George W. Bush was the only governor elected to two consecutive terms in Texas, the only President to have an MBA and the only president to have twins.
While he was governor of Texas, he was responsible for the state’s largest tax cut and while president he passed one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history. He appointed the first African American Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
Americans seem to forget that although Bush has the lowest approval rating any president has ever had- which I don’t believe- he has also had the highest. Any time a president has stepped forward and made a decision for his country instead of balking and trying to please both sides by doing nothing, he is hated by at least half the population.
He is a born-again Christian and said his personal hero is Jesus. When he was younger, he had an alcohol problem that he admits to. His wife, Laura, worked as a school teacher and a librarian. As First Lady she pushed for education funding and supported the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation, worldwide literacy campaigns and AIDS and HIV awareness.
Bush’s reforms and pushes for change have always been controversial. No Child Left Behind was a good idea but I’m not a fan. I understand the good it has and can do. Thanks in part to that act and increased federal funding, minority test scores are the highest they’ve ever been.
The Patriot Act – while extremely controversial- did a lot of good things including increasing bank security by making it harder to get a bank account. It also took the leash off the CIA and allowed it to better do its job of intercepting terrorist attacks before they happen.
As for critiques of the War on Terror, Clinton had an opportunity to do something the first time the World Trade Center was bombed. He did not act. Instead, he fooled around with an intern- not that there weren’t others he cheated with before Monica Lewinsky.
To top that, he succeeded in starting a recession- his support of lowering bank standards for loans- that would culminate during Bush’s time in office. And in his final hours, he pardoned deserters, drug dealers, money launderers and anyone else he knew in legal trouble.
Iraq is top on everyone’s complaint list and if they had a history lesson, they wouldn’t be so quick to pull out all the troops. That’s what allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan. Trying to keep the country from falling into Communist hands, the U.S. sent money and weapons overseas. When we pulled out, we left the country destitute.
Saddam Hussein preached an anti-American gospel and was constantly trying to gain access to nuclear weapons. He had and used biological weapons. On top of that, he sanctioned genocide and blamed the country’s problems on the Kurds.
People who think Bush falsified documents are in for a surprise. If anyone falsified any documents, it was an agent in the CIA. Colin Powell admitted to not being convinced of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction by the CIA’s evidence and was persuaded by Dick Cheney to still present to the U.N. If you want to blame anyone for that mess, look at Cheney.
Finally, we’ve come to what one AP writer termed one of the “biggest failures of his presidency,” Hurricane Katrina. The mayor of New Orleans balked at the idea of evacuation. The governor of Louisiana didn’t fill out his paperwork for FEMA. Residents weren’t evacuating. Two days before Katrina hit, Bush declared a state of emergency. When the storm hit, he did everything he could to aid FEMA and authorized FEMA to help. FEMA still needed information from the Louisiana government. Help didn’t come because the state and local governments didn’t do their jobs.
Anyone who wants to moan about the popular vote or hanging chads should learn to love the fact that we don’t actually have to use all those fallout shelters on campus. Al Gore and John Kerry would not have taken such a strong stance on terrorism. They would have balked and we would be thrown back into the 50s when schools had air raid drills.
Besides, Dubya had more electoral votes, won more states and never claimed to have been solely responsible for the invention of the Internet. And the cherry on that sundae: Al Gore conceded the election. He turned around and recanted shortly after he did it and asked for two recounts.
Bush believes the same thin I do: If you have the power to help someone, you should do it.
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Nice to see an intelligent, unashamedly conservative columnist writing for the ocolly. Actually, there are two, right? Amazing. Someone is doing something right.
Wow thats amazing, you’ve brilliantly researched George Bush and all his failures as a president and grossly mis-represented them to make it appear to be everybody else’s fault but his. Yet you failed to look into the truth about any of the other people you mentioned. For one, what the hell does Clinton’s personal life have to do with his presidency let alone his response to the firs attack on the twin towers. And whats so beautiful is, I bet if I asked you about Palin’s daughter you would rant about how her PERSONAL life is off limits. Yeah….are we seeing a connection here?
Furthermore Al Gore never said he created the Internet. His actual quote was (look it up if you can be bothered) “…I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Meaning that while he was in office he and another man we’re solely responsible for putting the Internet out to the public, getting it government subsidies and ensuring its success. In face Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet, said “His initiatives led directly to the commercialization of the Internet. So he really does deserve credit.”
You weken your own arguments be revealing how little you actually know about you opponents, if all you know are the lies and excuses your fellow conservatives have created then you limit your self.
What ever happened to “The Buck Stops” here? The author blames an unnamed CIA agent and Dick Cheney for the flawed intelligence on Iraq, but who do those individuals ultimately work for? Thats right. President Bush. He can ask them to resign at any time. Has he? No.
As for Clinton not doing anything about the first attack on the World Trade Center, he did quite a bit. For instance, he actually captured the people who were responsible. I know its hard to imagine, but back in the 90s when someone attacked America we went after them, not some uninvolved third party like Iraq. The perpetrators are in prison right now, which is more than I can say for Bin Laden. Furthermore, when Clinton authorized the bombing of suspected terrorists training camps following the attack, Republicans claimed that his actions were reminiscent of the movie “Wag the Dog.”
Finally, what doesn’t the author believe about Bush being the least popular president in the history? Modern polling has only existed for the past 50 years, and in that time Bush has in fact achieved the dubious distinction of being the the least and most popular president, regardless of what the author chooses to believe. As for presidential popularity before that, we can’t be so sure.
This is going to end up being an argument between the pot and the kettle, but I can’t help my self.
You attack Clinton for deregulating the loan industry, but this was a conservative idea. In fact, the president that started this trend was the Godfather of Conservatism himself, Mr. Ronald Reagan (See: Crisis, Savings and Loan). If you are going to go back and judge Clinton for the mortgage crisis, you might as well stop worshiping Reagan who’s crisis was much more pronounced.
Further, it was a policy implemented by a Republican Congress. I seriously doubt that in eight years you would re-evaluate the Bush Presidency because of legislation that he didn’t veto which was passed by the now Democratic Congress.
Lastly, it is hard to pin the recession solely on the mortgage crisis and even harder to pin the blame for the mortgage crisis on any one institution or person. There were failings on many levels.
As for Iraq, since when is a President letting his VP make a colossal mistake something that we let the President slide for?
Your take on Bush’s failings with Katrina are completely misguided. The response was not his fault. The problem was that he undid all the progress Clinton and James Lee Witt made with FEMA and then refocused it on terrorism. This involved a number of moves, most notably, the replacement of Witt (a pro by any standard) with directors with no experience or expertise (See: Brown, Michael). This culminated with the inept officials in Louisiana to help excacerbate the effects of Katrina.