There really ARE people out there that believe this economy situation is ALL Bush’s fault! There really ARE people out there that believe the media on TV every night when they tell us the “vote’ is already over.

Thats what the liberals are counting on and that is what the people who produced this movie are counting on…the same “slumbering’ people that originally decided OJ Simpson was innocent, will now race to this movie to watch a “roasting” of a man that, yes, made a mistake or two in his two terms, but that did NOT create the screwed up world we are living in now.

Wake up people. You are smarter than this.

Adrienne

Sean Flaherty
Tacoma WA

GWB has kept our country safe, and has many accomplishments as POTUS.

“Do I have a video of Rove and Cheney ordering George around and laughing sinisterly looking at a map of the world?”

That was one of the funniest visuals I’ve had in a long time. Thanks for throwing something lighthearted and amusing into an otherwise serious topic! :)

Of course the responsibility for the failed war is Bush’s. But that doesn’t mean he made the huge mistakes that caused it to happen. The scope of the federal government is so big, thanks to democrats, that the President cannot be involved in day to day decisions of how the war is executed. And in all honesty, as someone who has been there before, I don’t want him, or any President to be that involved. Commanders on the ground have enough information to make the critical decisions, and it should be left to them. It just so happens that in this case, they made some bad ones.

I understand those on the left hated Alberto Gonzales, and towards the end some on the right did as well. However, nothing he did involving the firing of the lawyers was illegal, unethical, or out of the ordinary. If you do a little research, you will find that all administrations do that. It’s just that in this case, it happened in a time that others saw as an opportunity to bring embarrassment on the administration. Alberto Gonzales did a very good job being the AG before this case, and he carried out Bush’s wishes time and time again. He ended the practice of allowing US Attorney’s to prosecute only members of the opposite political party in corruption investigations, and demanded that some republicans be prosecuted as well. That, by the way, was a practice put in place by Clinton. He also oversaw a tremendous transformation of the intelligence organizations, that under him, began to see the point in working together and sharing information. As for him being told to keep his mouth shut, that’s a pretty fantastic story. It has all the ingredients of a liberal talking point: corruption, threats, deceit, cover-up, perjury (oh wait, perjury isn’t bad, as long as you are lying about having sex). However, it lacks one thing every hater of this administration is missing: facts. I’m sure it will make for a great made-for-tv movie in the future, but there are no facts to back it up. If you notice, there is nothing I have posted about that was not proven by facts or witnessed first hand by some. Your refusal to take someone’s word about something does not mean it’s not true. And making a story up out of nothing does not make it true either.

Finally, it’s true that Clinton left the office with a balanced budget. You might want to look at how he did that. First, he slashed in an extreme manner defense spending, which included intelligence services that could have prevented Sept. 11, and therefore the Iraq war. Second, he probably saved a few thousand dollars when he refused to give the go-ahead on a bombing campaign that would have killed Bin Laden because he was too busy golfing. Don’t believe it? Do some research. He refused to give the order, over the phone, when the planes were reaching their targets because he had not been involved in the planning stages and couldn’t be briefed in an unsecured location like a golf club. So out of spite to his military commanders, he refused, and we all know what happened next. Thanks Bill!!! Oh, and let’s not forget that Bush is overseeing a war, and whether you like the war or not, it is always going to put the government off budget. Clinton wouldn’t know about that, because he decided to place American troops under UN Control and then had them bomb some vitamin factories in order to distract the country from the Lewinsky affair. While Clinton might not have left the country in a worse shape than he received it (although I would argue that point), he certainly did nothing to improve it. Bush has had to oversee the war effort, and whether you like the war or not, it’s going to cost money. That is always going to put the government over budget. Plus, he did the smart thing and pledged, like I said above, billions in AIDS relief to Africa, re-organized and improved intelligence operations (which costs a lot), and for some reason agreed to allow the federal government to bail out Louisiana after it couldn’t take care of itself. And don’t tell me that’s what the FED is for, Florida gets hit with hurricanes all the time and then NEVER ask for federal money.

All in all, I understand everyone’s frustration with the administration. I might be a republican (if you couldn’t figure that out yet), but I still have my issues with Bush and the things he has done. But to make the statement that his administration is a failed one is ludacris and simply not supported by the facts. I don’t mind people pointing out his mistakes, but if you do that, you have to admit his successes.

Maybe I should have been more clear about the fact that this is of course my view on things and the way I interpret them. Do I have a video of Rove and Cheney ordering George around and laughing sinisterly looking at a map of the world? Of course not, but on the other hand do you have any proof of George’s decisive powers behind the scenes? I guess not and frankly I don’t believe some loyal speech writer, who happened to make a quick buck on some book he wrote. There are countless other book titles that tell a different story.

As for Iraq, you said it was Rumsfeld’s fault, not Bush’s. That’s bullshit. In the end the responsibility lies with the president and Bush should have seen that Donnie fucks up big time and throw the old, deluded man out. He didn’t and that seems curious, doesn’t it?
When Rumsfeld was finally let go it was way too late and any idiot could have seen that. And what about Alberto Gonzalez? That moron what a laughing stock out of himself and therefore the administration, which was stupid enough to appoint him in the first place. Oh wait, but maybe Gonzalez did remember some stuff but decided to play dumb, because someone said to him: “You keep your mouth shut or you’ll regret it!” Wonder who that might be.

As for the economy, what more proof do you need? The dollar is at an all time low and the stock-market is in a catastrophic state.
Again, you say that’s not the administration’s fault, well fair enough. What about the budget then? Clinton left office with a plus in the budget, while Bush will leave office with a giant budget deficit and for what? An unnecessary war that went horribly wrong.

As for Rove and Cheney and Rumsfeld and so on:
You don’t wonder why these guys hardly give any interviews? Rumsfeld has not been seen in public since he left office and the times Cheney was kind enough to answer questions I could count on one hand. They know that they would have to answer some tough questions and the probably don’t wanna answer them.
Is that how you want your government to work? Secretive and condescending to the public while on the other hand constantly trying to spy on you (illegally I might add)?

I don’t know how much you have an understanding of the way the government works, and I’m not insinuating that you have none, but so far, you have failed to back up anything that you have said. Ok, Karl Rove helped get Bush in office…who cares? There has never been a President elected to office in the last 100 years who was not directly influenced by a campaign and policy manager who helped shape the message. Karl Rove did not set agendas, George Bush did. Anyone who disagrees with that does not have any examples to point to, and has obviously not read any of the books put out by former and current Bush Administration officials detailing the inner workings of the Bush White House. You could start with a book called “Heroic Conservatism” which was wrote by a former speech writer, someone who had very little to do with policy and influence, but was able to bear witness to it all.

Now, as to Iraq policy, George W. Bush did what every President does in a time of military conflict, give over-arching guidance on how the conduct of the war is supposed to take place and allow the DOD and the military commanders on the field take over and execute. Therefore, most decisions that were made in Iraq did not see the desk of the President, because that’s not how it works, nor is that how it is supposed to work. That is why there is a Department and Secretary of Defense. That is why there are the Joint Chiefs, etc. Military orders are made by military personnel, through guidance of the Secretary of Defense and the DOD. I do not argue that the Iraq mission was incredibly failed, but the main reason for that was Rumsfeld, not Bush.

As for your insightful comments about the economy, which you gave no evidence or proof for, do not even come close to describing the current crisis. George W. Bush does not have control over lending and spending practices of banks and other lending institutions. The President is not vested with that authority. The current economic crisis is mainly caused by sub-prime lending which has led to an extreme amount of lending to people who cannot make their mortgage payments. Because banks and lending institutions have so freely given out so much credit, which caused many to become over-extended and unable to make minimum payments, there is an economic crisis looming. This is not due to any type of Executive policy regarding the economy (except maybe Clinton signing the act allowing targeted credit, which targets those who are already in debt for giving them more debt, also called predatory lending).

That’s just a quick synopsis of what’s going on right now. I challenge you to come up with specific examples of Karl Rove setting policy, or Dick Cheney telling W what to do. You won’t find any. While your post was interesting, it did what most attack pieces of Bush do, which is leave out facts and depend on insults about how he is stupid.

Carlos~

You could not be more correct!