You can't brush this off. You're basically saying he's unwilling to do his job. He's deferred and punted every step of the way. I understand it. He's not competent, and so for him deferring to others has been a good survival strategy.
To be fair, most of the blame for this lies on the UNSWERVING DEDICATION of the Senate Democrats to creeping socialism for the United States.
Blaming socialism on socialists is fine. That's like blaming crime on the criminals. But we're not debating the existence of socialism (crime.) We're debating the effectiveness of GWB and the GOP to combat it. Of course the criminal is responsible for the crime, but if you've got keystone kops falling all over each other, you've got an enforcement issue as well. It's not enough to say, 'dont blame the moron cop, he didn't rob the bank."
Moreover, it is a grave error not to include “Campaign Finance ‘Reform’” in this list.
I agree. Another fine example of GWB shirking his responsibilities.
President Bush, when Governor of Texas, acted in much the same way as he has as President: he worked with all sides attempting to forge a consensus to address many, many issues. He welcomed opponents to the table with him. That style means refraining from using vetoes, as much as possible. Saying he’s “unwilling to do his job”, “deferred”, “punted”, “not competent”, etc., demonstrates your complete lack of understanding of governance in our political system, or a lack of management experience. I'm not "brush[ing] it off", you're simply refusing to recognize how effective he has been using the style he has adopted!
President Bush has gotten, in essence, many of the programs he espoused enacted into law: A huge tax cut - done despite EVERY pundit saying that wasn’t possible. Great economy (as a result) - Done. Controlling deficit, DESPITE the 5% hit to the economy by 9/11, now projected to be in the black in two years, so - Done. Lowered “discretionary spending” - Done. No child left behind - Done. Iraq & Afghanistan War against Terrorism - Done. Conservative judges on the USSC - Done. A prescription drug for elderly - Done. Ending the ABM and getting a national Missile Defense system constructed - Done. Quite a bit more, too.
Campaign finance reform - done. Though he was pushing for something quite different which would have been more like “no limits, but complete and immediate disclosure of ALL contributions by any person or organization within 48hrs on the internet”, he held true to his well-publicised word and PROMISE that he would sign anything that Congress passed. Bad promise, but he followed through.
He has been EXTREMELY competent in getting his program enacted into law, and fulfilling his campaign promises. That IS “DOING HIS JOB”, whether it is the job YOU were hoping he would do or not! Now he’s working on (unfortunately) a guest-worker program, which he was very upfront about in 1999/2000 and later. In fact, there are only two items that he has NOT gotten done that I can think of right now: Social Security reform (which probably should have been rolled into the prescription drug thingie - but that would have resulted in a tempest similar to this immigration bill) and completing the change of the tax code that the first cut was hoped to be a start on toward a “taxed once on income only” system (too circuitous for my taste as I favor the FAIR tax, but I understood the economic and political reasons for his doing it that way and unfortunately, much of the tax change is likely to go away due to fools helping Demodogs get elected.)
President Bush has been an extremely effective president. Whether you or I are happy about any particular campaign promise he made (or his personal style of governing which also was part of who we elected) or the legislation that resulted, it is ridiculous to say he's not been competent in essentially enacting his program.