The Enigma In Chief

Winning in Iraq and successfully defending the homeland were not missteps. Too bad the left takes our safety for granted. If we had been vulnerable after 9/11 then that could be a misstep. it must really irk the left that they were unable to force the U.S. into defeat like they did in Vietnam. It will irk them even more when Obama chooses not to abandon Iraq. How they hate it when the U.S. succeeds!

I dont know the exact number of Americans killed in Iraq, but I do know that another president in another useless war killed 600,000 Americans, and left this country premanently divided. So who is the worst president in history?

Bush's failure as a president is due to a combination of traits involving his character. He thinks in categorical terms -- black/white, right/wrong, victory/defeat -- with nothing in between, and no possibility of compromise. He's shown this repeatedly. (eg., "You're either with us or with the terrorists.") John Wayne would have approved. It's consistent with the culture he frew up in, West Texas, but it's a lazy way of thinking that his father never indulged in. Categorical thinking also led Bush II to divide people into friends and enemies. He expected loyalty upward and extended loyalty downward. Dissidents like Colin Powell were fired; self-sacrificing liars like Scooter Libby had their sentences commuted. Unfortunately for all of us, including Bush, the loyalists he collected to advise him reflected the views of the Project for a New American Century. (If you're not familiar with the PNAC, look it up in Wikipedia.) It was his character that took him down the wrong road.

It does seem odd we committed troops and millions and millions of dollars on an invasion that did not seem to directly relate to keeping America safe, considering Saddam was the sworn enemy of Iran, the enemy of Shiite Muslims, and inspectors repeatedly said he did not have WMD. I don't see how a President can be called a success if he leads a country into a war whose causes cannot be explained to any but the most loyal Republicans.

If you're in disagreement with this story, you seriously haven't been paying attention. It really isn't a question anymore that this administration failed, and failed miserably. It may merit debate in your minds, but for 99% of the rest of us who have been debating for years feel it is inconsequential to, or unworthy of serious further argument.

If you're of the type that says "Well, you can't blame it all on Bush", I agree, but I wholeheartedly blame the top down one track unilaterism he himself created and drove; essentially the Bush administration, the Bush tenure itself essentially sucked. Regardless of how much beer you want to drink with him personally (can't stomach the thought myself), he was and will remain a failure.

We were all privy to the same information over the last 8 years. That you choose to ignore the impact of this president's decisions on the current state of the union is completely up to you. I'm tired of paying taxes to fund initiatives that categorically make no sense, from abstinence, to creationism, to the Iraq war, to artificially inflated academic scores, to deregulation of energy speculation that led to the Enron glut, to the lowest number of protected animals in our ecosystem since the list was created. Look, be blind if you want; the rest have seen the light (albeit long overdue). And think of this, if you're defending your legacy while you're still in office, how is it that you didn't honestly really stink up the place? Feed him to the dogs.

Yes I believe that the Bush admin deserves criticism for the financial mess. The crisis, and McCain's unwillingness to distance himself from Bush regarding the financial meltdown and the proposed bailout gave Obama his margin of victory. However, Bush is to be commended for sticking out the war. Iraq has a much better chance of remaining a real democracy which is something the left does not value very much.

Let's see - Obama isn't even president yet and he is witholding information from member of his own party. Case in point, Obama didn't even contact Diane Feinstein about the appointment of Leon Panetta as head of the CIA.

Maybe Jacob Weisberg should write an op/ed piece about how deceptive Mr. Obama has been. Of course we know that won't happen because the Messiah can do no wrong.

Bush still don't get it, eight years of mismanagement will not look better in the future. The neo-cons will try spinning dung into gold that is a trick even Rumpilskilskin can't do.
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Bush's first mistake was buying his degree from Yale, and always talking like a country bumpkin. His 2nd midake was leaving Texas. And the mistake that America made was electing him as President.

Margaret

I'm secretly hoping that Obama has been playing us all along and becomes the first Global Islamic Caliphate. If the United States moved to become a conservative muslim nation and stopped sending aid to Israel I think we could dramatically reduce the threat of terrorism. Being a man, I think I could adjust pretty easily to an Islamic theocracy.