Eric S. Sande wrote:
...But the United States is something new. We can, and do, "toss the
rascals out." On a regular basis.
On occasion we do elect a new bunch of rascals. But the system is
designed in such a way
as to never allow particular rascals enough time to do real damage.
What do you call real damage, if:
* ignoring warnings and allowing the 3rd ever attack on American
soil,(English sacking Washington, Pearl Harbor...)
* starting two unfunded war-mire's, that have ended up making his
enemies of the time (Al Queda, Iran, N.Korea).. and now Russia all
more powerful, rather than weaker
* Taking over a government budget surplus and ending up creating the
biggest government deficit in real dollars ever,
* presiding over the biggest economic and banking collapse since the
depression, all while controlling the House, Senate and Executive
Branch for the previous 6 years.
* denying global warming & impeding the dev. of alternative energy
for most of his terms
* cutting N.O.levee funding, ignoring warnings, putting his nimrod
unqualified buddy in charge of FEMA and allowing, N.O to be washed
away without even realizing what was going on for most of the
first week
* Putting more unqualified political hacks in charge of the gov than
any pres ever...
* Being in charge while the US became more unpopular internationally
than in any other time in the last 100 years
On the whole, George W. Bush wasn't a totally bad President.
Maybe if you measure by how good he was at the Presidential vacation
part of the job ... spending 1/3 of his days in Office on vacation out
of Washington... mt. biking, jogging, cutting brush, fishing, .....
Yes he was stupid to invade Iraq. Yes he was an incredibly bad
public speaker. But the moment of his Presidency that I will most
remember was at 9:00 a.m. on 9/11/2001. He was reading to
schoolchildren when an aide brought him the news. He was speechless,
floored.
Speechless ... as in clueless as to what to say or do maybe.
What we do know is that he then got on Air Force One and headed for the
western US leaving Cheney in the hot seat until the uproar over his
silence and absence got the plane turned around.
But he got up and kept on going. That my friends is class.
By getting going... do you mean that 9/11 Air Force One flight, his
penchant for jogging and Mt. biking, the Vietnam war service he ran out
on ... the international diplomacy his gov. finally began attempting
late in his last term or just the fact that he didn't resign?
He did get out of bed each day in the White House mansion ... well, 2/3
of his days in office he did anyways ... when he wasn't "going" on
vacation.
Other than the times he had nothing to say of any import or the numerous
times he couldn't speak grade school English , I remember him reading a
bunch of scripted in mean spirited, jingoistic inflammatory, photo op
press ops ... that he later said were the only things he regretted ...
starting one war, failing to follow up on it, then starting a 2nd
"cluster****"one ... both of which accomplished exactly the opposite of
everything intended and which remain as boat anchors around our necks
today.
O yeh... then as the economy collapsed, he was clearly doing nothing but
"going" for the door ...
We don't always elect the best people for the job. But we do
elect them, and that is what is important.
Well as I remember it wasn't in fact clear that we did.
It turns out, Bush didn't win the popular vote in 2000 and if Gore had
been as mean spirited, aggressive and militant a leader as Bush , it is
not clear that the electoral challenge process, that was working its way
to a conclusion, would have determined that Bush even won the Electoral
College vote.
I prefer to think we didn't elect him ... that election was just a
precursor or harbinger of all the other boneheaded American disasters he
cluelessly precipitated later.
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