...But Is Anyone Listening?
Last night, President George W. Bush bid the nation farewell. In a thirteen minute speech delivered in front of nearly 250 friends and colleagues, the 43rd President of the United States tried one last time to vindicate himself to a wary American public. My question is: "Is there anyone out there even listening to him anymore?" Obviously, yes, people watched him last night. Political die-hards, such as myself, listened to what the man had to say, and sighed every time he justified his actions.
What's interesting to note, although he leaves office in four days, he really hasn't done much of anything since the end of September. I recall, back in 2000, President Clinton was working on a Mideast Peace Plan right up until almost the day he left office. Whether he was doing it because he believed in it or he wanted one last award to put on his mantle, we may never know. The point is, "W" checked out a long time ago. He has only been doing interviews lately to try to salvage a decent legacy.
I must say, listening the idiot-in-chief on last time, I was struck by how much he really believed everything he was saying. The man honestly believes he was good for the country. Despite everything that has happened over the past eight years, he still had the nerve to stand up there and say that he was proud of what he had accomplished. And, to his end, he has yet to acknowledge that he had made any mistakes along the way, except for not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
President George W. Bush's legacy will live on long after you and me have ceased to breath our last breath's. He is now a part of our United States history. People will study his Presidency for years and years to come. I am sure that there will be volumes of books written about this man long after he is buried at his library in Dallas, TX. Bush may have prevented other attacks upon the United States, as he is so fond of saying, yet he attacked this country and did more damage than any terrorist could have imagined.
So, let him go back to Texas and kick up his heels and live the life of Riley. We will work, together with our new President to pick up the pieces of wreckage that "W" has left behind. Maybe one day, when he is old and wiser, he will begin to understand that he what he did while he was leader of our country wasn't in our best interests, but in his best interests. Maybe he will one day understand that keeping us safe isn't the only thing he was responsible for. Because really, are we more safe than we were eight years ago? Have we achieved peace and prosperity? Are our elders and children and disabled taken care of? Has he left the world a better place for being our President?
Apparently, after listening to is farewell address, he certainly believes this is so. Yes, George W. Bush said farewell to America last night. He told us he was honored and humbled to have been our leader for the past eight years. But honestly, how many of us were just glad to see him walk away from the lectern one last time? How fitting that on Tuesday afternoon, he will be flying west, into the sunset. Good-bye George W. Bush, don't let the door hit ya on the way out.
Showing posts with label President Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Bush. Show all posts
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Few Parting Thoughts on "W"
In less than one week, the Presidency of George W. Bush will come to an end. After eight tumultuous years, the man who came to Washington as a "uniter" will leave being one of the most despised Presidents this country has ever had. Not only did President Bush not live up to his "uniter" claims, he divided this nation more than any other person in American history. People are glad to see him go. Not only the citizens of this country, but the citizens of many countries around the world will be happy that the Presidency of George W. Bush has come to an end.
It will be argued for many years where George Bush's place in history will be. Some will say he saved this nation and kept us safe from those who would do us harm. Many though, will say that he was a complete failure as President and aided the enemies of the United States more than any other event of person could have. Personally, I say that George W. Bush nearly single-handily destroyed our country. In the eight year he has been President, he has over-seen three wars; the worst attack on American soil by an outside force; the worst economic down-turn since The Great Depression; alienated our allies and enraged our enemies.
Off the top of my head: More people are out of work today than there were when he took office. More people are without health insurance than when he took office. More schools are failing then when he took office. Our national debt is double the size it was when he took office. We went from having a $200 billion surplus to having a nearly $1.5 trillion deficit. He has ok'd the use of torture on prisoners of war. He has allowed American citizens to have their phone calls tapped and listened in on. He has taken the Constitution of The United States of America and wiped his ass with it.
When a president takes the oath of office, he swears to defend the constitution. President George W. Bush has done nothing of the sort. He and Vice President Dick Cheney have laughed at our Constitution and ridden over it in their four-wheel drives. We should have seen this coming. Back in November of 2000, after election night, then Governor George W. Bush and his legal team did everything within their power to ensure that the votes of the American People were not counted fairly. In what could be called a "bloodless" coup, George W. Bush ascended to power because of a Supreme Court ruling that should have never reached the Supreme Court in the first place. Yet, because he was friends with several of the justices, it did and this is country we are left with.
However, now is not the time to get complacent. H.L. Mencken once said, "we get the government we deserve." He is correct. We, the people of this great country, got greedy. We became couch potatoes and unsympathetic toward those other than ourselves. Instead of working to solve the worlds problems together, George W. Bush chose to try to solve the problems of this country, alone. Now, we are left to pick up the pieces.
When Barack Obama takes the oath of office next week, we expect great things from him. Yet, to many, he will fail if he does not follow through on all of his promises immediately. The mess of the last eight years will not be fixed over night. It will take a long time undo the damage that George Bush has brought upon our nation. We must be patient with our new president. We must work with him to ensure the changes we want are enacted. But, the most important thing we must do is to remember the mistakes of the past eight years and not walk down the same path again.
At the dawning of this new era in American History, let's remember what Robert Kennedy said about history: "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." We must all work together, we must all come together and if we do, the next generation of this country will be the greatest generation since The Great Depression. And we will have overcome all that has been thrown at us in these past eight years.
It will be argued for many years where George Bush's place in history will be. Some will say he saved this nation and kept us safe from those who would do us harm. Many though, will say that he was a complete failure as President and aided the enemies of the United States more than any other event of person could have. Personally, I say that George W. Bush nearly single-handily destroyed our country. In the eight year he has been President, he has over-seen three wars; the worst attack on American soil by an outside force; the worst economic down-turn since The Great Depression; alienated our allies and enraged our enemies.
Off the top of my head: More people are out of work today than there were when he took office. More people are without health insurance than when he took office. More schools are failing then when he took office. Our national debt is double the size it was when he took office. We went from having a $200 billion surplus to having a nearly $1.5 trillion deficit. He has ok'd the use of torture on prisoners of war. He has allowed American citizens to have their phone calls tapped and listened in on. He has taken the Constitution of The United States of America and wiped his ass with it.
When a president takes the oath of office, he swears to defend the constitution. President George W. Bush has done nothing of the sort. He and Vice President Dick Cheney have laughed at our Constitution and ridden over it in their four-wheel drives. We should have seen this coming. Back in November of 2000, after election night, then Governor George W. Bush and his legal team did everything within their power to ensure that the votes of the American People were not counted fairly. In what could be called a "bloodless" coup, George W. Bush ascended to power because of a Supreme Court ruling that should have never reached the Supreme Court in the first place. Yet, because he was friends with several of the justices, it did and this is country we are left with.
However, now is not the time to get complacent. H.L. Mencken once said, "we get the government we deserve." He is correct. We, the people of this great country, got greedy. We became couch potatoes and unsympathetic toward those other than ourselves. Instead of working to solve the worlds problems together, George W. Bush chose to try to solve the problems of this country, alone. Now, we are left to pick up the pieces.
When Barack Obama takes the oath of office next week, we expect great things from him. Yet, to many, he will fail if he does not follow through on all of his promises immediately. The mess of the last eight years will not be fixed over night. It will take a long time undo the damage that George Bush has brought upon our nation. We must be patient with our new president. We must work with him to ensure the changes we want are enacted. But, the most important thing we must do is to remember the mistakes of the past eight years and not walk down the same path again.
At the dawning of this new era in American History, let's remember what Robert Kennedy said about history: "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." We must all work together, we must all come together and if we do, the next generation of this country will be the greatest generation since The Great Depression. And we will have overcome all that has been thrown at us in these past eight years.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
I Love Paul Krugman
From The New York Times:
January 2, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Bigger Than Bush
By PAUL KRUGMAN
As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.
Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?
But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.
The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.
If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”
Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.
Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.
So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.
That’s why the soon-to-be-gone administration’s failure is bigger than Mr. Bush himself: it represents the end of the line for a political strategy that dominated the scene for more than a generation.
The reality of this strategy’s collapse has not, I believe, fully sunk in with some observers. Thus, some commentators warning President-elect Barack Obama against bold action have held up Bill Clinton’s political failures in his first two years as a cautionary tale.
But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.
Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.
Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.
January 2, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Bigger Than Bush
By PAUL KRUGMAN
As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.
Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?
But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.
The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.
If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”
Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.
Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.
So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.
That’s why the soon-to-be-gone administration’s failure is bigger than Mr. Bush himself: it represents the end of the line for a political strategy that dominated the scene for more than a generation.
The reality of this strategy’s collapse has not, I believe, fully sunk in with some observers. Thus, some commentators warning President-elect Barack Obama against bold action have held up Bill Clinton’s political failures in his first two years as a cautionary tale.
But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.
Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.
Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Daily Quote
"It really depends upon how the—how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll, they’ll resent us. If we’re a humble nation but strong, they’ll welcome us."
-President George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas, during the Presidential debate in Oct. 2000 against Vice President Al Gore. Taken from Meet the Press with David Gregory today 12/21/08.
Hmm, words fail me right now.
-President George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas, during the Presidential debate in Oct. 2000 against Vice President Al Gore. Taken from Meet the Press with David Gregory today 12/21/08.
Hmm, words fail me right now.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Deep in Denile!
From Think Progress:
Today, President Bush defended his foreign policy over the past eight years in an address to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC. At one point, he acknowledged that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks but justified using such a connection to push for the Iraq war:
It is true, as I have said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not
connected to the 9/11 attacks. But the decision to remove Saddam from power
cannot be viewed in isolation from 9/11. In a world where terrorists armed with
box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 people, America had to decide whether
we could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported
terror, and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had weapons
of mass destruction. It was clear to me, to members of both political
parties, and to many leaders around the world that after 9/11, this was a
risk we could not afford to take.
Here is the link to the rest of the article.
All I can say is...What an ASS!!!
Today, President Bush defended his foreign policy over the past eight years in an address to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC. At one point, he acknowledged that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks but justified using such a connection to push for the Iraq war:
It is true, as I have said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not
connected to the 9/11 attacks. But the decision to remove Saddam from power
cannot be viewed in isolation from 9/11. In a world where terrorists armed with
box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 people, America had to decide whether
we could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported
terror, and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had weapons
of mass destruction. It was clear to me, to members of both political
parties, and to many leaders around the world that after 9/11, this was a
risk we could not afford to take.
Here is the link to the rest of the article.
All I can say is...What an ASS!!!
Trend or Flash-in-the-Pants
Much has been written over the past month about the Presidential election on November 4th and whether it was a trend or a one time thing. Many pundits have said that it spells doom and gloom for the Republican Party. Others have suggested that it was a fluke Obama won. Here is my analysis of the election and what it all means.1. The Republican Party is not dead. It is far from dead. They will come back meaner and more ferocious in two and four years. However, the Republican brand is not being looked upon in a favorable light. They have a lot of soul searching to do over the next several years. What direction do party leaders want to take the party? Do they swing hard right and make themselves a Christian party? If that is direction they go in, that spells doom for the brand. If party leaders focus on core conservative values; fiscal responsibility, national defense, smaller government, then there is a future for the party. The republicans need to get away from being the morality police for the nation. It is my belief that is one of the reasons they lost so horribly in November. No one likes having others beliefs pushed upon them. After eight years of a President who has consistently told us what we should believe and how we should believe it, the American people are tired. They want to be left alone in their own bedrooms and free to make their own choices in regards to their bodies.
2. The elections in 2000 and 2004 were two of the closest elections in American History. Those elections told us that this country wasn't so much divided evenly, but the citizens of this country were not sure what direction they wanted this nation to move. The fact that President Bush won in 2004 by 3 million votes on a national level and 150,000 votes in Ohio, shows that this nation wasn't sure what it wanted. If this country was truly a "center right" nation as many pundits have suggested, then Barack Obama would never have been able to win election by the widest margin of a non-incumbent in history. The United States Senate would not have come two seats away from being filibuster proof and Democrats would have picked up 20 plus seats in the House of Representatives. We are not a center right nation. We are nation which believes in the best of what people have to offer, whether that is right or left, is inconsequential.
3. If we look back to the elections of 1992 and 1996 you can see the beginnings of a trend toward a more blue America. It is my belief that the 2000 and 2004 elections were just a bump in that road. The southwestern United States were trending blue in 1992 and 1996. Bill Clinton won Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada in 1992. He won Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada in 1996. Also, Bill Clinton won Montana in 1992. As much as the media wants to make those states out to be red states, they truly are not. They are not the biggest battlegrounds either. The new battlegrounds are Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Georgia and West Virginia. George Bush won Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada by very slim margins. Obama just picked up where Bill Clinton left off. In order for the Republican Party to win the Presidency in 2012, they are going to need to figure out how to win back Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.
4. This is election showed the American people are tired of the divisive policies of the past 8 years. Remember, President Bush ran on a platform of bipartisanship. What we got was 8 years of the most divisive politics and policies this country has since The Civil War. When Americans voted for President Bush they believed in his assertion of "compassionate conservatism" and not letting politics run policy. Instead, politics was the policy of this country and President Bush ran a White House that had a "take no prisoners" attitude. If you did not agree with the President, you were an enemy. There was not room for a middle ground.
Finally, the biggest question is this: What does President-Elect Obama have to do to keep the Democratic majorities and get re-elected in four years? He needs to run this country like he ran his campaign. He must surround himself with the best people in their fields, regardless of their political affiliation. He must listen to both Democrats and Republicans and create policy that is good for the entire country, not just one portion of the population. President-Elect Obama must deliver on his promises during the campaign. If nothing else, enacting Universal Health care, creating green jobs and alternative energy sources, relinquishing our dependence on foreign oil and foreign financial markets is essential. However, to achieve these things, he will need to work closely with Republicans. If he is able to achieve these things, I believe he will easily win re-election in 2012 and by a wider margin than he won this year.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
President Bush Gets It Right...A First!
From Teagan Goddard's Politcal Wire:
"Frankly, I'm not going to miss the limelight all that much."-- President Bush, quoted by the AP, in a conversation with his sister about leaving the White House.
"Frankly, I'm not going to miss the limelight all that much."-- President Bush, quoted by the AP, in a conversation with his sister about leaving the White House.
And we are not going to miss him that much either. Less than two
months until Obama is sworn in. I hope we make it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)