Posted on 09/16/2010 5:06:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
Former President George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon. In reaction, for nearly two years President Barack Obama won easy applause by prefacing almost every speech on his economic policies with a "Bush did it" put-down.
But suddenly Bush seems OK. Last week, the president did the unthinkable: He praised Bush for his past efforts to reach out to Muslims. Vice President Joe Biden went further and blurted out, "Mr. Bush deserves a lot of credit." Biden topped that off with, "Mr. President, thank you."
Even liberal pundits have now called on Bush to help Obama diffuse rising tensions over the so-called Ground Zero mosque and Arizona's illegal immigration law.
What's going on?
For one thing, recent polls show an astounding rebound in the former president's favorability -- to the extent that in the bellwether state of Ohio, voters would rather still have Bush as president than Obama by a 50-42 margin. Nationwide, Obama's approval ratings continue to sink to near 40 percent -- a nadir that took years for Bush to reach. It has become better politics to praise rather than to bury Bush.
Iraq seems on the road to success, with a growing economy and a stabilizing government. Don't take my word on that; ask Vice President Biden. He recently claimed that the way Iraq is going, it could become one of the Obama administration's "greatest achievements." Obama himself seconded that when the former war critic called the American effort in Iraq "a remarkable chapter" in the history of the two countries.
Then there are the growing comparisons with Bush's supposed past transgressions. Compared to Obama, they're starting to look like traffic tickets now. Take the economy and the war on terror. Americans were angry at the Bush-era deficits. But they look small after Obama trumped them in less than two years.
For six years of the Bush administration, Americans enjoyed a strong economy. So far, there hasn't been a similar month under Obama. Bush had a one-time Wall Street meltdown, but Obama's permanent big-government medicine for it seems far worse than the original disease.
If Hurricane Katrina showed government ineptness, so did the recent BP oil spill. Maybe such problems in the Gulf were neither Bush nor Obama's fault alone, but are better attributed to the inept federal bureaucracy itself -- or to freak weather and human laxity.
On the war on terror, Obama has dropped all the old campaign venom. Bush's Guantanamo Bay detention facility, renditions, tribunals, intercepts, wiretaps, predator drone attacks, and policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer dubbed a shredding of the Constitution. All are now seen as national security tools that must be kept, if not expanded, under Obama.
In comparison to Obama and his gaffes, Bush no longer seems the singular clod whom his opponents endlessly ridiculed. The supposedly mellifluent Obama relies on the teleprompter as if it were his umbilical cord. His occasional word mangling (he pronounced "corpsman" as "corpse-man") and weird outbursts (he recently complained that opponents "talk about me like a dog") remind us that the pressures of the presidency can make a leader sometimes seem silly.
Bush now seems cool because he has played it cool. The more Obama and Biden have trashed him, the more silent and thus magnanimous he appears. Bush's post-presidency is not like that of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton -- both have criticized their successors and hit the campaign trail -- but similar to that of his father, who worked with, rather than harped about, Bill Clinton. That graciousness not only has helped George W. Bush in the polls, but it finally seems to be mellowing out Obama as well.
Criticism of Bush got out of hand the last few years of his term. Writing novels or making documentaries about killing the president, or libeling him as a Nazi, is not the sort of politics that we want continued during the Obama years. So it makes sense before the general election to halt the endless blame-gaming, before what goes around comes around.
The frenzy of Bush hatred and Obama worship that crested in the summer of 2008 is over. We now better remember the Bush at Ground Zero with a megaphone and his arm around a fireman than the Texan who pronounced "nuclear" as "nucular." Meanwhile, hope-and-change now seems to offer little hope and less change.
America woke up from its 2008 trance and is concluding that Bush was never as bad, and Obama never as good, as advertised.
What is ignorant, foolish and naive is that you completely missed what connects them.
Soros...
Follow the money and until you eliminate any all politicians connected financially to Soro’s, the Middle East, the Rothchilds, etc... we will always be on this course of Progressivism that leads to one global government in which leads to all of your precious rights being flush down the toliet.
I would rank Bush presidency about even with Jimmy Carter's (although I do appreciate Bush staying quiet now, something big-mouth Carter couldnt do.)
Bush was clearly a liberal/progressive. The only things I can think of he differs from liberals is raising taxes in the present time and abortion. But on taxes his attitude was no-one has to pay for big government-big deficits, and Obama’s position is only the rich have to pay for it(and he may even back off that.) Neither count the higher taxes future (unborn) taxpayers must pay for their spending.
Bush clearly had a different position on abortion than Obama (one was Republican and one was Democrat) but he passed and promoted the single Mom tax credit to encourage single-Mom-hood and called single Mom's heros, a liberal position.
Roberts and Alito were great picks, but Bush had to be beat by the conservative base to pick them. He wanted Meyers.
So Bush and Obama are not identical, but close. Obama represents socialism, but Bush the socialist mis-represented capitalism. In a way that makes Bush worse than Obama.
What Le Chien Rouge meant was put the petal, as in gas petal in your vehicle, to the metal
Or maybe it was “pedal”.
Seeing some of the names you pinged, I would like pissant, who may be on your list too, to weigh in.
Pissant, would you agree with this statement by sickoflibs ... "I would rank Bush presidency about even with Jimmy Carter's"?
Yeah, you are correct. I didn’t check, and as there was no spelling error.
A “petal” is part of a flower, as in pulling petals off a daisy, “She loves me, she loves me not”.
A pedal is a foot operated lever, as in accelerator pedal, or a verb, as in pedal a bicycle.
Pissant is a Bush-coolaid drinker too? NOOO ! I thought he was against giving illegal aliens amnesty so they can vote Democrat and bankrupt our country.
Pissant wasnt on that ping BTW. Your ping to him here is the first.
“Roberts and Alito were great picks, but Bush had to be beat by the conservative base to pick them. He wanted Meyers.”
BINGO.
I totally agree with you on ALL POINTS.
And Rove’s INEXCUSABLE antics after O’Donnell’s vicotry REGAREDLESS of his personal opinions, demonstrates how VERY IMPRTANT IT IS to scrutinize PAST MISTAKES in assuring future victories.
- Bush was NOT a conservative and a complete incompetent who couldn't/wouldn't defend conservative principles, spent us into a recession and 'killed' the "Republican Majority". We're you asleep in 2006?....
-"The election resulted in a sweeping victory for the Democratic Party which captured the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a majority of governorships and state legislatures from the Republican Party."
-"Rush Limbaugh: Why Republicans Lost"
... how about the Financial meltdown in 2007/2008, the 'Bailout' mania he initiated/endorsed in 2008? - I can't go on, it's too depressing.
He does? BS! Amazing how many on the 'right' don't get it either.
*Sigh*. Pissant has no reason whatsoever to enter this conversation. If he does, he'll have my gratitude. Also, if he does and his only comment is to say, "No, George Bush was a better President than Carter by a significant degree", that would NOT make him a Bush-coolaid drinker you friggin idiot.
“Bush’s incompetence? Oh perhaps you think that 0bama is competent? *rme*”
“was a manufactured myth” (if you’d read the whole sentence)
Yea, I'll give you Miers => Alito but also place the most blame on the 'intellectuals' on the Bush team. W was loyal to a fault.
All of 'em.
Not a lie, but now that I looked it up, I realize it happened on 9/17/01, not 9/12. My mistake. Here's a link. Check out the last paragraph under History. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/usa/washington-dc-islamic-center
I did not read your whole post when I replied to you. Please accept my apology
I have never heard your “old saying” in Texas.
You'd think a conservative would be a little worried when they same the same thing that would come out of Keith Olberman's mouth.
We now better remember the Bush at Ground Zero with a megaphone and his arm around a fireman than the Texan who pronounced "nuclear" as "nucular."
If there is one image of George W. Bush that will forever be his legacy, it is the following:
Bush's 'Made in the USA' Backdrop Hides 'Made in China' Labels
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