The Enigma In Chief

I believe the worst thing to happen to this country, and the world for that matter, is 24 hour news. Everything anyone says or does in now up for scrutiny and critcicsm on the netwroks, the Internet, everywhere. I don't need to know everything and I basically trust our leaders to do the right thing. I don't blame President Bush for a lot of the things other people do and I'll say this too. If we need to torture terrorist then by all means go ahead and do so. If the governemnt wants to listen in on my phone calls or read my emails, please, be my guest. I have nothing to hide and would welcome it. I am a neither a Bush supporter or hater. Leave him alone and quite looking for someone to blame everything on. I fully support Obama and hope he succeeds.

Enough with the argument that lauds Bush for "keeping us safe since 9/11" What about keeping us safe ON 9/11? He didn't take over the presidency after those planes crashed. It happened on his watch and if anyone tries to hold him accountable it's labeled as Bush bashing, whereas if it were Kerry in office the right-wing would be calling for his head on a platter. Bush was treated with kid gloves for seven years and now that the media has grown half a set, they're derided as biased. Now watch the Bush supporters' blatant hypocrisy when it comes to Obama. All of those people who told everyone to line up behind Bush because he was our president and to be against him was unpatriotic. All of those folks who blame Clinton for everything that happened during Bush's years because as everyone knows, a nothing bad that happens during a (republican) president's term is ever his fault. Watch who they blame for everything bad that happens in the world now.
Also, has this happened with other presidents? By 'this' I mean the amount of speculation over how history is going to judge an outgoing C.I.C.? There is no sarcasm or derision intended, I really would like to know.

We shall see how history judges the media darling Obama if in 4 years there is still a financial crisis. They won't be tripping over themselves if most of them are looking for work and the country is another trillion dollars in debt.

all of you Bush haters should take a long hard look in the mirror time will tell and you know it and you are scared , we'll see how your precious Obama handles the next attack on US soil.

BriFoe , that goes the same for you. You can't see anything outside party line. Until we do away with the two party system we have issues. Let me guess when Obama does something wrong you will be the first one to defend even if wrong.

I believe that there have probably been many other Presidents that if we were present during their era and time of leadership we would also consider them extremely incompetent. I have come to the conclusion that the old adage is true "Do not wish for something because it might come true." In the case of George Bush the religious right wing nut jobs have taken over the party, they wished for a President like Bush and their dreams turned into a nightmare.

I believe inside that George Bush truly is a good man who had great intentions for his own country, and his own people. Unfortunately, we are looking at a person that puts personal loyalty above his own obligations to outsiders who he doesn't know or care to mingle with. Dick Cheney was Bush's Achilles Heel and he will go down in history as one of the most manipulating, and dark sided individuals in the history of the Vice Presidency. He exploited George Bush's friendship and trust. He truly gave George Bush some of the worst advice any friend could give to another man who has no regard for his integrity, honor or ethics. This is a classic case of people leading the country with their emotions rather than their intellect and dragging all of us into the Abyss with them. In my 62 years of life and service to my country I have witnessed this twice before...Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Wonderful article! It is also advisable to assess the greater likelihood that both Bush and Cheney are psychopaths/sociopaths and that their unrestrained actions have put a stain on USA government nearly equivalent to that of Hitler to Germany. Perhaps we are in denial, as well.

Bottom Line:
Bush is a privileged child who never became a man. His decisons are irresponsible, and he can be associated with the likes of Paris Hilton and other "celebutantes" that are oblivious to real, down to earth everyday happenings. If I had a boat load of money, was in a secret club at Yale, in which I graduated from with a 2.3 GPA, can I too be president? Would you trust this good ol' boy from Tennesse because you could drink a beer with him and talk football? Or do you want an educated man to make educated decisions to be the leader of your country?

Is Bush the worst president in history? Perhaps. Was this the worst administration in history? I strongly think so. Truth is, America cannot go to war and lower taxes at the same time--it can't happen! However, it did, and in doing so, the nation is in a financial hole that may take at least two years to crawl out of. The dollar weakened; and as a consequence, gas went up, food went up, and this price-raising domino-effect got worse. The American people had to pony-up more money from their pockets, and if you ask me, paying more for gas and food is taxation in itself. Obama has now inherited this administration's debt, and it's mess; If people expect him to change things on the 21st, maybe they ought to hold their breath a little longer. I myself look with optimism toward Obama, but this financial crisis is like a bad stomachache--and it's just a matter of time before the American economy goes: "BURP," and starts off fresh. It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, or as myself, a Conservative Independent; this crisis is affecting us ALL.

It's amazing how stupid aso many Americans are. Bush is a piece of garbage. He has screwed this country is so many ways that only an imbicile would not acknowledge him as the worst President we ever ever had.
Let me count the ways this dunce failed us: he lied to get us into a war in Iraq and forgot about Afganistan and Osama and now we are in much more danger than when the jerk took office; he blundered on the economy so that now we are facing a massive depression; he failed to address global warming and the enviornment in general, leaving our children vulnerable to further global diasters; he failed to take sufficient action in New Orleans after Katrina; he did not even attempt to work out an Isreali-Palstenian settlemant; he's violated our civil rights; he's violated the Constitution time and again,; we are billions if not trillions of dollars in debt to China; we're well on our way to becoming a third world nation, etc. etc .etc.
And for the moron who said he was elected for a second term, be aware that he and his right wing cronies stole the election the first time and manipulated the second election by supporting JIM Crow legistation in southern states preventing numerous peolple from voting and stealing the election in Ohio by voting fraud.
Good ridance to Bush the incompetent (or perhaps the crook-- as his hacks stole half the money which went to Iraq while our soldiers were dying there.

I too am puzzled by the Bush administrations secrecy. After reading your article I think I may some insight. Ridiculous journalists may have been the main factor for keeping "real life decisions" to himself. After the Clinton's love affair with the media, maybe he thought it wise to actually not be a tabloid president. Sept. 11th proved to us that there are more problems in the world bigger than Bill Clinton's sex life or lack there of. The Clinton administration was like a child.. they liked attention, positive or negative it was still attention.
Don't get me wrong , Bush has made mistakes , but so was Clinton's non involvement with terror. To think that we could've had Bin Laden. But it wouldn't have played out well in the media considering he had so many other headlines to grab (Jennifer Flowers)

There is no doubt that President Bush has made some major mistakes. The war in Iraq, however, I disagree. The United Nations sat on their hands and did nothing to enforce their own mandates after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Nevermind, British intelligence and Russian intelligence also agreed upon WMDs, which are probably in Syria. His John Hancock on every spending bill was deplorable. His lack of vision after the successful invasion in Iraq was simply poor. However, no war has ever gone perfect. He did succeed with the surge. And the President is not solely responsible for the economy. Take a look at Congress especially Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Charles Shumer. All of them are a true disgrace. I pray Obama makes the right choices and we see some true recovery because those in Congress are going to try to spend us out of this and that simply is the long, wrong way out.

This reporter is a complete IDIOT who has a personal agenda, much like the rest of Newsweek contributors, who have turned the magazine into the "National Enquire" of political reporting. Its remarkable that so called journalists like this fool have worked so hard into changing the role of the media from objective fact findng and reporting into a means of which like minded liberals can routinely voice their opinions as facts and thus effect the masses in this country who still believe everthing they read.

Think about WHY we needed to invade Iraq after 9/11 with the information that was available at that time. God forbid the information provided to the President was accurate and he did nothing to prevent another attack. I sometimes think reportes like this jerk would have loved to see something along those lines as then he would have have real, tangible facts to attack the GOP and President.

Watch and see how much "change" takes place. We're already seeing signs that as Obama catches on to the reality of the problems this nation is facing, he's back pedaling a bit on some of his campaign propeganda.

I believe that there have probably been many other Presidents that if we were present during their era and time of leadership we would also consider them extremely incompetent. I have come to the conclusion that the old adage is true "Do not wish for something because it might come true." In the case of George Bush the religious right wing nut jobs have taken over the party, they wished for a President like Bush and their dreams turned into a nightmare.

I believe inside that George Bush truly is a good man who had great intentions for his own country, and his own people. Unfortunately, we are looking at a person that puts personal loyalty above his own obligations to outsiders who he doesn't know or care to mingle with. Dick Cheney was Bush's Achilles Heel and he will go down in history as one of the most manipulating, and dark sided individuals in the history of the Vice Presidency. He exploited George Bush's friendship and trust. He truly gave George Bush some of the worst advice any friend could give to another man who has no regard for his integrity, honor or ethics. This is a classic case of people leading the country with their emotions rather than their intellect and dragging all of us into the Abyss with them. In my 62 years of life and service to my country I have witnessed this twice before...Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Nobody who is an independant thinker cares even the slightest llittle bit about what you, Newsweek or David Letterman think. The drivel that media sources spout is inconsequential as none of you can differentiate between a person of conviction with sincere desire to serve (and protect) the people versus other Presidents, office holders in Congress and elsewhere who are in it for the power and the money. Maybe the media could try a new concept; one that focuses on highlighting leaders who are motivated by doing right by the people including preservation of our freedoms to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness versus those who sleep with interns, pander to special interests and restrict our rights as they preach to us while possessing the most hypocritical of personal behavior. If I ever see someone throwing a shoe at a President, regardless of whether I agree with his or her policies, the thrower would be carried out on a stretcher. The likes of Bill Maher and David Letterman whose lame jokes serve only to show their own personal weekness and lack of respect give cause to someone actually shoving a shoe up their as~hole. Real people are repelled by the media and Hollywood dopes who never worked a day in their lives. Taking the exact opposite view of what you all conclude, in and of itself, is a the moral and intelligent thing to do.

Ok, I'm a democrat and I don???t like this president at all but trying to blame the financial crisis on him, now that???s just not right. The makings of this financial crisis have been decades in the making and most educated people should realize that the executive branch has very little control over the economy. It would seem that this article is somewhat slanderous and the author is just attempting to sell a few more copies of his book.