None of these things happen, no thanks to a dumb President with a bad memory. In truth American's didn't suffer at all because thats the way President Bush wanted it. Don't give us those crystal ball predictions as to when President Bush made up his mind to go into Iraq. No one knows other then President Bush. You can debate all you want. If President Bush didn't confide in you personally, then you don't know jack. The guessing game is not a creditable one, so don't try and come across as an authority on who and what President Bush was.