Posted on 01/02/2009 3:04:15 PM PST by crazyhorse691
One year ago on New Year's Eve, we offered this gloomy assessment of the legacy of President George W. Bush:
"It has been an enormously eventful seven years for the United States and for the world. By and large, the changes have not been for the better. The United States is deeper in debt, politically polarized, militarily overextended and more deeply distrusted around the world than it was when the president took office."
It was harsh judgment, couched in considerable relief that only one year remained of the Bush presidency.
As it turned out, though, even that one final year of Bush and his policies brought additional turmoil for the nation and the world.
The anti-regulation climate he created helped thrust the U.S. economy into its worst meltdown since the Great Depression, and his years of blissful inattention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict opened the way for a dangerous aerial bombardment war between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza.
This day, the first of 2009, couldn't have raced here fast enough. Neither will Jan. 20, when Barack Obama will take the oath as the nation's 44th president.
Repeat that name and pinch yourself. Seven years ago, in the fearful aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, how much would anyone have been willing to wager that Bush would be succeeded by an African American president by the name of Barack Obama?
This truly historic turn of events is more than a testament to the remarkable qualities of America's president-elect. It is also a powerful gauge of a national malaise best described as Bush fatigue.
Americans want change. They want it fervently, and it will come in 20 days, at the inauguration, and then a great many citizens of this country will feel they can finally exhale.
Today, however, marks an appropriate moment to reflect on the Bush presidency. After all, this isn't just New Year's Day; it's also the dawn of a new era, or at least every American should hope it is.
Debate already rages over whether Bush should be regarded as the worst U.S. president. Historians will no doubt include him on any such list, but America has suffered and survived worse chief executives.
Bush, to his credit, appointed African Americans to his cabinet. That alone puts him ahead of Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and promptly vetoed the first civil rights bill, saying "this is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am president it shall be a government for white men."
Nor can Bush be rated worse than Lincoln's predecessor, James Buchanan, who dismissed slavery as an issue of "little practical importance." As he dithered in office, seven slave states seceded, the Confederacy was formed and U.S. forts fell like dominoes in the South.
The amiably incompetent Warren Harding rounds out most worst-president lists, thanks to his grotesquely corrupt administration. Franklin Pierce, Herbert Hoover, James Polk and William Henry Harrison are often mentioned in such accountings, too, and Bush will likely join them.
If not the worst president, he was at minimum a failed president. Americans showed they understood this in the abysmally low approval ratings they gave him and in their choices of presidential nominees in the 2008 elections.
Remember, Republican outsider John McCain wouldn't have had a prayer of being the GOP nominee if the party faithful hadn't been thoroughly fed up with the Bush-Cheney administration. And in the Democratic primaries, a little-known newcomer with a funny-sounding name -- Obama -- might not have sparked an electoral tsunami if voters of all stripes hadn't been disgusted with the status quo.
Bush loyalists struggle lamely to claim a glowing legacy for the man. They argue that he toppled Saddam Hussein and put terrorism on a successful war footing, that he championed immigration reform, AIDS relief and more accountability in education. They predict he will be thought of someday like Harry Truman, deeply unpopular when he left office but respected by future historians.
A close look, however, shows that Bush's pet programs fell far short of success or completely fizzled, as in the case of immigration reform. And as for comparisons with Truman, it's hard to imagine that any part of Bush's legacy can match Truman's triumphs in rescuing Europe after World War II and building the Atlantic Alliance, which eventually persuaded Moscow to end the Cold War.
Bush will more likely be remembered as the president who misled his country into a ghastly expensive war in Iraq. The president who alienated U.S. allies around the world, who trampled civil liberties in the pursuit of terrorists, who championed tax cuts for the rich while shafting the middle class, who dithered while flood victims suffered and died in New Orleans, who left the next American generation deeply mired in debt.
But the worst president ever? At this moment in history, that's not the right question. A better one is whether Barack Obama will be the leader who can put this great nation back on track.
Apprehensive Americans can take some comfort in the knowledge that some of our worst presidents have been succeeded by some of our greatest. The disastrous Buchanan, remember, was followed by Lincoln.
Thankfully, the Obama administration takes over in 20 days. The challenges it faces are stratospheric, as are the hopes of a yearning nation.
-- Bob Caldwell, editorial page editor; bobcaldwell@news.oregonian.com
“Thankfully.......” Bambi takes office...........they are truly insane in Oregon.
“Yes we did!”
January 20, 2013:
“Did we do thaaat?”
Ronald who? There's just no end of it with these folks.
September 11, 2001: On this day, President Bush was forever prevented from carrying out a normal peace-time presidential agenda.
September 12, 2001-January 2009: During this Period, there were no attacks on the U.S. due to the coordination of citizens, law enforcement, government, and foreign allies.
Enough said
To: The Oregonian editorial board
From: An American Citizen and Veteran.
Subject: Editorial Dated December 31, 2008
“Americans were tired of being thought of as dumb, by the rest of the world.
So we went to the polls in November and removed all doubt.”
Americans voted for change in 2006. How has that worked out?
And as for comparisons with Truman, it's hard to imagine that any part of Bush's legacy can match Truman's triumphs in rescuing Europe after World War II and building the Atlantic Alliance, which eventually persuaded Moscow to end the Cold War.
According to libs, Truman's decision to use the bomb against Japan was an atrocity. Funny how they cast him as a good guy when it suits their purpose.
Yep, he kept us safe and barely appointed two good members to SCOTUS.
Other than that?
Ironic that every one of their complaints -- save the first -- can be laid at the feet of the MSM, the Democrat party...or both.
This leftist Caldwell and his editorial board are pathetic and will surely be impressed with Zer0, they’re birds of a feather.
Truman the WWI vet sent poorly trained, poorly equipped Army troops to Korea, where they were like lambs led to slaughter, according to the Marines.
Much better to be in Bush's Army.
Good one.
“Truman’s triumphs in rescuing Europe after World War II and building the Atlantic Alliance, which eventually persuaded Moscow to end the Cold War.”
First of all, the Marshall Welfare Plan didn’t rescue Europe. That’s economically ludicrous.
Secondly, Truman united some Western European states, then BLAM!, 50 years later Moscow surrendered? I love to give Truman credit for his anti-communism, but come on.
Ha, I really do not give a rat’s ass what The Oregonian thinks!
“Truman the WWI vet sent poorly trained, poorly equipped Army troops to Korea, where they were like lambs led to slaughter, according to the Marines.”
Yeah, how many KIA in Korea? 54,000? What did we gain by the venture? 40 more years of fearing the international communist conspiracy. No way Bush can live up to that.
The only post September 11 terrorist attacks on this nation came from the democrats, the New York Times, and others on the left.
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