President Bush's Mess

[Winnie]

I am interested in what people perceive as the "mess" President George W. Bush has left our country in.

I understand many people think Iraq was a mistake and because we are still there, it is a mess.

Are there any other messes that can be attributed to President Bush?

I don't agree with all of President Bush's decisions. I completely disagree with some.

President Bush didn't get us to this budget deficit all by himself. He didn't prevent it either. Is this then considered his "mess?"

Just curious. Today I heard Chuck Todd say that it is a given that after six months in office, a current administration has to quit blaming the former. :scratch:

 

[TooFarTampa]

Bush and the Republican Congress of 2000-2006 way overspent and turned what was a surplus into a huge deficit.

Iraq was obviously a large part of that. I was not in support of preemptive war then and it looks even dumber now.

Torture is a big mistake and goes against the spirit of our nation and what it stands for.

Bush gets a large part of the blame for the deficit spending because he went six or seven years without one veto of a spending bill. He's the decider, remember?

To a lesser degree, I believe the nature of his tax cuts further undermined our economy by granting them disproportionately to the highest earners. The gap between rich and everyone else widened greatly and that is not a good idea for overall economic health.

There were things in the Clinton administration (like deregulation of the financial industries, which had bipartisan support) that started us down this road. The overall attitude of consumers hurt us as well. But Bush deserves a big chunk of the blame. It turns out that he's not even a conservative.

 

[30ashopper]

Bush's greatest success would have to be his handling of our response to 9/11/ His greatest disgrace has to be wrongfully invading Iraq. I have to wonder how is presidency would stand today if he hadn't made that fateful mistake.

As far as economic policy is concerned, Bush adopted a laissez faire capitalist approach, which has been the dominate policy for the country over the last three decades. People like to blame Bush (BDS will be a long lasting ailment among the liberal elite) but really if you're looking for someone or something to blame, it would be better to critique, analyze, and criticize the ideology that laissez faire promoted. The danger there is that people make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse - there is strong evidence that laissez faire works, just not in a country that refuses to accept the possibility of downside from bad decisions. (Greenspan will likely go down as one of the worst FED chairmans of all time, me thinks.)

In a decade, laissez faire will be the new new approach, and we'll be hammering on Keynes for all its failings. (Assuming the country survives in it’s present form.) I suppose that's the nature of the U.S., we have short memories and tend to like to shift blame away from ourselves.

 

[hnooe]

Taking the politics out of it for a moment, President Bush is first and foremost a human being like all of us--with his own set of good and bad qualities--unfortunetly, he was on the World's stage 24-7 for 8 very long years. Not one of my favorite Presidents...(but)

For me he was really an everyday "metaphor" for the better changes I'd like to see come about in myself and the/my World in general. We, like Bush, have all lost our way a bit--especially in terms of personal responsibility--responsibility to self, country, partner or spouse, our children, our true political points of view, our own health, and our financial well being....I know it is a cliche, but we all need to own up to our own faults and weaknesses and look to becoming the change we want to see from our next president. Obama can guide us, possibly and hopefully, but we really need to make some important personal decisions together that can positively affect everyone around us--even on the right and left shoes of this "person" known as the SoWal Board. We just have to re-learn to walk together folks in the same general direction!

 

[TooFarTampa]

President Bush is first and formost a human being like all of us--with his own set of good and bad qualities--unfortuanetly, he was on the World's stage 24-7 for 8 years. Not one of my favorite Presidents...(but)

For me he was really an everyday "metaphor" for the change I'd like to see in myself and the/my World. We, like Bush, have all lost our way a bit--especially in terms of personal responsibility--responsibility to self, partner or spouse, our children, our own health, and our financial well being....I know it is a cliche, but we all need to own up to our own faults and weaknesses and look to becoming the change we want to see from our next president. Obama can guide us, possibly and hopefully, but we really need to make some important personal decision together that can positively affect everyone around us--even on the right and left shoes of this "person" know as the SoWal Board. We have to re-learn to walk together folks!

It is this spirit that I hope catches on.

We had that spirit after 9/11. If I recall it ended around the time people started wondering why the heck he was talking about going to war with Iraq. Also, being told to keep shopping was less than inspiring. Here's hoping for some genuine leadership.

 

[full time]

Bush and the Republican Congress of 2000-2006 way overspent and turned what was a surplus into a huge deficit.

Iraq was obviously a large part of that. I was not in support of preemptive war then and it looks even dumber now.

Torture is a big mistake and goes against the spirit of our nation and what it stands for.

Bush gets a large part of the blame for the deficit spending because he went six or seven years without one veto of a spending bill. He's the decider, remember?

To a lesser degree, I believe the nature of his tax cuts further undermined our economy by granting them disproportionately to the highest earners. The gap between rich and everyone else widened greatly and that is not a good idea for overall economic health.

There were things in the Clinton administration (like deregulation of the financial industries, which had bipartisan support) that started us down this road. The overall attitude of consumers hurt us as well. But Bush deserves a big chunk of the blame. It turns out that he's not even a conservative.

The one that really seems to stick in the craw of the anti-Bush crowd is treatment of the detainees at GITMO. The issue that will confront Obama from the moment he takes office is what will be the reaction of the citizenry should he part with the Bush administration on this issue, and the homeland is struck again with another 9/11 event. Bush obviously believed it was far better to take flak for waterboarding and sleep deprivation than to shoot down a civilian airliner full of his constituents. I suspect that Obama and Panetta (if they have not already) will come to a similar conclusion, although it won't be widely reported because Obama is given a wide berth (that's a good thing).

 

[30A Skunkape]

Bush enabled out of control spending and set the Republican party back for at least a few election cycles.

 

[TooFarTampa]

The one that really seems to stick in the craw of the anti-Bush crowd is treatment of the detainees at GITMO. The issue that will confront Obama from the moment he takes office is what will be the reaction of the citizenry should he part with the Bush administration on this issue, and the homeland is struck again with another 9/11 event. Bush obviously believed it was far better to take flak for waterboarding and sleep deprivation than to shoot down a civilian airliner full of his constituents. I suspect that Obama and Panetta (if they have not already) will come to a similar conclusion, although it won't be widely reported because Obama is given a wide berth (that's a good thing).

I think I read that Obama wants to shut down Gitmo. That's pretty symbolic. As is his choice of Panetta.

 

[Winnie]

Bush enabled out of control spending and set the Republican party back for at least a few election cycles.

This, I agree with completely.

 

[GoodWitch58]

He also ignored the Middle East situation until very late in his administration; he had no leadership where it came to the environment; he put his friends in jobs they were unqualified for; he allowed the wire-tapping of U. S. citizens, and torturing of prisoners, thus trampling on the Constitution. and the Geneva Convention...in addiiton to starting the war in Iraq, the lack of continuing to look for bin Laden and finish off the Taliban...and, perhaps the saddest of all: total incompetence and apparently a lack of concern for the plight of the people who were devasted by Katrina and Rita.

Most of all IMO he allowed himself to be influenced by people who did not have the best interests of the country at heart, and for whatever reason, he did not stand up to Cheney and Rumsfield and others, in spite of the (apparent) fact that Secretary Rice was trying to stop some of their antics.

His arrogrance and obliviousness to others' plight led to much of the world believing that "America has lost its way".

As far as the financial crisis...he can not be held totally responsible, however, I believe his continued belief in "trickle down" economics can be blamed for the intensity of the situation...when he had the opportunity to do something, he did little.

Had he continued to be the president that stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center and followed the spirit of that day, I believe our country and the world would be in a much different place today.

Much of what has happened can be attibuted to his running the country as though he was running another policial campaingn (see Scott McCelland's book for details) and listening to people who did not have the vision to make the world a better place, but rather were looking to make the Republican Party all powerful.