Grade George W. Bush's Presidency thus far (user search)
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
April 30, 2024, 07:00:17 PM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  General Politics
  U.S. General Discussion (Moderators: The Dowager Mod, Chancellor Tanterterg)
  Grade George W. Bush's Presidency thus far (search mode)
Pages: [1]
Poll
Question: Grade George W. Bush's Presidency thus far
#1
A+
 
#2
A
 
#3
A-
 
#4
B+
 
#5
B
 
#6
B-
 
#7
C+
 
#8
C
 
#9
C-
 
#10
D+
 
#11
D
 
#12
D-
 
#13
F
 
Show Pie Chart
Partisan results

Total Voters: 120

Author Topic: Grade George W. Bush's Presidency thus far  (Read 17258 times)
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« on: January 08, 2006, 10:38:34 AM »

I give him a B.

I think he deserves a lot of credit for taking on difficult issues that his predecessor simply ignored because he was more interested in protecting his own personal interests, and didn't want any reality to intrude into the beach party over which he was presiding.

Bush took over an economy sinking into inevitable recession resulting from the dot.com excesses of the late 1990s, and he helped to revive the economy, which was then hit hard by Sept. 11th.

He responded strongly to the Sept. 11th attacks, and has taken great political risks and exposed himself to the vituperation of liberal a%#holes in order to protect American lives.  Working in a prime terrorist target every day, I could very well owe my life to his administrations various initiatives to prevent attacks, including the recently revealed wiretapping NSA initiative.

Yes, he has made some mistakes, but I think that's been better than doing nothing.  I think people need to start acting like adults over the Iraq War.  I like it no more than anybody else, but we have to win, and we'd be better off figuring out how to win than attacking the president.  Let's not forget that this war was supported by many prominent Democrats, including their last presidential candidate.  At least Bush hasn't cut and run from his commitments, as Kerry did.  What kind of leader is that, and what kind of message does it send when somebody does that?

I think he's been poor on fiscal policy and lately has failed to show a positive direction to the American people, especially on Iraq, which explains his slump in the polls.  When he has offered positive leadership, he has always enjoyed majority support, and I hope to see him get back on track with leadership in the near future.

I find that the ugly and malicious attitude and tone of many of his detractors only leads me to support him more.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2006, 11:01:59 AM »

If it weren't for Iraq, he probably would be a decent President.

Yet you are a Lieberman fan.  That makes no sense.  Iraq is as much Lieberman's war as Bush's.

Anyway I selected F.  I'd have given him a Zero if it was an option.  He is the worst POTUS in history.  By FAR.

He's awful, F.  One of the worst presidents we've ever seen.  Incompetent, stupid, a liar, cares only about his poll numbers, and a bigoted assh*le to boot. 

You guys have little sense of history, I'm afraid to say.  It's sad, actually.  It makes me feel sad for America that we have so many people who want to blame our president for problems that others have caused, simply because he's a more convenient target.  It's a very immature way of thinking, like a kid who blames his parents for everything he doesn't like about his life and the world.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2006, 03:00:20 PM »

It's sad, actually.  It makes me feel sad for America that we have so many people who want to blame our president for problems that others have caused, simply because he's a more convenient target.  It's a very immature way of thinking, like a kid who blames his parents for everything he doesn't like about his life and the world.

You are certainly correct that it would be a mistake to scapegoat Bush for the miseries that have been caused by the entire upper class, dazzleman. 

It seems that the upper class all but disappeared during the Clinton years, according to your line of thinking.  If you really believe what you say, then it matters not at all who the president is, because the upper class will persist through any administration.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2006, 03:58:59 PM »


I give him a C- as well.  But I see an upward trend. 

The upward trend will be in the perception of his performance.  In reality, his actual performance has been decent in most areas the entire time he's been president, but the perception of it jumps up and down.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2006, 10:24:54 PM »

To call Iraq under Saddam Hussein a 'moderate secular state' only proves how far out in left field you are, and discredits everything else you say, Progress.  Once I saw that, there was no reason to read further.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2006, 10:13:49 PM »

Hardly the point.  2200 Americans have died and who the hell knows how many Iraqis, and he still has no real plan.

What do y'all not understand about:

1. Provisional Government
2. Elections to draft Constitution
3. Ratify Constitution
4. Elect Assembly
5. Train Iraqi Troops
6. Reduce US troop levels

??

Jake, don't you know, it was all supposed to happen in two days, with no casualties.  And even that would have been called a 'failure.'

I hate war, but sometimes it is necessary.  Preventive war is always a gray area.  Had the French crushed Hitler in 1936 as they should have, people today would still be denouncing French aggression against Germany, and claiming that Hitler was just a misunderstood house painter who only wanted what Germany was entitled too (who would then have known that he would have defined that as the whole world?).

I can understand being against the Iraq war for honorable reasons, but many of the war's opponents are simply naysayers who'd rather see the US suffer a grievous defeat than see President Bush gain a victory.  For some inexplicable reason, they hate George Bush more than the love America.  And obviously many of them don't love America much.
Logged
dazzleman
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 13,777
Political Matrix
E: 1.88, S: 1.59

« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2006, 12:17:36 AM »

remember, dazzleman, that you mentioned perceptions in an earlier post.  And the perception is that any US military involvement in Iraq should take more than a few weeks.  The seed of that perception was no doubt planted in the minds of war supporters, many of whom have now turned sour on the whole venture, by the Bush administration in the leadup, and by their minions who testified before congress giving wildly underestimated figures for the number of dollars and weeks the effort would require.  Mind you, I'm neither defending nor attacking them here, but I do think your first sentence, while true, forgets that some of the culpability for the short war supposition lies with the Bushies themselves.  In my first few posts here, some two years ago, I said this Iraq war is bad business, and I'm not going to claim otherwise now.  But I will say that to their credit, most antiwar folks, democrat and republican alike, have stopped with the "quagmire" scenario and grade the war on its technical merits.  All smart-alek comments aside, I do think his order to dismiss the iraq army at the outset, and his decision to trust too much in rummy over the objections of seasoned field commanders has been a major source of expense, both of blood and money.  I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, and I was quite serious when I said I admire htmldon for not trying to be fashionable by being anti-Bush.  But the fact remains that we're constantly bombarded by the message that Iraq is the Bush scorecard.  And Bush, unlike any president before him, by his own early speeches made it so.  He all but came out and said we can grade his whole presidency on this effort.  You know that.  If we put aside the platitudes, and the bickering over misinformation in the beggining, forget the unanswerable question of whether a people are better off running from bombs or running from a madman with a human paper shredder, and consider the goal of containment of terrorism and spread of democracy, we can make the case that Bush handling of the war was mediocre at best.  What is so frustrating is that in the campaign of 2000, all analysts claimed that his long suit was delegation and the ability to read people and put the best man to the task.  Katrina and the Waves put the latter idea to rest.  And while most Americans don't deny (well, memories are short, let's say didn't deny) that Bush was the right man for the job of president on September 11, 2001, it's also fair to say that he has made some serious errors in judgement since then.  I agree that some claims are exaggerated, and most stem from a deep hatred of Bush that was evident long before supreme court vacancies, Osama's extended absence, and Bagdad's long bloody war, but there is no hard evidence that anti-US mercenary/terrorist recruitment has abated as a result of this war, nor is there any evidence that a peaceful, democratically elected iraqi government with any real power to stem civil unrests is on the immediate horizon.

Interesting points angus, and it's nice that you presented them in a respectful way.

I don't deny that mistakes have been made by the Bush administration in Iraq.  One could say that about any war.  And you're correct that the administration helped to create the expectation that the war would be easy and fast.  The whole "Mission Accomplished" banner was obviously a huge blunder.

But that doesn't excuse the sentiment of people who want the effort to be unsuccessful.  I stand by what I said about them before -- they hate Bush more than they love America or care about the well-being of their fellow citizens.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.035 seconds with 13 queries.