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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112


Regardless of what others think, the man does what he perceives is the right thing to do.

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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112

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And now, we are reaping the rewards of his stupidity.

So you consider $30Billion to fight AIDS in Africa "stupid"? Does that include the additional $30Billion that the G8 nations committed towards combating HIV/AIDS worldwide?

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ORIGINAL: Edelbrock

1. Bush did not inherit good economy from Clinton, he inherited a minor recession.
2. Clinton did not create good economy, Reagen did.
3. The economy didn't tank until the Democrats took control of Congress, those running for the office can promise anything they want but the President has very little influence on the economy.  The Executive branch does not control the monies, or write the laws, the Leguslative Branch does.
4. On Katrina, FEMA is NOT a first-response agency, first response is the responsibility of the local governments who both failed dismally.  No one called for FEMA when massive snow storms shut down the North.  In the recent Windstorm Louisville-Metro (Ky) did not call for aid when the entire power system for over a million people was knocked out.  In both cases the local government did its job, and fixed the problem.  And don't give me any guff about how different the scale of the events are, if you live in Hurricane ally, you keep yourself prepared for hurricanes.
5. "We didn't find any WMD in Iraq" technically unture, WMD weapons were found in Iraq (keep reading before you start pissing yourself and calling me stupid) the key is the weapons we found in Iraq were not the ones originally believed to be there.  (Nerve-gas laiden artillery shells, etc).  All of this is irrelevant considering the majority of the Congress approved the war with the exact same information at their disposal.  And more than once on this board George's statements (captured Iraqi general; Google it) have detailed how Iraq's weapons were moved to Syra prior to invasion.
6. The current economic crises  has 2 roots, the Democrat plans forcing lenders to give subprime loans, and labor unions making it unaffordable for major assembly companies like Ford, GM, etc. to operate within the US.  http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189
7. President's prior to Bush had more than one chance to take out Bin-Laden, they never did it.  (and FYI cause I've read it twice, the US never supported Bin-Laden's particular mujahadeen cell)
8. If you want someone to blame for 9/11 look to the President who gutted both the Intelligence agency and created a wall between them and the FBI.  Give you a hint it wasn't Bush.
9.  The terrorists in India used blackberries to coordinate their operation, doesn't this sound kind of like a case where "warrantless wire-tapping" may have been helpful on the appropriate scale?
10. I can cite resources for ever statement made here, but the bottom line is when people have decided they are going to hate something no amount of source, logic, or reason is going to change their mind.  If you do seek resources to confirm or refute me 5 minutes on Google is all you will need.  The Associated Press website is a great resource.  If my schedule permits I will post resources later, if not use Google.

Now, despite what many of you may think I am not a rabid Bush fan, (not even a Republican) there are many things I disagree with him on that most people don't know or care about.  (Like his attempt to allow the sale of the F-22 Raptor to Israel [who has more than once passed our technology to China] and to Japan) But the fact is there have been many worse Presidents who get credit for things they had nothing to do with, and who's faults are overlooked.  Bush isn't the best, but he is certainly not as bad as he is being made out to be.

A few years ago we demanded change, so we elected a Democrat Congress.  Now we have it.
Democrats state that Republicans and Conservatives dont' care about anything but Big Business.  Yet it is the Democrat Congress that is pushing bailouts that are exceeding our yearly GDP.  It was the Democrat bailouts that allowed banks to buy up one another, and send CEO's on luxury trips.  Not what the bailouts were meant for, the Repubs didn't give this wasted money to the big evil corporations, the Dems did. 

Bush is a man who's been handed nearly impossible problems, maligned, harrassed, and hindered at every turn, time and time again.  Its quite amazing he hasn't folded under the strain.  Equally amazing is that his abysmal approval rating is considerably higher than that of Congress.

Better stop now before I begin to rant.

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What freaking planet are you from?

1. Bush indeed inherited a minor recession from Clinton, after years of a hard-charging economy, Granted, but he has damn near destroyed the economy.

2. Perhaps you heard of this man named George H. W. Bush. He was President BETWEEN Reagan and Clinton. Clinton got elected largely because the Bush economy was so poor. Are you claiming that Reagan's economic policies kicked in four years after he left office, and Clinton sat back and reaped the benefits?

3. Bush barely escaped being the first President since Hoover to preside over a net LOSS in jobs during his first four year term. This was well before the GOP lost control of Congress and Senate. The economy was never very good under Bush.

I have read that the President can do little to affect the economy. Bullshit. Try not regulating fraudulent industries, then pushing the deficit through the roof to bail out criminals. Try starting a pointless war in Iraq that adds hundreds of billions to the deficit.

4. Sorry, but FEMA screwed Katrina response up. Plain and simple. If you claim that locals did as well, granted. But that's no excuse for a FOUR DAY delay in an agency whose express charter is disaster relief.

5. Yeah, Congress folded like an accordion and let Bush invade Iraq. Why does this indicate Bush isn't responsible? Because other people let him do what he wanted?

6. Yep, the Dems forced the poor helpless lenders to make subprime loans they didn't want to make. Please provide documentation showing that they were also forced to make fraudulent loans and also to repackage the loans into CDOs and claim they were low risk.

And was it ONLY the Deomocrats who passed the bills? The Republicans fought them tooth and nail and filibustered, right?

7. Presidents prior to Bush didn't have 9/11 as a reason to off OBL. Bush did, and botched the job.

8. Per Richard Clarke, prior to 9/11, Bush weakened the CIA branch that dealt with terrorist intelligence. 9/11 occurred after Bush had been in office for eight months. Isn't there some statute of limitation for how long a previous President's actions get attributed to him? Or is this some extension of the logic that grants Reagan credit for the Clinton economic boom?

9. Bush had all the tools to make any wiretap he wanted but chose to break the law and do it without warrants. Note that darn near every warrant applied for was granted - like I say, he was just lazy and abobve the laws. And I'm not willing to project what US policies would do under an Indian government.

We DO have a Dem controlled Congress, but they haven't blocked Bush on anything substantial yet, including the bailout.

Back to the OP - Bush has demolished the economy, instituted socialism of the financial sector, killed thousands of our young and wasted a trillion in Iraq, killed hundreds by his languid response to Katrina, used the Constitution as toilet paper, and been the most effective recruiting tool that Al-Qaeda has ever seen. Yes, I'll give him credit for combating AIDS in Africa. But that's like claiming that the clown who failed every single question on a math quiz deserves credit for spelling his name correctly on his answer sheet.