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How effective a president has Bush been?
Ok, so I have seen the argument about running a campaign showing how effective a candidate can be as president. Someone will say look how well Obama has run his campaign, this is surely a sign of how well he will do as president.
This will be followed up by someone arguing that G. W.
Bush ran amazingly effective campaigns and then pointing out what a terrible president he has been.
So this begs the question, how effective has Georgie boy been. I believe this is a separate question from how well has he run the country.
Actually Bush has been very effective. I know this is a controversial idea, however I think he has accomplished absolutely everything he wanted to do. It's just that what he has wanted has not been good for the country.
However believing he was ineffective is to believe he never intended to do exactly what he has done.
War with Iraq desired from day one? Check.
Drain the fed and place the money in the pockets of his business buddies? Check.
Make the government seem like it's the problem? Check.
Not get impeached? Check.
Destroy the constitution and make it easier for future Neo cons to run our country like a monarchy? Check.
Get elected a second term? Check.
He only failed on one account. He overestimated the amount of blind patriotism that could be drawn from one terrible event.
If you can believe that these things were the things he hoped to accomplish then he has been extremely effective.
terrible? Yes.
Terrible, but effective.
Comments (8)
Agreed. Bush was extremely "effective" in a Machiavellian sense.
June 2, 2008 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Additionally, the Democratic majority in Congress has been his patsy, completely overrun by Bush-Cheney with no success whatsover in putting the brakes on "the greatest strategic blunder of modern times."
June 2, 2008 9:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget--appoint right-wing hacks who will devil the Supreme Court for decades: check.
But in the long term sense--you know, the history he won't be alive for, but also the closer history he's going to be hiding out in Crawford to avoid--he's a total failure. His party profited from his actions, but the war, the economy, the complete loss of Republican power after his misreign will be his real record. Oh, and the further revelations of law-breaking and utter fecklessness that will be revealed even without the millions of destroyed emails will be devastating.
I vote: a failure, even in his own party.
June 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely. Bush definitely demonstrated how "effective" a President can be when it comes to environmental policy. Many love to argue about how only Congress can pass laws, but Bush has shown just how much damage can be done with simple "initiatives".
June 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cnic, actually that has been covered by the one failure I noted. If the patriotic fervor had held out longer people would be saying that those things were an unfortunate but necessary side effect.
June 2, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, but I still think that the Bush-Cheney scorched earth policy did not accomplish what they wanted and that they will be considered embarassments to their party. This is not the war they wanted or expected, this is not the 1000-year reich lovingly planned by Rove. Their 2-term rampage has made the public more open to a Democrat--even a woman or black man--than it's been for decades.
When all is said and done, I do think Bush will be remembered as extremely successful in transferring obscene amounts of wealth to his wealthy cronies. Many other changes I'm hoping will be stopped by the next administration . . .
June 2, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and Bush will also be recognized as the president who--perhaps irreparably--weakened US power and prestige in the world. This was definitely not in the blueprints.
June 2, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it was in the blue print. If we are left weak to the world it leaves us with a few options. Either do everything we can to fix it before it all comes tumbling down,.. or go to the extreme, create a military government that can withstand that kind of pressure from the world. Thus creating the thousand year reich.
One more attack on US soil would turn all this nay saying right around. At least for just long enough to put Mcain in office. All he has to do is a better job then Bush and he may have a pretty favorable rating by the end of his term.
I know it sounds like a stretch however this president would have seemed like a stretch 10 years ago.
June 2, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
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