The Enigma In Chief

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  • Posted By: life2go @ 01/12/2009 10:14:01 PM

    I see people making points about different Presidents in history and the situations in which they have taken office.

    Posted By: Zebedatious @ 01/12/2009 5:57:58 PMCarter came in with a Republican Congress and an already deteriorating economy. Bush came in with the first Federal surplus in the last 40 years and a Republican Congress. What's his excuse?

    Bush was actually a President and one during one of the worst attacks 9-11. Yes, we had a Federal Surplus, but what had Clinton done in 8 years to keep us safe. Khobar, Embassy bombings, USS Cole, First WTC attack, etc..... it is easy to balance the budget when you aren't doing anything, but smoking (sucking) a few cigars. In some ways the success or failures of Obamas Presidency I believe will have a very big affect on the "History of Bush". It is the typical "wait and see" situation.

    Heck the GTMO situation reminds of another GTMO situation although the last time it was "refugees" and a lot of them. We had a Bush in office, a Democrat took over and let all of them in. And people wonder what happened to our Health care system and other jprograms.

  • Posted By: MBrando @ 01/12/2009 9:33:16 PM

    Bush will go down the history as one of the worst presidents America has ever had.

  • Posted By: Source @ 01/12/2009 9:32:58 PM

    Mr. Weisberg: As someone who worked at a foreign affairs agency until 2003, the answer to both of your subtitle questionis is YES. I was intimately familar with all/all of the information going to the White House about both terrorism and Iraq, and I personally know and worked with some of the players. My professional (not political) colleagues and I saw om 2002 that the White House was determined to find a reason to go into Iraq. We also knew that there was no/no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but that that that was not what Cheney or Rumsfeld wanted to hear. It was our impression that Bush did not lead this charge, but was most certainly easily led. He exhibited no curiousity about what he was told but seemed to be willlng to believe whatever Cheney and Rumsfeld told him. Condi Rice was not particularly influential on these two issues at the time, and Colin Powell was cut out of the inner circle on these decisions. He was the only person in Washington at that time who was respected by all, but was fed cherry-picked information and, after discoering this, chose to continue in his job rather than embarrass the Administration by resigning at a sensitive time for U.S. foreign policy. But in the end, he knew/knew he'd been had. He specificially said so. .

  • Posted By: Qidisrupt @ 01/12/2009 9:16:37 PM

    Thank goodness idiot GW Bush is going to be out of Washington for good. His economic policies crushed our economy and flatly ignored the voice of the middle-class worker. He saw nothing wrong with deregulating and outsourcing livable/family wage jobs. He gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy while the backbone of our economy, the middle-class, kept dwindling. Now, these middle-class families are out of their foreclosed homes and having a difficult time finding even subsistent wage jobs that will never be able to properly support their families. These corprorations that vacated the USA are now boasting about huge record profits while their own fellow countrymen and countrywomen in the good ol' USA lost their livable wage jobs. It ain't a pretty picture, but this is the result of GOP economic strategies that failed our USA economy. A timeless nugget of common sense wisdom was never put into practice by the Bush administration..."we need to take care of our own back yard before we are able to take care of others."

  • Posted By: The Hutch @ 01/12/2009 8:43:46 PM

    As I said before..

    Bush's administration exposed in full view the imperial shadow side of U.S. democracy.

    He will forever be remembered for starting a war under false pretences-Undermining global security by legitimizing a doctrine of preemptive war.

    All while abondoning any thought of fiscal responsibility and allowing a casino like climate on wallstreet to spin out of control as he encouraged/supported destructive deregulation, sitting idly by as corporations continue their assualt on the middle class.

  • Posted By: San Ying @ 01/12/2009 8:30:01 PM

    History can only make a bad apple worse.

  • Posted By: rail60 @ 01/12/2009 7:45:46 PM

    Listening to the fearless leader Dubya, I couldn't help being moved by the fact that everyday as president was joyous for him. I would imagine being the leader that sends thousands of young men to die on a "gut feeling" that it was the right thing to do, may have caused some unjoyous days. Or, maybe because he lacks a sense of remorse for human life, the fact that we're pumping a couple trillion dollars into the rat hole called Iraq, again because of his gut feeling, may have caused him some unjoyous days. Don't worry Dubya, I know you were doing a "more better" job and all those elite are just "missunderestimating" you. Don't let those prep school and Ivy League grads from Harvard and Yale get you down, most of them had the advantage of being born into an influential family, unlike you, and never had to work or prove themselves, like you. Filthy elite.

  • Posted By: Ethel @ 01/12/2009 5:55:52 PM

    I wonder how many forests worth of paper the Bush administration shredded and how many e-mails were "disappeared" to cover up war crimes.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 6:19:39 PM

      I am sure there is some left behind though. They are not good enough to get rid of everything. They are rats, but rats leave trasils too...

      • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 6:31:32 PM

        And "trails" too... God I spell like sht...

  • Posted By: cooned @ 01/12/2009 3:58:11 PM

    According to the Savior Barak Obama, the United States should intervene with military force to remove dictators who are abusing civil rights or in cases of genocide. There is no question that Sadam H. engaged in genocide. According to my logic, that would mean B.O. supported inteverention in Iraq. Somehow in the world of Barak mania however, the conventional laws of logic don't apply. Obama can say something, and then if he picks and chooses when to apply his generalizations.

    • Posted By: Zebedatious @ 01/12/2009 6:02:20 PM

      Correct, he didn't say if they have non-existent WMDs we should go. Good point.

      • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 6:26:51 PM

        I bet we would have found some in N Korea. Oh, but they don't have oil there, just noodles and poverty...

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 4:25:08 PM

      Your logic? Obama did not support the Lie that led us into Iraq. That was Cheney and the Neocons who led the little Yippe Kay YA puppet by the balls into Iraq, so we could destabilize and promote Iran. How very nice, got any new tricks? Oh, no sorry, Bush is gone and there is nobody for the supreme court to elect...

  • Posted By: simon1549 @ 01/12/2009 4:08:23 PM

    I wonder what these left wing bomb throwers are gong to do after President Bush leaves office? I for one am proud to have a commander in cheif that has leadership ability and integrity. Name the last Democratic President that possessed those qualities? I have two words for the lefties that want to promote the idea that George Bush is the worst president ever... Jimmy Carter. Case closed... slam dunk.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 4:21:21 PM

      Nothing left or right about it you moron. It is about incompetence and corruption. You support a loser, that makes Carter look like a God...

      • Posted By: Zebedatious @ 01/12/2009 5:51:51 PM

        Carter came in with a Republican Congress and an already deteriorating economy. Bush came in with the first Federal surplus in the last 40 years and a Republican Congress. What's his excuse? I wish you guys would do your homework before you post.

        If you need further reading, I suggest you also read a little more about the best presidents. Why don't you start with the LEFT's finest: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, FDR, Woodrow Wilson, JFK, and yes, even your own Lincoln who was wholeheartedly left..

        • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 6:23:03 PM

          Yep, they don't know history, and are so inept they cannot judge character. They get told what to think...

    • Posted By: Zebedatious @ 01/12/2009 5:57:58 PM

      Carter came in with a Republican Congress and an already deteriorating economy. Bush came in with the first Federal surplus in the last 40 years and a Republican Congress. What's his excuse? I wish you guys would do your homework before you post.

      If you need further reading, I suggest you also read a little more about the best presidents. Why don't you start with the LEFT's finest: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, FDR, Woodrow Wilson, JFK, and yes, even your own Lincoln who was wholeheartedly left.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 4:20:21 PM

      Wow, you sure have a new definition for leadership and integrity. Would you please leave the country and take your lying incompetent leader with yuo. We really don't need any more posers replublican or democrat in office. Bush supporters are really out of touch individuals that are generally okay with the level of embarassment and destruction the Bush admihistration has wrought upon us. They get fed sht and swallow it down and call it candy.

      What a fool...

  • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:56:05 PM

    This is so fitting I thought I would repost it:

    Posted By: TxLongbow @ 01/12/2009 4:36:15 PMBush should face prison. We have never had a president that hunted down a persons family members and killed them on by one. He not only wanted to kill Saddam, he wanted to extermnate every member of his family. In modern times it should be the principles that suffer, not their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, nices, nephews, uncles and aunts. We have lost more than 4,000 of our kids to his war and 60,000 to 80,000 that will need medical and mental attention for the rest of their lives. We have a history of fogetting our vets. Iraqi's have lost more than 500,000 men, woman and childern. How can this man sleep at night? How can he be so nonchalant about the deaths of so many people? Starting then screwing the war up is no just a little mistake that he can apologize for because we Americans wil be paying for his mistakes for generations. My father was a vietnam vet and my brothers and sisters suffer while he suffered his mental demons. We owe the world 60 trillion dollars. I am so tired of them painting a pretty picture of a few trillion or 10 trillion and seldom acknologing 60+ trillion. Bush was America's Katrina. He is walking away from one of our greatest desasters and may wellbe our Cesar who sank Rome. I truly believe he will be viewed in all history as the worst president this country could ever have had and his only legacy will be our children and their children trying not to repeat the same mistake ever again.
    I was absolutly sickened to hear that the Bush clan would like Jeb to be president. avent they visited enough misery on Americaand and the world. Now we may face a round 3 of desaster of monumental proportions. Do these clowns have any love of our country? Do they have any feelings for anyone else? Do they have any morals at all? How can these people sleep at night knowing all the hundreds of thousands of deaths, suffering and misery just 2 of them have done?

  • Posted By: vstillwell @ 01/12/2009 5:44:14 PM

    I never, ever claimed Bush as my president. No way. No how.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:53:10 PM

      Those that did also backed the detroit Lions to go to the superbowl this year...

  • Posted By: toofyhead2 @ 01/12/2009 11:28:21 AM

    Wow joe, its great to hear you want to crush fascists. Too bad you and your fellow leftists were too cowardly to see through the destruction of a REAL FASCIST, Saddam Hussein, who killed thousands and thousands of "brown" people with POISON GAS just like Hitler. What a posturing hypocrite you are.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:51:05 PM

      Out of touch are we? Watching too much FOX news?? What about Kim Jong il???

      Iraq was about "war time" president, not getting rid of Saddam. You know nothing about history at all do you? We broke it and bought it. The wise said it would happen and it did, and the fools that thought they would be heroes basically fukked everybody else to stay in power in Washington...

      If anybody was under scrutiny all along it was Saddam, but what about NKorea, what about Iran? We did a nice job for Iran didn't we? Clueless, fkk...

    • Posted By: YashBudini @ 01/12/2009 1:52:34 PM

      That happened under Bush Sr, who did nothing. Explain that.

  • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:39:19 PM

    BUSH supporters are what is wrong with this country. They support the tearing down of our values, and prop up incompetence and call it leadership. They are the problem. Their mentality is been bought with cheap rhetoric and fear. They are afraid, and succumb to the terrorism used and promoted by the Bush adninistration.

    We msut NEver allwo them the power again to corrupt our constitution or exploit sacred words like patriotism, or Hero. We can never allow them again to sell the soul of this great country to stay in political power.

    Bush supporters crawl back into your roach holes because the light that will shine forward will burn and expose you as puppets of a lie, adn a munipulation. You are weak and fearful and you must never have the power to embarass the USof A ever again...

  • Posted By: toofyhead2 @ 01/12/2009 11:58:56 AM

    joe the pesky facts: saddam killed way way more iraqis than the U.S. (dont forget his stupid wars against iran). the coast guard also rescued 30,000 ppl off of New Orleans rooftops under Bush (now thats a fast response). You also mentioned Africa....Bush did more to combat AIDS and reduce deaths there than any president (even libs agree). Bush sucked as far as not preventing the financial meltdown. Try Joe to get past the stereotypical and boring liberal propaganda that America is a horrible place and everyone who doesnt buy the entire liberal bill of goods wants to lynch black people. Or don't try. Suits me either way.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:29:32 PM

      I think you are confusing contructive criticism of teh people you can 'liberal" with hate. We have to criticise our government, it has been a fukinnggg lie. It isn't abiout the country, it is about the government tearing down our values and what we stand for. It is about a few people incontrol, who played with fear, jsut as the terrorists do, and munipulated the many.

    • Posted By: YashBudini @ 01/12/2009 1:36:46 PM

      "(dont forget his stupid wars against iran). "

      That's when Bush SR was sending arms to Iraq and Saddam killing his own people was OK.

  • Posted By: Justacitizen @ 01/12/2009 2:19:23 PM

    Blaming Bush for all the problems of this country is just Ignorant. History can never tell of the destruction and death Bush may have stopped. The economy (bad) is the result of greed in our banking system. Our laws that are suppose to protect us are written and approved by politicians that don't really have a clue what it is to be an average American citizen and have mostly their interests at heart and don't listen to what the people that put them into power say. Our system is broken.

    • Posted By: Zebedatious @ 01/12/2009 5:26:38 PM

      Bush helped deregulate or prevent additional regulation, and the same with the energy trading which helped Enron rape California right before it collapsed. So, yeah, Wall Street was greedy, that's not new, but Bush facilitated it because of his monolithic principle that free markets should be completely free. Listen, I'm tired of listening to the defense of this guy and having to do all your homework for you. Stop being pansies.

    • Posted By: boneclinkz @ 01/12/2009 3:09:37 PM

      That's why democracy doesn't work. Communism is the answer.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 2:28:47 PM

      Bush is just ignorant... and incompetent and a weakling, and a liar, and a puppet, and a bully/pusssy

  • Posted By: independent conservative @ 01/12/2009 3:30:50 PM

    I should have seen this hatchet job coming with the titile...shame on you,I see a man who saw his job of protecting American lives as his first responsibility...and you dare to blame the finacial meltdown as solely Bush's responsibilty,Where's congress in this story.Thank God you'll not be the one rewriting history sir.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:11:04 PM

      Bush and his circus won't be rewriting history either. Hopefully many will be prosecuted, and it has nothing to do with the economy, we can leave that one out... I can't give him credit for "trying" when he was not even in the same league. He was a kid with a gun and a badge playing in the big world and he embaraased this great country and destroyed so many. He should be tried and conviceted.

      I will give him a pardon though, as he did not have the capacity to deal with Cheney and his... Bush was so out of his league he could not even be more that a mouthpiece for Cheney and the neocons that ran washington.

  • Posted By: ddesa123 @ 01/12/2009 3:16:29 PM

    I take issue with many parts of your column. Bush made mistakes, but to say that he did not try to run as a centrist is utter garbage. It was the media and the democratic party that tore down every overture the man tried. He came in and attempted to work as a moderate but dems were still fuming over the election and made it known. Bush was not only a good president, but a great president who kept us safe for the last 7 years.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:07:04 PM

      Bush did not keep us safe, in fact there are more people thatwant to cause this country harm after Bush. He was an embarassment to his father, and the country.

      Yes, in some ways he did try to go to the center, but he was led by the balls by Cheney and Co becuase Bush did not have the savvy or the competence to back them down. Cheney was president for the first 6 years.

      As far as keeping us saef, that is a joke. Becuase there were no more attacks?? How many years was it beween the first world trade center attack and 9/11???? Right... Now you get the picture....

  • Posted By: joe42067 @ 01/12/2009 3:22:09 PM

    Fred Jones sounds like someone who would defend pedophiles.

  • Posted By: Steve DM @ 01/12/2009 4:55:41 PM

    I believe George Bush knew he was going to invade Iraq January 21, 2001. We would have gone to war in Iraq regardless of the events of September 11, 2001. That attack only confirmed in his mind that he needed to invade.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 01/12/2009 5:00:42 PM

      Cheney put himself in power and used the puppet to do his bidding. Yes, it was planned well in advance...

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