I voted for Bush 2X, but won’t be sorry to see him go. Yes, he kept us safe, but:
1. I think the way he waged the Iraq and Afganistan war stragies leave a lot to be desired. I think Iraq was unnecessary and (despite our real progress), there is still better than 50/50 chance that Iraq will be an Iranian colony ten years from now. He should have gone all out to get Bin Laden while he had the chance.
2. His spending polices were worse than Clinton’s. The Prescription Drug benefit is his albatross around all our necks.
3. While his Admin did point out the dangers of Fannie/Freddie practices, they did nothing about it.
4. Immigration Reform—nuff said.
5. He helped ruined the Republican party.
6. The response to the meltdown (occuring on his watch) is basically a Christmas gift to the Left. Not since FDR has as much been done to turn the country socialist (and I’m not ignoring LBJ).
The only thing that Bush got a bad wrap for is Hurrican Katrina. The only thing that will make me nostalgic for the Bush administration is the coming dictatorship of BHO.
I was among Bush's most enthusiastic supporters--praised him highly here on FR.
He lost me--and most of his base support--when he refused to enforce US immigration law and halt further illegal immigration.
He compounded the loss by spending more money than Lyndon Johnson and hanging the albatross of prescription drug entitlements around our necks.
My anger turned to fury when he handed Congress to the Democrats on a silver platter in 2004 through sheer stupidity.
Now that he has handed the entire U.S. government over to the Democrat Radical Fringe--words cannot express my opinion of Bush.
But I will say that Carter, Clinton, and Warren Harding were worse Presidents.
Your 3 is not accurate. As even the SNL skit acknowledged, the Bush administration pushed a bill to do something about it, which the Democrats stopped.
” I think Iraq was unnecessary”
Iraq was Bush I’s problem to solve. Your vote for Perot gave that job to Clinton. Clinton refused to do anything because he was beholden to Soros who apparently had an inside straight to Sadaam’s oil money. This was in spite of Iraqs involvment in the first World Trade Center bombing.
Then, please recall, the stationing of our troups in Saudi was the primary reason that Bin Laden gave for 9/11.
If the regime change had not been done, pressure from Germany, France, Russia, our leftests, etc would have ended sanctions & Sadaam would likely have the bomb now. Fortunately for us most of his atomic weapons program has likely joined any number of unknown antiquities in the Iraqi desert.
I agree with much of what you write although I don’t think getting Bin Laden is the be all and end all.
Afghanistan was crucial and we should have used nukes on those caves. Instead of Iraq we should have taken on Iran both because of its nuke potential and because it is and was the chief exporter of terror in the world.
Having said that, keeping us safe at home was Pres Bush’s job 1, and he did it. God bless him, our troops and the US of A.
Meanwhile, Sadam Hussein had been supporting terrorism bu paying $20,000 to the families of suicide bombers. You were cool with that?
Sadam also repeatedly defied the restrictions spelled out in the cease fire agreement. But that's alright with you?