Posted on 01/24/2009 8:37:09 AM PST by NewMediaJournal
“Few presidents have entered the Oval Office with as much opportunity for positive change as did George Bush. Certainly, no previous president ever ascended to the presidency with the future of the country so critically in the balance. Yet, Bush left the White House having failed to lead the country, having failed to grasp the opportunities that lay before him...
“As leader of his party... Bush had an obligation to bring into the national spotlight the next generation of Republican leaders. Not only did he fail, utterly, in that responsibility, he has left in his wake a youthful Democratic administration that may well dominate the national political scene for the next sixteen years...”
George W. Bush? No, those paragraphs are excerpted from a February 25, 1993 op-ed column that I wrote for The Tulsa Sentinel, expressing my views on the outgoing president, George H.W. Bush.
Early in his presidency, George H.W. Bush attempted to continue the Reagan policy of less government spending and reduced taxes. And when he failed to get the necessary cooperation from House and Senate Democrats he agreed to an “economic summit” on neutral ground at Andrews Air Force Base. At that meeting, congressional Democrats agreed to spending cuts if Bush would agree to some limited tax increases... mostly increases in federal user fees.
When they came to his desk Bush signed the tax bills and sat back to await the spending cuts, but they never came; the Democrats reneged on their end of the bargain. In spite of his many years in public life... as a member of Congress, as Ambassador to the United Nations, as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, as Director of Central Intelligence, as U.S. Envoy to China, and as Vice President... Bush apparently learned little about the true nature of Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at newmediajournal.us ...
This is not a BARF alert, this is a ‘two girls and a cup’ alert.
LOL! Sorry I should read the entire article.
The exception is the MSM that continues to bash the man. Either it is OrgasmicObama columns or BashBush columns and I'm sick of them both and January is not over yet.
Jeeez. February is Black History Month. What the h*ll should we expect then???
I wouldn’t mind if Jeb becomes a Senator. But the heck if I am ever trust a Bush with the Presidency.
Yeah, me too. I'm irritable and quick on the trigger.
It’s not about the republican party, it’s about national security.
Sorry if the writer didn’t notice that we were brutally attacked on 9/11 in the culmination of a long list of attacks on our interests abroad.
This article is correct. Bush squandered his opportunities to lead. He let Rumsfeld drag on the war in Iraq, he let the Demoncrats regain control of the congress and the presidency, he let the minority Demoncrats write legislation to expand government, and he let the media portray him as stupid. Bush never took his message to the people. Bush is and was a loser. He has damned America to the commie-in-chief that we now have.
GW never had the guts to go for the Dems when he should have. Terrorists, yes. But Dems? Never. He could have had Wm. Jefferson (D- LA) keeled, Nancy Pelosi (D- La-LaLand) arrested and numerous other scum bags jailed. Instead, he stood by and watched Scooter Libby railroaded,didn’t tell Republican Congresscritters to quit swilling at the public’s wallet and generally just made himself a wimp. We need a fire breathing, conservative, ass kicking Neathanderal to bring us some leadership.
You’ll be telling your grandchildren he set them up for the mess they’re in.
GW never had the guts to go for the Dems when he should have. Terrorists, yes. But Dems? Never. He could have had Wm. Jefferson (D- LA) keeled, Nancy Pelosi (D- La-LaLand) arrested and numerous other scum bags jailed. Instead, he stood by and watched Scooter Libby railroaded,didn’t tell Republican Congresscritters to quit swilling at the public’s wallet and generally just made himself a wimp. We need a fire breathing, conservative, ass kicking Neanderthal to bring us some leadership.
Yeah you talk just like a liberal commie..All I can say is I really hope you are prepared for what is to come in the next four years..No not the next four but in a few months, they are really pushing their agenda forward really fast..Do you own a gun? If not I would advise you to get one to protect your family..
“congressional Democrats agreed to spending cuts if Bush would agree to some limited tax increases”
Let me see now, they promised Pres. Reagan a corresponding decrease in spendind, if he would raise taxes, then they convinced Pres. Bush 1st. to raise taxes (still remember the beaming hinneys standing with him when he made the announcement), then they the same thing with Pres. Bush 2nd.
..... think I am beginning to see a pattern here.
Another hit piece. As if President Bush’s plate was not overflowing after 9/11, as if he had no back-stabbers and enemy both foreign and DOMESTIC, as if he could just snap his fingers and wonderful things would happen immediately.
Our son witnessed some truly remarkable events in Iraq on two deployments, NOTHING will diminish what Pres. Bush was striving for even with the constant militating for surrender, withdrawal, appeasement; surrounded by cowards, Gen. Petraeus, VP Cheney, Pres. Bush stood virtually alone gambling terrifically high stakes on the surge. Nothing was cut in stone assuring success, it’s what one might call LEADERSHIP.
As a Texan I was deeply frustrated (still am) over border security but why do the border state’s governors get a pass? Are they not responsible for that security along their state’s borders? I believe they are.
And then there are the traitors in Congress as if Bush can push them all aside, nope, like Gen. Tommy Franks always cautioned: The enemy has a vote too. And our enemy within is the real scourge, we need to address that.
Thank you President Bush, now let’s see how this genius we now have as POTUS performs, it would be humorous if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Tell me again, how did the democrats nationalize the banks? Sure, they set up the financial mess...and yes, the commies have taken over...but your man, the one you want to tell your grandchildren about, is a New World Order socialist, and he handed the commies everything they need to complete our destruction, on a silver platter. Sacked the treasury, attacked our currency, nationalized the banks, paid off the unions, refused to close the border. Obama will do much damage, but Bush will be responsible for setting him up nicely. He was not ever a conservative, don’t you see? In your eyes, a good man...ok, fine. But he’s a socialist. I concede to you that he’s been the best Democrat president in my lifetime. We live in a world where the democrats are pro-death communists, and the Republicans are Democrats...pro-life, strong defense, tax and spend libs. If we have the courage to admit that, it’s a start. But Bush worship just makes you look...well, it doesn’t make ou look conservative, let’s leave it at that.
Did you actually read the article?
This is not an exercise in "bashing". This article examines the fact, from a conservative perspective, that George W. Bush repeated the same mistakes as George H. W. Bush by playing softball with the RATS.
"When Hurricane Katrina struck the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi Gulf coasts, the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana, both Democrats, failed miserably in their roles as first responders. And when tens of thousands of New Orleans residents were left to fend for themselves by a corrupt mayor and an incompetent governor, Democrats charged that it was Bush who had abandoned them... ostensibly because they were mostly black Democrats. Bush tacitly took the blame and fired his FEMA director as proof of his remorse."
How can the same mistake be made by a military unit again and again?
By never conducting an After Action Report.
How can the same medical mistake be made by a medical staff again and again?
By never conducting a Morbidity & Mortality Review.
How can the same political mistakes be made in politics again and again?
By saying, "OK, (Insert politician's name here) is gone. We all accept that. The exception is (Insert name of authour of criticism here) continues to bash the man."
“Bush squandered his opportunities to lead”
The Bush BOO brigade marches on.
congressional Democrats agreed to spending cuts if Bush would agree to some limited tax increases”
ch-1 spendind=spending
Let me see now, they promised Pres. Reagan a corresponding decrease in spending, if he would raise taxes, then they convinced Pres. Bush 1st. to raise taxes (still remember the beaming hinneys standing with him when he made the announcement), then they the same thing with Pres. Bush 2nd. ..... think I am beginning to see a pattern here.
There is some unnecessary nastiness at the end. Yes, Bush was born into an elite, privileged, Ivy League family, but he grew beyond that and became something quite different.
But this is not a typical MSM attack, it’s a complaint by a betrayed conservative.
Both Bush’s had serious weaknesses, and for the most part the article identifies them—as well as W’s strengths.
The biggest weaknesses is that neither of them was able to handle the Democrats. The elder Bush broke his promise, raised taxes, and got nothing in return. The younger Bush presided over enormous spending programs, was unable to handle the Democrats or the press.
And both Bushes managed to leave the party basically without leadership. One job of a president is to help groom younger politicians to succeed him. Instead, Bush and Rove went out of their way to cut off the best younger leaders at the knees or defeat them in primaries, while reaching out to RINOs like McCain and Specter and Arnold and Lincoln Chaffee and loading the RNC with RINO idiots. Cheney was a good VP, but he was too old and ill to run. So when Bush left, there was a big vacuum.
Unlike some, I don’t think Bush did any of this deliberately. I think he is a very decent guy. But he left the party greatly weakened and the country greatly weakened by his cluelessness about spending and the economy.
Then you're a liar and a nitwit.
Look around you, now that that spine-deficient loser is out of power , he has virtually no defenders and NO legacy. Zero Bama is going to nationalize industry and cut the military , codify Gay marriage, abortion, reduce gun ownership and the like. And it could never happen without a BUSH in the whitehouse.
Pox on the both of them and their mindless "followers".
Name callimg is for the liberals that is what they are best at..So call me anything you want I am just laughing at your ignorance..
This has nothing to do with "liking a man". You can be the sweetest person in the World and have very serious performance deficiencies in certain areas.
My grandmother was a saint. She was one of the most loving and lovable people I ever knew. Yet, you could not have paid me enough money to get in a car that she drove on an expressway because she was so clueless about driving that both of us would have surely died.
Bush was a very good and likeable man but, in certain areas, he was as incompetent a politician as my grandmother was an incompetent driver.
Safetgiver summed it up well:
"GW never had the guts to go for the Dems when he should have. Terrorists, yes. But Dems? Never." .........12 posted on Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:58:25 AM by Safetgiver
Be that as it may, why can't we just put his mistakes in the past and just leave them alone? You can't change the past.
It is true you can't change the past but you can learn from the past to change the future. Without honestly examining the mistakes of the past either in war or in medicine or in engineering or in politics or even in the kitchen, you will be repeating the same mistakes again and again and again.
See my Post 20.
When you are a historical figure, your mistakes will be studied and discussed for decades or centuries to come. Those who refuse to study the mistakes of the past do so at their own peril.
As my namesake observed over 2,100 years ago:
"I have recorded these events in the hope that the reader may profit from them, for there are two ways by which all men may reform themselves, either by learning from their own errors or from those of others; the former makes a more striking demonstration, the latter a less painful one." .......... Polybius (200-118 B.C.), Universal History, Book I, Chapter 35
I think that you would be better off going to a ‘progressive’ site and bash Mr. Bush, but not here...
You see, President Bush did alt of things wrong, but he did alot more right, and history will prove this point.
Those of us that voted and supported him for two terms think alot of him, as a person that brought pride to the White House and our Country, (unlike the previous President). He brought with him a lovely family who graced our White House and Country with morals and wholesomeness.
Its been a hard week for those of us that loved our President and its going to be very hard for me to even watch the news in two years let alone trust my freedoms and safety to this new President.
Oh yes, why not trust Obama in 2012 over Jeb Bush? Makes brilliant sense.
How often did GW Bush use his veto pen? Case closed.
No he didn't , and no it won't.
You come back here in 6 months , and you won't need two hands to count the number of people that will still be appreciative of Bush , with his ineptitude and incompetence, particularly with regards to domestic and economic policy. History will look with contempt at how he set us up for being the France of North America. Shame on him for blowing it, big time.
How often did Clinton get a blow job under his desk?Now the case is closed..
How often did Clinton get a blow job under his desk?Now the case is closed..
The truth is we will never know what Bush’s presidency would have been like had 9-11 never happened. He played the hand he was dealt. History has shown us that some will benefit from circumstances(Clinton) and some will not(Bush).
We will also never know what would have happened had the opposition given just one iota of cooperation to Bush. They did what they did out of desperation to regain power. It was in their best interests for things to go badly, and in some cases they made sure things did.
The next four years will be interesting as we await the circumstances that will direct and define Obama’s time at the helm.
I thought we were discussing George Bush. How did Monica get in this discussion? Diversionary tactic PLD?
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Eight Wasted Years...Margaret Thatcher used to talk about the “ratchet effect.” When the Left gets power, she said, they drive everything Left; when the Right gets power, they slow the Leftward drive, perhaps even halt it for a spell; but nothing ever gets moved to the Right. U.S. politics in the 21st century so far bears out this dismal analysis. What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn’t let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word...Bill Gertz interview on Hannity and Colmes Gertz: Well he casts himself as a compassionate conservative and I argue that he's neither. That his administration is neither. He's done tremendous damage to the conservative movement... |
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My spouse and I were having this very discussion last night, and she observed that Obama's overreaching with the socialism and his Chicago past will catch up with him soon enough, and that it will affect his poll numbers.
I responded by reminding her that the more sleaze came out of the Clinton administration, the higher his poll numbers went.
The opposite was true with GWB, of course.
He couldn't even get a tip of the hat from his detractors over keeping the country safe for 7 1/2 yrs.
I lay it all at the feet of the MSM.
Never, ever underestimate their influence.
One small example: had the swearing-in "flub" occurred during Dubya's inaugural, do you think they'd be universally pinning it on the Chief Justice?
Well said on your part also..
I get so tired of these people that every chance they get down my president..If it had not of been for him God only knows what would have happened to use after 9/11..Remember when the dem’s heard what was going on they all got so dumb founded and did not know what to do..All ran for the nearest cover and to hell with use..
I will remember a very kind loving man that saved my family from terrorist..
Now look what is going on not even a week has gone by until the Muslim has given his friends a free pass out of jail...
One can see it on this thread, there are those whose world view is a matter of gravitation to personality,like reading People Magazine, and in that case GWB was a good human being, and in that we don't disagree. In fact the Obama phenomenon is based on this psychology of personality, and apparently consumes the majority of the electorate.
And there are those whose world view is a matter of principle and idea, in which case GWB was an utter loser in communicating individual responsibility of the citizen, taking on the Left, taking on the Media, cultivating an ideology of self honesty, clarifying what freedom means, clarifying what the origin and uniqueness of the United States was, standing for conservatism. Obviously an order far beyond him.
Personally I think that really was a result of him being raised as a patrician. And in that regard incidentally, the Democrats have the more legitimate political substance on hand (e.g. Clinton, Obama, are not patricians).
It will take one hell of a conservative to break through, far more than just a hopeful shift in the electorate's reactions. The only one currently on the scene coming close is Sarah Palin, and they, the filter, will annihilate her. Maybe Romney (who would have destroyed Obama in the debates).
It is all arranged anyway by the CFR.
“And it could never happen without a BUSH in the whitehouse”
Such audacity, making this statement, (been here over 10 yrs. Too) and YOU call someone a nitwit and idiot .... If you’re not from DU central you should be.
“Personally I think that really was a result of him being raised as a patrician”
I think you are right, I believe that is why Pres. Bush 1 never responded to the Clinton campaign tactics nor did he make any effort to counter them. I thought Pres. Bush 2 was going to be different (he did seem to have more of that vision thing) but there wasn’t a great improvement. It will take not only a strong president (political street fighter) but good officers and foot soldiers (and citizen support) to break the jam, there is nobody of that character in positions to accomplish this. Anyone who doesn’t understand this shouldn’t be calling anyone an idiot.
Oh you are preaching to the choir. GWB is much preferred over BJC and especially socialist Obama. My only disappointment with GWB is he did not control spending. The national debt took a big leap upwards. If he had vetoed spending bills and was overridden by congress then Bush is not at fault. But burdening ALL THE FUTURE GENERATIONS with Trillions in national debt without trying to fight it is what reduces my admiration of Bush.
I guess you didn’t read my post #6. Glad to see others blow hard too. LOL.
He expanded government spending at a rate faster than Clinton, his Treasury Secretary just spent 400 billion dollars in 4 months.He has set the table for government takeovers..
..He never vetoed a spending bill, he's not a conservative in any type of fiscal sense. He's a Bush, just like his father, did you even read this article?. What would you refute?
And where you been for 10 yrs? Not paying attention, apparently.
“What would you refute”
I would refute the statement that I challenged, namely that the current events would not have unfolded if Pres. Bush had not been in office ... that is , to use your word, idiotic. You also seem to be insolent and don’t understand how spending works ... guess seniority doesn’t ensure a quality post huh.
What is it about cutting taxes and not cutting spending that you don't understand ?
You, sir, are a newbie idiot troll.
Thank you for your kind words, Bless you on this Sabbath. Oh yes, you may find this interesting, especially the part about spending http://www.congressforkids.net/Constitution_threebranches.htm
Start letting people know about their criminal doings..President Bush is out so now start getting to work on the criminals that stole this country..Get rid of ACORN and any other organization that helps these pathetic morons.. I for one am grateful to President Bush for all he has done for this country and for me and my family..People forget so fast at all the good this man has done..No one will ever change my mind about him..
Heres a brief tutorial for you, you seem not to understand how the Executive Branch works.
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