Comments on: What Is the Bush Legacy?

By: Rantz Grotto

Rantz Grotto — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:27:14 +0000

Baldy,
I believe that much of what occurred was due to incidents which he set in motion by his actions. I beleive that Al-Quida was intimidated by the fact that Bush was not going to back down and was going to take an aggressive stance on issues and thus, they tried to act first. I think Bush wanted the drilling to increase so he didn’t stop the raising of prices when he could have and continued to threaten many of the countries from whom we rely upon for oil.
Bush is very intelligent, no matter how he sounds. He knows how to manipulate and he did do that to many people. Look at the way he used his religious views to further his agendas. If there was ever a man who created his own fate, it was GW.

By: Bald Man

Bald Man — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:25:41 +0000

Catherine,
Interesting perspective: gut reaction vs. cautious consideration. The early indications certainly seem to be that President Obama will operate from the latter and not the former.

Rantz,
Glad to hear you no matter where you turn up. I have to wonder: How much of what happened was as President Bush’s direction or at the direction of those around him whom he was unable to control?

By: Rantz Grotto

Rantz Grotto — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:59:12 +0000

I would like to create my own blog to this comment on this, but I have limited time so I’ll just comment here.
When Bush first started running for President I was all for him because he was a Texan and had owned a baseball team and most things were going well in Texas at the time (which is where I was residing). Then Bush started talking and I quickly decided that he was not the person for the job. If I recall, Gore was leading in the polls until around the middle of summer and within a couple of weeks of Bush catching and surpassing Gore the stock market began to fall.
I made a list of the top things Bush would do once he was elected 1) invade Iraq and finish what his Pappa started (Did that (partly)). 2) start drilling in ANWAR and other US sources (Did that). 3) I have forgotten what it was (Did that). 4) Don’t remember (Didn’t do that).
Then Bush started appointing all his Pa’s pals to office and I was thinking, ummm… The first Bush years weren’t all that great, do we really want a repeat?
Remember the China spy plane threat within a month of taking office? Bush came to work and started pushing people around. The other leaders of the world weren’t going to stand for that too long and then 9/11… I don’t place the full blaime on Bush, but I don’t think he helped with all his bullying.
With regard to the oil industry, no one has ever been able to explain how the companies were able to make record profits every quarter post 9/11 when prices when up, but were not taking advantage of the American people. And if you have ever driven on I-20 in Texas around Snyder, don’t tell me that drilling for oil doesn’t effect the environment. But luckily Hallburten which laid huge amounts of its work force right before Bush took office and was in very poor financial shape sure looks pretty good in its new offices in UAE (or was it Dubai, or wherever they are now).
Are all those things and more all the fault of Bush? Not all, but I really think he should be responsible for most of the blaime.
Maybe that is due to my own perspecitive on things though. I can recall the four presidents before him (Ok, I didn’t have a good handle on politics during the Carter years, but I do remember him as president). I remember bleak financial stuff during all their terms except Clinton when I first started to be directly impacted about financial political implications (NAFTA didn’t touch me or anyone I knew at the time, though I have met someone who claims to have felt the icy cold finger of doom since then). I really don’t recall any major war threats from that timeperiod (there were some small (globally speaking) incidents, but nothing where I ever felt I might be enlisted. I have played enough Axis and Allies to know that wars drive technology and create jobs (Hey look, we have another job opening in the front line skirmisher field…) and don’t forget population control, but I don’t think that is the solution to our countries problems. Maybe someday I’ll write on my own blog what I think some of those are.
Sorry for the long comment, but thank you for the space.

By: Catherine Devlin

Catherine Devlin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:00:10 +0000

Indeed, deregulating the financial system is about the only thing the two parties have agreed on since Clinton or before… a consensus disaster. But it seemed to be making money appear from thin air, so who could be against it?

I’d like to hope that Bush represented the high (low) point of the national fashion for “going from the gut”, feeling instead of thinking, trusting friends over facts, sneering at research and foresight as wonkish. The pushback, I hope, will go a lot further than just getting somebody new elected but will bring some respect back to caution and study.