Can W. Reinvent His Presidency?
As George W. Bush does a rash of media interviews to promote his new book, Decision Points, some people – even his nemesis, hip-hop star Kanye West – have begun to mute their criticisms of his presidency. This is nothing new; as time passes and old wounds heal, the nation’s impression of former presidents – no matter how bad they were – seems to improve. Even Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson’s presidencies improved with age. Will the passage of time improve George W. Bush’s legacy?
Unfortunately, that is a possibility. Although Bush can’t change his domestic catastrophes, such as the federal response to Hurricane Katrina or the horrendous financial crisis and the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, if Iraq and Afghanistan eventually reach some stability, he may be regarded as the man who threw out the despotic regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.
But fractious Iraq and corrupt Afghanistan may very well succumb to long-term instability as a result of Bush’s doing exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted him to do – overreact to the 9/11 attacks so that bin Laden could strengthen the radical Islamist movement by getting more money and recruits from all over the world. After 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq, terrorism spiked globally.
Future generations may also condemn Bush for conducting the first major expansion of entitlements since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Piling on a monstrous new benefit, prescription drugs, on an already rickety Medicare system was appallingly irresponsible. Of course, taxpayers always fall for the Republicans’ fake tax cuts – pioneered by Ronald Reagan and imitated by W. While cutting taxes, Bush waged two expensive wars and had the biggest increases in domestic spending since the Johnson administration. Republican White Houses rarely cut spending, which renders the tax cuts fake because taxes later have to be raised or money has to be borrowed (with public borrowing crowding out private credit) or printed (causing inflation).
And strangely, Barack Obama, although dubbed a “liberal Democrat,” has pursued similar policies to the “conservative” Dubya. Obama will end up extending most or all of Bush’s fake tax cuts, because he has spent like a drunken sailor too. Although Bush began the stimulus, Obama really turned on the $787 billion spigot. Bush bailed out the banks, socialized the AIG insurance company, and finished socializing the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but Obama socialized the car companies. And while Bush increased expenditures tremendously by providing a new government prescription drug benefit, Obama installed an expensive and bureaucratic health care “reform.” Finally, Bush increased federal encroachment into education, while Obama continued this trend with his “Race to the Top” program.
Neither president excelled in dealing with natural (Katrina for Bush) or man-made (the BP oil spill for Obama) disasters.
Obama has cut back on Bush’s torture of detainees but still allows a loophole for the CIA; on civil liberties Obama is slightly better than Bush but not much, because he has continued most of the Bush administration’s unconstitutional policies.
One of the few major differences between the policies of the Bush and Obama administrations is in foreign policy. Obama has been withdrawing troops from Iraq, while doubling down in Afghanistan and receiving praise from W. for doing it. However, this shift has resulted in a reduction in U.S. forces in harm’s way by about 100,000. In general, Obama has scared the rest of the world less with his foreign policy – negotiating a strategic arms limitation agreement with Russia, reducing U.S. missile defense plans in Europe, improving U.S.-Russian relations, and negotiating more seriously with Iran and North Korea (although in the end, Obama may have to accept that both countries will have nuclear weapons and rely on the massive U.S. nuclear arsenal to deter these small nations).
Right now, both Bush and Obama have had pathetic presidencies, but Obama has a slight edge, provided by a mildly less belligerent overall foreign policy. And as they did when Bill Clinton was president, the newly elected Republican budget hawks might actually cause Obama to restrain federal spending, thus reversing his present profligate course, reducing the yawning deficit, and improving his present low standing. However, the Republicans, who are usually more fiscally responsible when they don’t control the White House, can probably only do so much to burnish Obama’s overall legacy.
On the other hand, since Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to be unstable for years, if not decades, W.’s standing will probably not improve much either.
Read more by Ivan Eland
- Benghazi: Who Cares? – May 14th, 2013
- Political Decentralization Might Help in Conflict-Ridden Countries – May 7th, 2013
- Avoid Drumbeat to Escalate in Syria – April 30th, 2013
- Government Response to Terrorism Needs to Be Dialed Down – April 23rd, 2013
- Targeted Killings in the Drone War – Illegal and Unconstitutional – April 16th, 2013
davidgrayling
November 9th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Americans have elected many morons as their Presidents. Few can rival George W. or would want to.
How this man, who couldn't even speak properly, managed to become President is one of life's mysteries. Hanging chads and the Supreme Court come to mind. But the biggest mystery of all is how come American's elected Bush for a second term. The world will never forgive them for this re-election.
But then they elected Obama, who was a real orator! From the ridiculous to the sublime. Only problem with Obama is that he's all talk and no action, all hat and no cattle!
Perhaps the next American President should be elected by the people of the world and Americans should be kept out of it. Be interesting to see what the result would be.
Of course, the Corporations would never allow it!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
bogi666
November 10th, 2010 at 3:14 am
The next Presidential election will be financed by the corporations of the world. This is possible because of the recent SCOTUS ruling that corporations are persons. In their case, none of who came into existence through the birth canal but are Satan's spawn. The 2000 election was a joint military/judicial coup. The illegal counting of the absentee military ballots cast after the election and the SCOTUS casting a 1 vote victory for Bush, elected by one vote of the SCOTUS. This coup was possible because of the electoral college and is perhaps the reason for it. The electoral college makes a bloodless coup possible because it only needs a few key states not a nationwide takeover. He was selected in 2000 and Gore was complicit in allowing it to happen because I don't think Gore wanted to be President and had a list of how to lose starting with Lieberman as VP and emphasizing Florida as the state he needed to win, when all he had to do was to win New Hampshire or his home state of Tennessee where he hardly campaigned. 2004 was theft of an election electronically. When electronic voting went into effect someone, said it will just made election fraud faster.
GradyWilson
November 10th, 2010 at 4:08 am
Don't minimize the role of the capitalist media in manufacturing consent – look at Nixon, he was considered a respected elder statesman upon his death. And Clinton is obviously not held accountable for his evil's in the Balkans and Africa.
W will be, and already is in many media' and citizens' minds, completely vindicated for his deadly actions which are portrayed as honorable.
And in 2011, the 100th anniversary of St. Ronald Reagan's birth, we will see the celebration of a treasonous, death squad funding, cocaine running, lying on the stand Pres celebrated as a man of honor, integrity, and American virtue.
They do literally create their own reality.
jojo
November 10th, 2010 at 5:19 am
David–let's give obama a little credit. If Hillary was president, iran would have been attacked long time ago. There was a good reason he got the Nobel Prize {:^)
i like to remind Eland, that 9/II attacks had NOTHING to do with Bin Ladin
"despotic regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban."–PLEASE! before Eland goes bonkers–compare them to the RePugs/Demoos in USA Empire.
General Hershey Barr
November 10th, 2010 at 5:31 am
I saw a photo of W. as he discussed his book.He looked a bit haunted.The problem with making Presidential decisions is that no matter how powerful your mind might be,you can not anticipate all of the ramifications of your decisions.Look at the photos of Lincoln in his last year,of FDR in his last year at the Yalta conference,look at LBJ in his last times as he dictated a memoir from his bed.These men were haunted.I suspect that JFK would have ended up in a similar state in his later years had he lived long enough.The Missile Crisis could have caused it.The decisions that you make as President can torture you.In the end,you have to realize that you are just a man.Men don't run the world,no matter how sophisticated and powerful are the systems that they command.It is the fates and the forces that determine the end results,not the men and women.The Ancients knew this,that is why they had so many Gods and Deities,to propitiate the forces and fates that ruled them.Whether W. was a good President or not no longer matters.If he tried to be a good man,we should wish him peace.
Civis Romanus Sum
November 10th, 2010 at 7:53 am
"In general, Obama … negotiating more seriously with Iran …"
Obama is not negotiating with Iran; his position is clearly a non-negotiable demand for Iran to capitulate on the nuclear question.
andy
November 10th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
A little revisionism and some selective amnesia can go a long way.
andy
November 10th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
When you choose to engage in wars of choice you must accept the consequences of your choices.
james
November 11th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Problem is Andy, this is GOOD revisionism.
The USA is full of it.
james
November 11th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Hi General,
Can you wish pease to OBL if he lost Al-Qaeda elections? I am seriouse, give me a reply.
Enoch Powell
November 11th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Just because Obama has been revealed as a left-wing fascist, traitor and a deeply-stupid affirmative-action parasite doesn't mean that we should now yearn for a return to the Bush era or even think of glorifying that imbecile. Obama represents nothing more than a continuation of Bush policies with a new layer of tyranny and treason. But Bush was himself a left-wing fascist no better than a Clinton or a Kennedy. Admittedly Obama is worse. It's time to face reality and the reality is that our government is our enemy and Bush was one of the worst.
Among the Bush crimes:
Bush collaborated with Kennedy and attempted to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, most of whom are the worst kind of third-world savage.
Bush pronounced Islam "the religion of peace." Bush is either an idiot, a liar or both.
Bush celebrated Kwanzaa. A disgusting symptom of the politically-correct, leftist pathology.
Bush almost single-handedly caused the housing bubble and the ensuing meltdown by cajoling, forcing, encouraging, directing lenders to give home loans to third-world savages who wouldn't otherwise have qualified for a prepaid credit card. All in the name of the leftist project of increasing the percentage of third-world homeowners. This is social engineering of the most evil kind.
Consider how George W. Bush unleashed subprime lenders. He signaled to federal regulators at his October 15, 2002 White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership that old-fashioned mortgage regulations requiring a down payment were discriminatory because minorities were less often able to come up with the cash. So, let Countrywide run wild.
Bush did every thing he could to avoid securing our border with Mexico, our worst enemy, and then he lied about it and said he was doing everything he could to secure that border while collaborating with Mexico to increase immigration and give amnesty to illegal aliens.
Bush started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that had nothing whatsoever to do with the 911 attacks and everything to do with the neocon project to somehow transform the middle east into a colony of the West. Stupid and evil.
Bush savaged civil liberties right and left while doing nothing to roll back evil leftist legislation on gun control, freedom of speech (see McCain/Feingold), affirmative action, third-world immigration and over-regulation of the economy. Bush also was an eager proponent of the so-called free trade agreements, which are not free-trade agreements at all. They are treaties that impose every disadvantage on our own economy while giving every advantage to foreign economies. Meanwhile Bush spent taxpayer money we didn't have, borrowed from foreign governments and essentially set up the dollar for complete destruction. Obama represents a continuation of all these policies.
Bush's attorney general might as well have been a hostile Mexican mole.
These are just the most egregious of Bush's crimes and they are all part and parcel of the same evil leftist pathology espoused and imposed on us by Kennedy, Clinton, Obama, Pelosi, et al.
MoT
November 12th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Obama is Bush with a deep tan and the capability of stringing hypocritical sentences together without sounding like an idiot.
Raashid
November 13th, 2010 at 10:56 am
I think by the time the usual see-saw of Republican-Democrat election wins over the next 20 years has run the US to complete ruin and possible breakup, future historians may look back and see that Bush was one of the last relatively reasonale US Presidents. Just look at some of the numbskulls winning elections in the Midterms to get an idea of the quality of political leadership American voters have to look forward to.
EmeraldDruid
November 16th, 2010 at 1:07 am
I believe that Bush will try to reinvent his presidency. I also have NO doubt that if Bush starts drinking again he will also probably believe all the lies of his reinvention.
To the kosher wing of the repubs, Bush was a god. A neocons wet dream. So they are already singing the praises of their lord and savior while at the same time attacking that evil Obama for not completely trashing America by invading Iran.
But to any thinking American who actually kept close track regarding what all transpired during the Bush regime, it will be impossible to reinvent probably the worst president in the history of the US. If anything, it will be all the details regarding what Bush screwed up that will be necessary to return this country to even a remote semblance of what it was before Bush stole the election.
EmeraldDruid
November 16th, 2010 at 1:08 am
Made me laugh :) But so true.