I think we should try to determine when, exactly, the Bush presidency jumped the shark.
I know it seems as if it was just a long stretch of escalating incompetency, and there’s a temptation to say it jumped the shark when the Supreme Court handed him the keys to the kingdom. But of all the screw-ups, remarkably bad photo ops, incoherence (as Ariel pointed out, when you can make a 365 day calendar consisting of one stupid thing every single day that one guy said, that’s pretty bad), was there one moment frozen in time, one particular instance, where his administration–clad in trunks and hurtling forwarded pulled by a motorboat–vaulted over a pool of sharks and never came back?
PAD
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Gram said, “I do not expect Bush to be looked upon fondly by a lot of people, he let me down too. But I also do nto think Obama will be this super magical changer that he proposes to be. He was a media superstar, never vetted as others were and never truly researched. He has no experience and no real proof that he can handle the job he is about to begin.”
No offense meant but how does Bush’s lackluster one term governorship give him anymore experience than Obama to be president. Prior to that he was known for ruining the Texas Rangers, being an unrepentant alcoholic/cocaine user and a draft dodger to boot.
Never once in any article I have read about GWB, and there are a lot, has he ever shown any kind of intellectual curiosity or done anything for this country that he didn’t try to get out of. Much like his passing the Iraq war off to others while trying to take credit for its “success”.
Being born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth does not make them a better president and that’s really the only difference between the two men’s experience. At least his economic stimulus package saved the economy, oh wait it didn’t nevermind.
I would put more faith in Obama’s genuine intellectually curiosity than Bush’s sophmoric Yosemite Sam impression.
Please someone list one accomplishment of the Bush administration that is real and not just Republican talking points to keep the remaining faithful spinning the same three statements over and over, Irag is a failure, the economy tanked and no child left behind left a lot of children behind. There has not be one significant accomplishment with the exception of Bush weighing down the judiciary with a lot of conservative appointments.
JTS moment: Katrina no doubt about it. Blame all the state politicians you want at the end of the day the Federal Government is responsible for handling large scale disasters, including those of the natural kind.
R-
Posted by: Jerry Chandler
April 19 1995: In Oklahoma City* a car bomb exploded outside the federal office building, collapsing the wall and floors. 168 people were killed, including 19 children and 1 person who died in rescue effort. Over 220 buildings sustained damage. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were later convicted in the antigovernment plot to avenge the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Tex., exactly 2 years earlier.
* (There is now some debate as to whether or not they had help or support from members of a foreign terrorist group, so I’m including it on the short list.)
Could you cite any sources for that debate? Not doubting your word, but this is the first i’ve heard – well, the first i’ve heard from a sane person who didn’t have a vested interest in stoking paranoia – of it.
Also, you missed one – or maybe not, depending on how you consider Puerto Rico (though i note that your list includes one FALN attack):
from Wikipedia.)
And, of course, there are those who claim the JFK shooting was some form of foreign (or at least, foreign-related) terrorism.
Posted by: Richar Renteria
No offense meant but how does Bush’s lackluster one term governorship give him anymore experience than Obama to be president. Prior to that he was known for ruining the Texas Rangers, being an unrepentant alcoholic/cocaine user and a draft dodger to boot.
Not to mention running more than one oil company into the ground.
Richar Renteria: Please someone list one accomplishment of the Bush administration that is real
Aid to Africa. Bush is one of the worst Presidents in our history, no question, but he’s a hero in much of Africa because of all the aid he’s sent there. I give him that one good mark.
Posted by: Jason M. Bryant
Aid to Africa. Bush is one of the worst Presidents in our history, no question, but he’s a hero in much of Africa because of all the aid he’s sent there. I give him that one good mark.
All of the aid that wasn’t allowed to go to any organsation that promoted, advocated (or even mentioned as a viable plan of action as part of a Big Picture) abortion.
As someone said when Mother Theresa died – someone who claims to be trying to help the poor in a hideously overpopulated region, with a ridiculously high birth-rate, and then tells people they’ll go to Hëll if they use contraception, isn’t particularly qualified for sainthood in my book.
With regard to accumulation of power, Rene wrote that Only Lincoln and FDR can compare, and even those two had more respect for the other branches of government than Bush
Weeeeeeell… Lincoln probably did. He suspended a number of things related to the courts, but it was in direct response to actual open warfare within US borders, and it wasn’t obviously directed at any particular coordinate branch. FDR on the other hand had open disdain for SCOTUS’s standing and authored a scheme to “supplement” the number of Justices in a way that would just happen to provide a pro-Roosevelt majority on a Court that had been daring to strike down New Deal legislation as unconstitutional arrogations of power. Bush seems to prefer to just ignore other branches rather than openly subvert them.
All of the aid [to Africa, mentioned as Bush’s most obvious legitimate accomplishment] that wasn’t allowed to go to any organsation that promoted, advocated (or even mentioned as a viable plan of action as part of a Big Picture) abortion.
As someone said when Mother Theresa died – someone who claims to be trying to help the poor in a hideously overpopulated region, with a ridiculously high birth-rate, and then tells people they’ll go to Hëll if they use contraception, isn’t particularly qualified for sainthood in my book.
Which of course makes all of the contributions to fighting AIDS, fighting malaria, and developing an infrastructure completely meaningless and not at all an accomplishment of any sort. Because on a continent whose most legitimate democratic leader until recently (Thabo Mbeki) thought that HIV was unrelated to AIDS and called that link a Western conspiracy, and where there’s a pervasive urban legend that sex with a virgin will cure a man of AIDS, it’s abortion restrictions on US grants that are really causing trouble. And being given gobs of money with one string attached is far, far worse than being virtually ignored as most Administrations before this one had done with sub-Saharan Africa. Well argued.
mike weber, I don’t approve of the restrictions, but a massive amount of good was still done with all that aid.
I don’t argue that good was done with the money.
My point is that a hëll of a lot more could have been done if a large proportion of organisations in the field hadn’t been systematically excluded.
Any time you tie that kind of aid to ideology, you limit its effectiveness – and, as to AIDS/HIV, the Bush MisAdministration’s policy (at least originally) was that the only type of anti-AIDS campaigns US money could go to were the ones that advocated abstinence, noy ones that actually had programs that might actually do any real good on the larger scale.
That’s fine. Bush did do some good in this one area. It could have been better. I don’t think there’s really that much disagreement here.
I can see where it might not be on many peoples’ list, but I’d include Condi. Let’s face it, if she were not such a good friend of Shrub’s family, there’s NO WAY she’d be where she is now. A classic case of ‘failing upwards’ as she screws up in one portfolio, only to be promoted after the fact and show similar ineptitude there as well. Worse, even if you believe she does have those advanced degrees, they’re in Soviet studies and what good is that when the U.S.’ main threats are either from Islamic fundamentalist nutcases, or from Red China’s growing economic clout?
Grrrr …. Sorry. Post didn’t seem to be working, so tried again. Bad move.
“Please someone list one accomplishment of the Bush administration that is real.”
Sure. He made Colin Powell Secretary of State. Yeah, he was tooled around with in that position, but it thrust him into the eye of the American public, and I think we’re all better for knowing him.
Jan. 24, 1975: In New York City a bomb set off in the historic Fraunces Tavern killed 4 and injured more than 50 people.
– OK. I had never heard of that one. A little before my time.
Feb. 26, 1993: World Trade Center….
– Forgive me. I was a little distracted as I was in labor on this date and gave birth the following day, and probably never learned of it until days later when the shock was fading.
But I hold to my point – two, maybe three incidents of foreign terror in 65 years is not enough for me to call it a trend, check under my bed nightly, or report my neighbor for saying the president sucks. We have 300 million lunatics already in this country, each with some sort of trigger and a high percentage with free legal access to semi-automatic arsenals, tasers, internet sharing, and no legal requirement to stay on their medications. I worry more about them.
One particular instance? That’s tough to choose (though I do agree with Luigi that “jump the shark” might not be the best phrase). I think for me the first “what on Earth is wrong with you?” moment in the Bush administration came when he insisted on going to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. And this is after he’d sworn to get bin Laden “dead or alive.”
Remember bin Laden, the guy responsible for 9/11, whom Bush couldn’t find? So he went after a target he could find.
Yes, there is the argument that due to faulty intelligence, Bush & Co. genuinely believed Iraq posed a credible threat. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say that’s true, that he wasn’t trying to pull one over on us. That doesn’t alter the fact that the administration seemed to put the bulk of its focus on Iraq, rather than on finding bin Laden.
On the one hand, I can’t fault Bush for wanting to go after Saddam Hussein for trying to kill his father. I’d probably go after someone who tried to kill a family member. But then, I’m not the president of the United States. If I were, I’d hope that someone would say to me, “Mr. President, are you nuts? You can’t use the forces of the U.S. military to settle a personal grudge.”
(though I’m sure a lot of history’s wars started out as personal grudges. But that’s another matter).
I’m reminded of a West Wing episode where Bartlett is so incensed by the deaths of some Americans in a foreign country that he tells Leo (I think it’s Leo) about how a Roman citizen could move about unmolested pretty much anywhere in the known world because everyone knew that if anything happened to him, Rome would strike back hard. He then asked (probably only half rhetorically) why he shouldn’t strike back against whatever country it was. Leo’s answer was something like “you’d look like a first-term president trying to make a name for himself.” or words to that effect.
Hand-in-hand with going to war with Iraq was the administration’s naive belief that the whole matter would be the proverbial cakewalk. It’s clear they had no exit strategy, that they were making it up as the went. That may work for Indiana Jones, but not for a presidential administration. Unless it’s competently administered. Maybe. And even if a competent administration could make “making it up as they go” work, it would be foolish to try. You’re leading the free world, not playing Calvinball.
If the Bush administration’s only blunder had been going to war based on faulty intelligence, it still would’ve been a tragedy, but hardly unique in the annals of history. Unfortunately, the administration kept making more mistakes, as if it kept coming around to make more jumps. These include, as discussed above, his ignoring intelligence in summer 2001 that Al Qaeda had something planned; squandering the international goodwill the U.S. had built up after 9/11; the “mission accomplished” photo op; and the (mis)handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I’d also include on that list his refusal to meet with the heads of the Big Three automakers for years; and his taking us from a surplus at the start of his administration to a deficit now.
(Dis)Honorable mention has to go to a key pre-election moment- when Bush took Cheney at his word that Cheney had looked high and low for the best person to be the vice presidential candidate and had come up with himself. Unless Bush had already decided to pick Cheney, that made him look indecisive and anything but presidential. In some ways, that was worse than McCain’s choice of Palin, because at least it had been McCain making the selection, however bad it was. Bush (apparently) couldn’t be bothered to make his own decision about his vice president.
I doubt that history will be kind to the Bush 43 administration.
Here’s hoping the Obama administration proves to be a major improvement.
Rick
I can name an accomplishment, allowing Ðìçk Cheney to be so oblivious to potential prosecution that he publicly states he approved something that is in fact an international crime. Between that and pi$$ing off and screwing over the CIA and other intelligence branches for no other reason that maintaining or growing your personal power base, I dont think he is going to be well remembered post January 20th. Thanks Bush, like this country needed another Richard Nixon level crook in our history.
“Hand-in-hand with going to war with Iraq was the administration’s naive belief that the whole matter would be the proverbial cakewalk.”
Rick, I don’t think naive is the word I’d use here. Rather, I envision the Bush administration as one of the most ideological in US history. How can you expect realist risk accessment from people that see the world in black and white and have an absolute belief in the power of America and the free market? OF COURSE they’d be received as liberators. OF COURSE Iraq would be just like Texas in 5 years.
Katrina was the shark jump to America because a few months earlier, Bush interrupted his vacation to sign legislation to prevent Terri Schiavo’s tube from being removed. Which made his callous reaction to Katrina all the more glaring.
Second place? When Cindy Sheehan decided that she was going to make waves, also just after Schiavo. Made that whole “sanctity of life” argument vs. the Iraq war a mockery.
David, I think the main difference is that FDR at least thought it was important to co-opt other branches of power. Bush just does whatever he likes, and it’s appropriate that his 8 years should be called the Imperial Presidency.
But the saddest thing is that Bush was right in just ignoring his opposition. The Democrat Party was so cowed and afraid of looking like they were soft on terror, that Bush really didn’t need to make any fancy maneuvering to get his way.
“OF COURSE Iraq would be just like Texas in 5 years.”
Hot, arid, and full of stinky steers?
“Bush did do some good in this one area.”
Yep, and Mussolini made the trains run on time.
Actually, no, the “trains run on time” thing is a myth.
http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp
Katrina was the shark jump to America because a few months earlier, Bush interrupted his vacation to sign legislation to prevent Terri Schiavo’s tube from being removed. Which made his callous reaction to Katrina all the more glaring.
A considerable moment. The entire Schiavo brouhaha caused one of my favorite bloggers, two-time Bush voter John Cole at Obsidian Wings, to finally break with the GOP. He eventually recanted virtually everything to do with Bush, registered as a Democrat, and volunteered for Obama.
My personal JtS moment was when Bush authorized torture as S.O.P. for the United States. No one knows exactly when that moment was, but ever since then I realized that no matter how bad I thought the administration was, it was almost certainly worse. (As one person put it, the thing I hate the most about the Bush Administration is that it’s turned me into a conspiracy theorist.)
The entire Schiavo brouhaha caused one of my favorite bloggers, two-time Bush voter John Cole at Obsidian Wings, to finally break with the GOP.
Oops. I meant John Cole at Balloon Juice.
On the one hand, I can’t fault Bush for wanting to go after Saddam Hussein for trying to kill his father.
On the other hand, attempting to murder an American head of state– even a retired one– in retaliation for his official acts is a casus belli. Hm, actually, that’s the same hand. I was never a big fan of the war, but that was actually one of the more legitimate reasons for going to war. I think that aspect was downplayed because it looked like (as someone I think on this blog once called it) “Operation Fix Daddy’s Mistake” enough without harping on his father, instead of “Operation What Clinton Should Have Done 10 Years Ago.”
David, I think the main difference is that FDR at least thought it was important to co-opt other branches of power.
I’m not sure pointing out that FDR knowingly and on purpose subverted the separation of powers/”checks and balances” really helps him look better. FDR is a complicated person to evaluate. On the one hand, he did a lot of long-term harm to the governmental establishment and the US economy, and by monkeying around with the economy probably lengthened the Depression. On the other hand, although lengthened, he probably made the Depression more survivable for many people, and he was as responsible as anyone but Churchill for saving the world from mass-murdering tyrants. The last part alone qualifies him for greatness, but sometimes the recognition of the wonderful things he really did tends to overwhelm a fair evaluation of the mistakes he did make.
“You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.”
‘Nuff said.
“You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.”
‘Nuff said.
I agree with you about FDR and all, David.
The grasping of inappropriate power from the other branches of government is always disturbing, no matter the justification. The Legislative branch cannot take action nearly as quickly as anyone would prefer in a major emergency, even if it is so motivated. The Judicial branch is extremely unlikely to deny the other branches much of the power they demand, whether or not it is permitted under the Constitution. In dire circumstances the Executive branch always feels compelled to cut through the prerogatives of the other branches – but it is, without question, a violation of the Constitution to do so. If GWB had truly believed it was necessary to assume powers denied him by the Constitution, and then taken some kind of action driven by intelligence, rather than his right testicle, and if his action had done the country real good, and he had finally submitted himself to the authority of the courts to be punished for his treason, I would applaud him for serving his country at the jeopardy of his own freedom. As it is, this mental degenerate just thought it would be really keen to have his own war – after all, all of the really cool matinee heroes fought off the Roos-kies, or the heathen Chinee, or rampaging, screaming Ay-rabs, so why the gol durn couldn’t HE have some fun, dagnabbit!?
George W. Bush really wanted to be remembered.
He will be – just like we remember the Influenza Epidemic or the Black Plague.
To the question, he jumped the shark sometime around the second day of the 2000 recount.
My vote would be the moment he decided to stay in that classroom listening to a teacher read to her photo-op class immediately after he was informed about the 9/11 attacks. Instead of responding with any sense of urgency, he sat there like a chump for twenty odd-minutes. His presidency up to that point had been pretty weak on the “Take Me Seriously” scale, but for me that was the moment where he lost any claim to legitimacy or respect, and where he set himself firmly at the bottom of a very uphill path to have reclaimed it. And then proceeded to shrug, turn around, and continue throwing himself further down said hill.
Afghanistan. No competition.
Afghanistan. No competition.
Afghanistan. No competition.
When Bush pushed through his tax cut. Soon after the National debt began to grow once again. There is a debt ‘clock’ off of Times Square where it gives the total debt for the country and the share for each person. It had to be stopped during the later Clinton years because it couldn’t run backwards. It restarted soon after the tax cuts and they recently had to add an extra number because they ran out of space.
This picture pretty much shows you when
http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/ap/ny11302161339.hmedium.jpg
This picture pretty much shows you when
http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/ap/ny11302161339.hmedium.jpg