President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he’s already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.
CBS’ Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, “Today – Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24.
Senator Rowland [sic] Burris of Illinois, the Senator who was appointed to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, blames George Bush for Chicago not getting the Olympics in 2016. Burris stated in an interview, shortly after the announcement, that the image of the U. S. has been so tarnished in the last 8 years that, even Barack Obama making an unprecedented pitch for the games could not overcome the hatred the world has for us as a result of George Bush.
That’s what you get when you let Rod Blagojevich appoint senators.
The reporters who ignored one president spring to their feet when another one enters the room. And then they wait for his permission to be seated so they can write their truthful, unbiased reports.
The next two hours were inspiring, amazing, and ultimately very revealing about who the commander-in-chief really was and what he really believed. After repeating the same injunction about recording devices, he began to take questions. Real questions. Unmoderated questions. Cadets, normally somewhat reticent about asking questions during a briefing, couldn’t get their hands in the air fast enough. He answered everything we threw at him, both the easy and the difficult. As time passed, I began to see this man for who he really was — contrary to all the most popular stereotypes, he was not a power-monger, not an evil oil baron, not the clumsy, bumbling fool as he has often been accused of being.
This was not the George W. Bush that we all thought we knew. Immediately, it became apparent why he didn’t want the press there — he wanted the freedom to be as candid with us as he knew how, as a classic Texas straight shooter down to the last word. Intimately familiar with the new media’s habitual mistreatment of any and all of his verbal missteps or lapses in diplomatic, politically correct language, he knew they would have pounced on this meeting. There would have been no end to the howling coming from his enemies’ camps.
Not politically correct? Yes. Not eloquent? True. Aware of his faults and shortcomings? Absolutely. Honest and sincere in pursing what he believes? Concerned for the welfare of the country, and especially for the welfare of soldiers and their families? You’d better believe it.
A press that prevents the president from communicating effectively with the people, and then accuses him of inability to communicate effectively with the people? Is it OK to question their patriotism if they do it when there is a war on?
If there were polls of public opinion of Barack Obama’s handling of the presidential transition, why no polls on George W. Bush’s handling of the transition of power on his end? It’s probably not too late for such a poll yet. The only problem may be that the public is poorly informed on the matter, with the media focusing heavily on their favorite’s actions when he was president-elect.
John Hinderaker: Bush was a reasonably good president undone by his unwillingness to defend himself from undeserved attacks.
That tendency to turn the other cheek was, in the end, fatal. Bush never cared much about politics. He was almost contemptuous of political leadership, willing to engage in politics on a sustained basis only in his two successful election campaigns. But he was a politician, and the job of a politician, as President, is to use political skills to lead the American people. Bush’s unwillingness or inability to do what it would take to be an effective political leader, in the end undid his administration.
No one can seriously question President Bush’s character. He did, at all times, what he thought was right for his country. For that he deserves our undying respect. But his political failures, his myopia on some issues and the fact that he was not much of a conservative seriously marred his administration.
Everything considered, I give the Bush administration a B-.
The crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye,” a section of the crowd chanted.
The crowd packed immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath office to become the 44th president of the United States.
The simple notion that their lack of civility reflects badly on the man they support is obvioulsy lost on these people.
It can be stated without fear of serious argument that no previous president has been treated as brutally, viciously, and unfairly as George W. Bush.
Bush 43 endured a deliberate and planned assault on everything he stood for, everything he was involved in, everything he tried to accomplish. Those who worked with him suffered nearly as much (and some even more — at least one, Scooter Libby, was convicted on utterly specious charges in what amounts to a show trial).
His detractors were willing to risk the country’s safety, its economic health, and the very balance of the democratic system of government in order to get at him. They were out to bring him down at all costs, or at the very least destroy his personal and presidential reputation. At this they have been half successful, at a high price for the country and its government.
Pardon anyone and everyone in your Administration who participated in wiretapping, interrogations, detentions, and related efforts. Don’t depend on the vague, indecisive words of Barack Obama and his surrogates. Just as you depended on them, the people who helped you combat terrorism are depending on you.
That’s what the link on their home page says; the article it opens is titled “Exit, Pursued By History: How Bush treated Clinton and how Obama should handle Bush”. Yeah, keep hate alive.
NBC reports that the two teams are working out a response to a “simultaneous terrorist attack on several major American cities — bombs targeting transportation, infrastructure and other economic targets”. The exercise also covers “responses to natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes, a flu pandemic and so on”.
Today’s exercise is part of an unprecedented transition effort, which began last summer when the Bush administration reached out to both the Obama and McCain campaigns to begin planning.
Nice to see Bush getting credit for his efforts to ensure a smooth transition of government to a man who built his election campaign on vilifying everything Bush ever did.
The postmortems on the presidency of George W. Bush are all wrong. The liberal line is that Bush dangerously weakened America’s position in the world and rushed to the aid of the rich and powerful as income inequality worsened. That is twaddle. Conservatives–okay, not all of them–have only been a little bit kinder. They give Bush credit for the surge that saved Iraq, but not for much else.
He deserves better. His presidency was far more successful than not. And there’s an aspect of his decision-making that merits special recognition: his courage. Time and time again, Bush did what other presidents, even Ronald Reagan, would not have done and for which he was vilified and abused. That–defiantly doing the right thing–is what distinguished his presidency.
Even without the economy on it, it’s actually an impressive list of achievements. Sadly, preventing a nuclear Iran can’t be added to it.
Even people like Bob Geldof and that Irish guy in pink shades acknowledge that the Bush Administration has saved millions of lives in Africa. And now, a week before W. leaves, the Associated Press finally feels free to report it.
“The administration and Bush himself deserve a lot more credit than they received for getting this job done,” says Josh Ruxin, assistant professor of public health at Columbia University.
“Since Hamas’ violent takeover in the summer of 2007, living conditions have worsened for Palestinians in Gaza,” Bush says in prepared remarks released Friday by the White House. “By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people.”
Bush’s attempt to deal with the housing problem went something like this: the Bush Administration proposed some tighter regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Democrats in Congress said no, and the Bush Administration responded with a big “OK, never mind, sorry to have bothered you” and gave up.
Now contrast this lack of effort with the way Bush responded on issues that he really cared about. When the Democrats tried to force him to agree to withdraw troops from Iraq, Bush vetoed spending legislation, going so far as to putt the government at risk of running out of money. When Bush wanted the votes for the auto bailout, he sent Cheney to twist arms. When Bush wanted the Medicare drug bill passed, he applied all sorts of back channel pressure on reluctant Congressmen. And Bush approved a full court press to get the Senate to approve Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
In other words, when Bush was engaged, he had no problem rising to the challenge of getting the needed votes. And when he didn’t care so much, whether it was in this case, or when it came to pressuring the Senate to confirm more of his judicial nominations, or on cutting back on earmarks, Bush did little if anything to use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to help advance his supposed agenda.
There’s four basic constituencies for a President during war; one is the American people. And this has been a difficult assignment, to convince the people that what happens in Iraq matters to our own security at home, that what happens in Afghanistan matters to the security, and that-the first task was to remove the regimes that threatened peace and threatened our security. And the next task is to not replace one strongman with another, but encourage a democracy to grow because we’re in an ideological struggle. And it’s the ideology of liberty that defeats the ideology of hate every time.
A second constituency was the enemy. And they got to know we’re going to go after them all times, all places-unrelenting pressure on them.
Third, in the case of Iraq, with the Iraqi people, they wanted to know whether or not America was going to keep its word, because if not, they’re going to find a local militia that could keep their families safe.
And the fourth is the military. And the military must know that the mission is just, the goals are clear, and the President will not be making decisions with their lives based upon an opinion poll.
George W. Bush may not have been the best steward of the economy, but his legacy will be his successful war-time leadership.
