George Bush
One of the prices of public office is that when things are going bad you get the blame. The buck as President Harry Truman said stops here. In the last 8 years things have not been going well in the USA. There was the terrible terrorist attack of 9/11/2001 which set the tone for the entire presidency and lead to the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan and a change in world opinion regarding the USA.
The Democrats, thirsty for power, made George Bush out to be an evil, inept, stupid man who was incapable of managing the office, the country and the free world and who was loosing the war in Iraq and causing death and financial destruction on a huge scale. It would not be incorrect to say that they vilified the man. In fact if you listen to some of them its surprising that the man is able to dress himself in the morning. Clearly I was not surprised when the went off. Is George really that bad? Or are the democrats full of it?
Now lets take an objective look at the man. Is he as bad as his opponents say? Is he worse? Or is he a good President faced with almost insurmountable challenges and the man is doing well?
Stupidity Is George Bush stupid? Lets look at the facts. He graduated from Yale University and Harvard Business School. These are two of the best institutions in the world. I think its more than fair to say that it would be extremely unlikely if not impossible that a stupid person could graduate from either. Mr. Bush received a Bachelor's Degree in History from Yale in 1968. He was born in 1946 so would have been 22 which is a good age to have your first degree. He then served in the National Guard as a jet pilot. Pilots are not stupid and fighter pilots are certainly not stupid people. Later he graduated with an MBA from Harvard and here is a good article on that from the American Thinker
Every objective indicator tells us that George Bush is NOT stupid and in fact has above average intelligence. So lets cross that one off the list. Next.
GEORGE BUSH is loosing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't think this is accurate. While there have been significant American casualties the cost of the war has been a small fraction of the the GDP in the USA about 4%. In comparison with other wars such as Vietnam, Korea and the World wars the casualties although terrible for those involved and their families are from a strictly mathematical viewpoint very small. Warfare has been limited to two countries Afghanistan and Iraq rather than having the conflict spill over to other countries. While there have been some nasty terrorist attacks they have been isolated and relatively low impact on those countries attacked.
In every single case where the insurgents went up against the Americans in a critical action they have been pounded into rat shit and lost. They haven't won a single battle and have been limited to a type of rearguard running attack where a shot is fired or an IED is planted and they head for the hills hoping they won't be killed or when one of the stupider ones decides he can see his maker sooner if he straps a few pounds of explosives around his guts and wanders into a market and blows his stupid self up.
Now small point here. George Bush is not actually fighting the war himself. His Generals are doing that on his behalf. So surely those same Generals share some of the responsibility for what is happening over there. They have spent the money, used the weapons provided, taken the casualties and made all the tactical decisions. What we see today is in a very large part a result of their input not Mr. Bush.
Lets look at the enemy. Most of them are dead. New ones have come and gone but the main players are mostly dead. The present situation looks like it is steadily improving and the recent troop surge was very successful.
So it would appear that Mr. Bush has managed the war well. He has been consistent and forceful. Enemies have been killed in great numbers. Lets take that one off the list.
George Bush was a drunk who used drugs. There are stories that George Bush was a party animal and never cracked a book and drank too much and took drugs as a youth. Frankly I don't care what he did as a kid. But what did he do as a President and before that as a Governor of Texas? The facts are that George Bush is probably the most healthy leader of any major country in the world. He is a very fit individual and works at it. He keeps himself in excellent condition. How many of us can say that. Take a look at Al Gore -fat and out of shape. No comparison. Mr. Bush sets a standard for all of us. So lets cross that one off the list too.
Lets look at some other things.
Mr. Bush has an excellent sense of humor He is able to laugh at himself and tell a good joke. He is a pretty funny guy! He also deals with a lot of serious stuff so there haven't been a lot of opportunities to show that humor but when he can he does.
Mr. Bush is an excellent public speaker. I have listened to many speeches and Mr. Bush is one of the best public speakers I have ever heard. Yes he occasionally will mis- pronounce something and yes the comedians are waiting for it and earning a living off of making fun of him. But the bottom line is that he is an excellent speaker. For example he is much better than Hillary Clinton or even John McCain. Mr. Obama is a pretty good speaker but I think Mr. Bush is as good if not better because Mr. Obama sounds a bit too smooth while Mr. Bush sounds like the genuine article.
As an objective Canadian my opinion of George Bush is that he has been a very good President. I am surprised at the invective and the careers some have made Bush bashing. We do it up here to our Politicians too but not to the same extent. We try and keep it humorous but in the USA its a real blood sport. In the case of President Bush he went from a 90% approval rating in 2001 to a 28% rating today. If he was so good and got elected twice how on earth did he get to 28% today? Was it the smear campaign from the Democrats? Was it the countless sarcastic jokes from US comedians? Is there a need in the USA to take somebody off a pedestal and destroy them? They did that to Britney Spears. Do they need a figurehead down there that can be given all the blame for any bad thing happening?
These and other questions will be answered by Historians one day. But by then when they have it all sorted out everyone reading this will have been dead for fifty years.
And on that happy thought I will sign off. Hail to the Chief eh!
Update April 29th/08 I watched President Bush at the Rose Garden Press Conference for about 45 mins. I feel much more confident in some of the earlier statements made here now. He is the President. The man is sharp, decisive and a good leader. He had an excellent grasp of the problems and was able to field all questions from the press corps while still retaining his signature sense of humor. He knew all their names and details about them. He was the man in charge. He spoke convincingly with passion and he sounded like he understood the problems in depth. In fact he sounded better than all the candidates who would compete for his job. I think the historians are going to be challenged with the question -Was George Bush a good President or a great President.
That's how I see it anyway! Cheers from the Great White North (Canada eh!)