George W. Bush or Barack Obama?

[memphis]

Obama, though thus far he's been fairly similar to Bush's second term. Oh well.

Bush probably wouldn't be too controversial if he had governed the whole time like his second term, his only real conservative accomplishment was his two Supreme Court appointments. One could even make a reasonable argument that he was basically center-left in the second half of it after the Democrats took Congress, his immigration reform plan was certainly less popular amongst Republicans and while there were opponents on both sides to TARP and the bailouts, he worked better with the Democrats on them, not to mention what he did with the auto makers which was almost universally opposed by Republicans, plus some of his actions toward the environment were pretty decent. Democrats just weren't willing to forgive him (rightfully I must add) for Iraq and other things he bungled.

Bush certainly deserves to go down as one of the worst Presidents in US history, but it's not too hard to see him as not too bad in comparison to the Tea Party people. Of course he's largely responsible for their creation as the populist discontent toward his fiscal policies just manifested itself and became the Tea Party while a black Democrat held the presidency. That said Obama is obviously still light years ahead of him.

Perhaps a good analogy is that Bush was Emperor Gestahl and the Tea Party is Kefka?

Bush had exactly 0% to do with the formation of the teabaggers.  They are 100% about being opposed to Obama.

The first tea partiers were libertarians. So unless there is a distinction between tea partier and "teabagger" to you, your statement is false.

It's just a massive coincidence that the first teabag protest (and that's what they called themselves then) was January 2009?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tea_Party_protests,_2009

[Eraserhead]

Well, obviously I wouldn't vote for Bush, but he had better judicial choices IMO. And he still spent less and waged fewer wars in his eight years than Obama's current term, even if he technically started the first two wars Obama inherited. So I guess he's better by default.

Starting two major wars is a pretty a big technicality to weigh in, no?

[tpfkaw]

Well, obviously I wouldn't vote for Bush, but he had better judicial choices IMO. And he still spent less and waged fewer wars in his eight years than Obama's current term, even if he technically started the first two wars Obama inherited. So I guess he's better by default.

Starting two major wars is a pretty a big technicality to weigh in, no?

Records are made to be broken!



As regards the other argument in this thread: www.teaparty07.com

[Mercenary]

Isn't there supposed to be a difference between the options when we have to give an answer?

[Heimdal]

George W. Bush without a doubt.

[Zarn]

Obama, though thus far he's been fairly similar to Bush's second term. Oh well.

Bush probably wouldn't be too controversial if he had governed the whole time like his second term, his only real conservative accomplishment was his two Supreme Court appointments. One could even make a reasonable argument that he was basically center-left in the second half of it after the Democrats took Congress, his immigration reform plan was certainly less popular amongst Republicans and while there were opponents on both sides to TARP and the bailouts, he worked better with the Democrats on them, not to mention what he did with the auto makers which was almost universally opposed by Republicans, plus some of his actions toward the environment were pretty decent. Democrats just weren't willing to forgive him (rightfully I must add) for Iraq and other things he bungled.

Bush certainly deserves to go down as one of the worst Presidents in US history, but it's not too hard to see him as not too bad in comparison to the Tea Party people. Of course he's largely responsible for their creation as the populist discontent toward his fiscal policies just manifested itself and became the Tea Party while a black Democrat held the presidency. That said Obama is obviously still light years ahead of him.

Perhaps a good analogy is that Bush was Emperor Gestahl and the Tea Party is Kefka?

Bush had exactly 0% to do with the formation of the teabaggers.  They are 100% about being opposed to Obama.

The first tea partiers were libertarians. So unless there is a distinction between tea partier and "teabagger" to you, your statement is false.

It's just a massive coincidence that the first teabag protest (and that's what they called themselves then) was January 2009?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tea_Party_protests,_2009

Try before 2009, and didn't your teacher tell you wiki is not a valid source?

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

[Zarn]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

You still have the far-left, either way...

[The Vorlon]

To be fair, Bush has 8 years versus Obama's 2 and a half..

I think the cumulative damage done by Bush is greater, but Obama is off to a much faster start than "W" and I think the total destruction caused by Obama should pass Bush in January of 2012 if the current pace continues...

[WillK]

I think the cumulative damage done by Bush is greater, but Obama is off to a much faster start than "W" and I think the total destruction caused by Obama should pass Bush in January of 2012 if the current pace continues.

By what possible measure?

2-1/2 years into his presidency Bush had invaded two countries, opened Gitmo, authorized unwarranted wiretaps of US citizens,  signed the patriot act, and turned the fiscal situation of the country negative. 

No way is Obama off to a faster start than that.

[Ogre Mage]

Obama easily.  George W. Bush has to be among the 10 worst presidents in U.S. history and perhaps among the bottom 5.  He was like a cross between Warren Harding (lazy, corrupt and intellectually unfit for the office) and Richard Nixon (no respect for the law) -- truly awful.

As for the individual who said that Bush made better judicial choices, I could not disagree more strongly.

[Хahar 🤔]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

You still have the far-left, either way...

What far-left?

[Sbane]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

You still have the far-left, either way...

What far-left?

Yeah, there's no real left in America (of course that's a good thing).

[memphis]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

You still have the far-left, either way...

What far-left?

Yeah, there's no real left in America (of course that's a good thing).

Ever since he moved to Thailand.

[Eraserhead]

Bush.

There wasn't as much far-right activity in the country when he was President.

It's not Obama fault that he's black.

[Dancing with Myself]

Bush by a mile

Bush knew how to get things done. Sure he made his mistakes in the past and was not a good speaker, but the man had heart and an agenda to get things done. He was just put into office at a bad time.

Obama in my opinion seems heartless. He wants what he and his advisers want, not what's best for our country. He can speak all the speeches he wants that will not help him win anything in my book. Good speakers do not make good Presidents a lot of the time

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Isn't there supposed to be a difference between the options when we have to give an answer?

Yes, there are two different colors available.

[BigSkyBob]

If someone put a gun to my head and said, "George W. Bush or Obama, choice or die!," I suppose I'd have to respond be saying, "Go ahead and shoot!"

[Sbane]

Obama in my opinion seems heartless. He wants what he and his advisers want, not what's best for our country. He can speak all the speeches he wants that will not help him win anything in my book. Good speakers do not make good Presidents a lot of the time

You do realize he doesn't have any good choices? Hopefully you are not one of those who think just because Obama might want to raise taxes or cut Medicare it means he wants to destroy America, or whatever. America needs to feel a little pain now, or it will face a whole lot more pain in the future. There doesn't seem to be any way around it.

 Cut the deficit and the economy/people are affected or you keep spending and end up with a currency crisis. No good options.

[BigSkyBob]

Obama in my opinion seems heartless. He wants what he and his advisers want, not what's best for our country. He can speak all the speeches he wants that will not help him win anything in my book. Good speakers do not make good Presidents a lot of the time

You do realize he doesn't have any good choices?

He does have the choice of realizing that he was never up to the job, and, for the good of the country resigning.

That possibility never seemed to dawn on George W. Bush either.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Zarn]

I forgot to mention that this poll needs a third option. Such as one of the following:

-Stick a fork in own eye
-Jump into a rancor pit
-Tell the don the most fitting nickname for oneself would be "The Mouth" or "The Rat"
-Tie oneself to the outside of an aircraft which is about to take off

[Dancing with Myself]

Obama in my opinion seems heartless. He wants what he and his advisers want, not what's best for our country. He can speak all the speeches he wants that will not help him win anything in my book. Good speakers do not make good Presidents a lot of the time

You do realize he doesn't have any good choices? Hopefully you are not one of those who think just because Obama might want to raise taxes or cut Medicare it means he wants to destroy America, or whatever. America needs to feel a little pain now, or it will face a whole lot more pain in the future. There doesn't seem to be any way around it.

 Cut the deficit and the economy/people are affected or you keep spending and end up with a currency crisis. No good options.

Yes he does have plenty of good choices, but he refuses to man up to his duties, He expects his cronies to get things done so he can take all the credit, and when things does not go his way he whines and blames everyone else. At least Bush tried to work with people.

I don't know what world you have been living in, but America has been suffering since 2008 because of a thing called a Recession. In case you don't know what that is it is a severe economic downturn that effects the whole country.

 My area of the state has an unemployment average of 13%, and I am one of the many unemployed  Obama does not give a damn about any one of us, he is just to busy styling and profiling, talk about sports and TV when he should be worried about helping his country.

All his stimulus managed to do is increase the government and raised our debt. It was just an excuse to return to big government and all it's wastes.

[Sbane]

What good choices does he have that he is not implementing?

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

Say what you want about Bush, but at least he had leadership, a very important characteristic for a president.

Obama has gone AWOL on almost all the big issues. His administration thinks "leading from behind" is a positive trait. I despair, sometimes....

[BigSkyBob]

What good choices does he have that he is not implementing?

Well, aside from the before mentioned resigning, there is pursuing changing corporate tax policy in a way that facilitates companies repatriating foreign profits.