Y’know, at some point my gut told me in his first term that if George W. were re-elected he would lead America into a depression. And not one word from him Wednesday night apologizing in any way that yet another world-shaking catastrophe is happening on his watch.
Anna Quindlen writes in Newsweek:
His party has been in power as the country has run aground, yet he and his people try to suggest that the same party with the same people and the same policies will somehow produce different results.
I know, Cactus Lizzie, it really looks bad. The more you hear, the worse it gets! I don’t watch CNBC much but I would loved to have heard that comment about Dubya! I posted a rant at the post about the debate but I’m so sick of Dubya, this bailout mess and repubs in general.
Joan, I think you are right on target; I agree with you 100%!
Here’s something that would be funny, if it weren’t so sad and pathetic. On CNBC, regarding the efforts of Congress to pass some kind of bill to save our economy from sliding into another Depression, I heard that George W. Bush is not being paid much attention to at all, as any kind of leader iln this process. Okay, I expected that; he’s a complete lame duck President now, and that’s almost always the case in the last few months of a 2nd term Presidency. But I actually heard it said that Bush is being treated as a “high-functioning moron” while Capitol Hill is trying to hammer out a Bail-Out Bill.
I can’t remember who said that. I have CNBC TV on much of the time, listening to this economic train wreck. I’ve heard so many people on TV say so many things, I can’t keep track anymore. But that’s what he said. A “high-functioning moron.” An ineffective President, I take that to mean, who has fallen in disgrace to merely figure-head status.
Maybe Bush will go down in the annals of history along with Herbert Hoover! If our country does fall into an economic Depression, or near-Depression state of affairs, in the coming months and year, we will certainly need another FDR kind of creative thinker. That is, someone who is not adverse to trying innovative new things to keep people’s family finances – and jobs – as intact as possible.
The boomers are aging; they need their retirement savings. And if they don’t get affordable health care, the savings they do have will be wiped out, and/or they will have to go without adequate health care. And then, there’s the Social Security issue. That seems to have been forgotten about, as we struggle to keep up with the expenses of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and bailing out Wall Street.
A good President is, I think, partially defined by a superior ability to inspire confidence and trust, calm fears, and to appeal to the best moral values inside people’s consciences. He or she has the ability to inspire good will and a spirit of cooperation, bringing the country together in times of crisis to work collaboratively towards a common goal. A good President maintains a “can-do” spirit, and the gift of going over the heads of partisan politicians, to appeal directly to the sense of fairness in the American people.
As we muddle our way through this economic crisis, clearly the understandable resentment that Main Street has against Wall Street needs to be healed. Justice is the only way to achieve that. It will NOT happen via the status quo.
Amen, Cactus Lizzie! To me, Bush is one of those toy chimps whose key you turn, but instead of winding him up to play cymbals, he kowtows to special interests and neocons. There is a website called The Smirking Chimp that points out the facial resemblance of a chimp and Dubya. It’s a good argument for evolution, with my sympathies going to our primate friends because they are proven to be very intellectual, emotional and creative. They are what we would be had we not created the human sins of greed, lying and vote-tampering. Isn’t it ironic how decency watchdogs make sure children’s programming teaches kids to be honest, tolerant, friendly, and helpful, yet the adult political world is anything but?!! And ADULT programming is what?-lust, murder, sex crimes, greed, adultery, and on and on. No, we give our kids ANYTHING BUT a good example!
Now, now, Jeanie! Toads are NOT slimy creatures. You are disrespecting toads…. Tee Hee!
Although, where I live, we do have Colorado River toads, which are very, very poisonous, to the point of even deadly, to dogs who pick them up in their mouths. They exude a toxin. And I could see THAT toad comparison as a parallel to Bush. Unfortunately, I think George W. Bush’s 8 years in office has been toxic for America’s public relations image around the world (when we had their sympathy on a platter after 9/11/01), toxic for America’s foreign policy relations, and toxic for the economy, too.
Sure, George W. Bush did not write the exotic mortgage loan vehicles, nor approve the “interest-only” mortgage loans, and other terms that flirted with the mortgage defaults we have now. But his “support the free market and don’t interfere” Republican administration simply looked the other way, and did nothing to put the brakes on this greedy, reckless behavior.
“Freedom” in a country should also include enforcing RESPONSIBLE behavior, not an “anything goes” philosophy of free enterprise. Unfortunately, it seems to me that morality in the Republican party has been too focused on what consenting adults do in their bedrooms, while their laissez faire policy regarding economic functioning in America seems way too lacking in fair, moral guidelines of conscionable behavior.
So, instead of having government interference as a healthy prevention of a looming financial crisis after the burst of the housing bubble, we’re using government interference – at TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE – to save the economy NOW. According to a statement made on CNBC TV, this saving of the economy will cost every man, woman, and child in America (including newborns) $3,000.
Oh, I’m sorry! How could I forget? George W. Bush WAS proactive about our downwards spiraling economy! He gave us all TAX REBATES, which in no way obligated Americans to spend the money to stimulate retail sales. Which was money that the government could ill-afford to rebate, given our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the growing threat of too many loan defaults for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Saving a bit of money to help cushion the blow of an “emergency” is not just good advice for people’s personal financial circumstances. The “rainy day” theory should apply to wise fiscal government policy as well.
Does anyone know the exact figures to compare the federal surplus (or deficit, but I don’t believe there was one) when former Democratic President Bill Clinton left office, vs. what the federal deficit is NOW, in inflation-adjusted dollars? Anyone who still believes the shallow, vicious lie that Democrats cost the taxpayers so much more money than Republican politicians, is kidding himself.
What a terrible, terrible little man. No, he’s not even a man. He’s a slimy toad.