What has Bush done right?

[El_Machinae]

As long as you fear other terrorists too!

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Just because I fear fundamentalist Muslim Terrorists does not make me a racist.

I thought you meant all arabs, because your reply was to

arabic company = automatic terrorist??

was something like

somehow that's how I see it

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Remove bureaucracy instead of adding it. If information is getting lost in the shuffle and manipulated by dozens of hands, reduce the number of hands.

Some bureaucracy has been removed or scaled down. INS, for example, no longer exists in its original form. It was cited as being so grossly inefficient as to allow Mohammed Atta a renewal of his visa several months after 9/11/01.

 

[MjM]

You may not consider marital fidelity important in a leader. I do. A man who would cheat on his wife cannot be trusted, period. If he would betray his wife, he'd betray his country.

'Tis sad Bush is a good president now because he doesnt cheat on his wife. Clinton will always be a better president than him.

 

[The Yankee]

Somebody finally said it.

There's another thing. It may be Macchiavellian and not the epitome of goodness, but taking the fight to the Middle East (along with upping security and propaganda at home) worked wonders. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic militants now have no choice but to "defend" their homeland. Thus no more attacks in US territory since 2001.

This, Bush and company have done right.

Their homelands like Bali, London, Madrid, et al. since 2001, right?

I wonder if it's luck or whether they're just sitting back choosing other targets. We still have tons more work to do to close the holes in our security.

That said, the attempt to defend the sky from a hijack a la the last attack has been in good faith. I haven't flown at all (never been on a plane so far, never had the chance) so I can't say whether it's fixed or not.

Domestics I'm not so fond of...he's improved vastly in the foreign policy, I believe. Not that it was Colin Powell's fault...but perhaps Bush just needed reassurance that one of his people was in State. I think that's done some good smoothing over relations that have been frayed recently.

 

[The Yankee]

5. Peace efforts in Palestine

Agreed on this. Yes, every president since Carter has been trying on this front. But it's still a positive. And the detailed plan, working with other powers to secure peace was commendable.

 

[Savas cafe]

What has Bush Administration done right... transforming the waves of pure sympathy the whole world has shown on 9/11 into pure fear and hate in a world's record time...

 

[malclave]

Has anyone on the Supreme Court actually tried to take away woman's suffrage and bring back segregation, or is that empty rhetoric?

received the response:

Its just rhetoric but its not empty.

Do you have anything to actualyl support that, Bozo? Otherwise it is indeed "empty".

(for example, in May 2003, he gave a dramatic speech on an aircraft carrier that the war was over)

No he didn't. He said that "major combat operations" in Iraq were over... I happen to think that is correct, but I know many people disagree on what constitutes a "major combat operation". In any case... the mission was indeed "accomplished" for the USS Abraham Lincoln when that banner was up.

Hmmm how would you explain 34% popularity raiting?

There are a lot of people who dislike him because he is Republican, and have disapproved since before he was first elected. For a time, there was a large split, pretty much among party lines, when his approval ratings were in the mid-40s or so. Since then, he has lost ground among some Republicans due to his positions on the Harriet Miers nomination, the Dubai port deal, and immigration.

Also, I don't know how many polls do this (I don't pay all that close attention to them), but some at least list "fair" as a negative rating... IMO, that should be a neutral rating.

 

[kingjoshi]

Also, I don't know how many polls do this (I don't pay all that close attention to them), but some at least list "fair" as a negative rating... IMO, that should be a neutral rating.

The options are usually:
strongly approve
approve
disapprove
strongly disapprove
undecided

I don't know if 'fair' is a necessary inclusion. The main drawback to that would be it would make trends and comparisons to previous polls not possible. But you could always ask 'both' questions I guess. However, I don't think it's that big a deal whether 'fair' is included or not. What is significant is that a decent percentage went from 'approve' to 'disapprove'.

 

[MobBoss]

Hmmm how would you explain 34% popularity raiting?

Leadership is not winning a popularity contest.

Exactly how popular do you think Lincoln was during the civil war? I am willing to bet he was hated worse than Bush is today. And yet, he is viewed as one of our greatest leaders.

Once again, leadership can be making the right, however unpopular, decisions.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Leadership is not winning a popularity contest.

Exactly how popular do you think Lincoln was during the civil war? I am willing to bet he was hated worse than Bush is today. And yet, he is viewed as one of our greatest leaders.

Once again, leadership can be making the right, however unpopular, decisions.

Different time, different people, different standards and different consequences

 

[MobBoss]

Different time, different people, different standards and different consequences

So what?

Your statement has nothing to do with the fact that it is a simple truth: Leadership is not about winning a popularity contest.

The popularity contest is the election.

What happens afterwards is leadership.

Just blithely stating that Lincoln, for example, was president in a different time in no way takes away from the truth of my statement. He made extremely unpopular decisions during a period of crisis because he thought those were the right decisions to make - not because they would win him popularity in some poll.

 

[The Yankee]

You have a point in that sometimes risky or unpopular decisions pay off. But it's still subjective. If someone disapproved of Clinton's stance on...I don't know...NAFTA...and it turns out to be a great thing in 2010, it would hold true. But then again, maybe someone would think that it still wasn't a great thing by then. So what would be the correlation in that case? It's quite complex.

 

[MobBoss]

You have a point in that sometimes risky or unpopular decisions pay off. But it's still subjective. If someone disapproved of Clinton's stance on...I don't know...NAFTA...and it turns out to be a great thing in 2010, it would hold true. But then again, maybe someone would think that it still wasn't a great thing by then. So what would be the correlation in that case? It's quite complex.

Not at all. Do you assume that all the decisions by Lincoln were the correct ones? Every president makes mistakes. Only history will prove on the correctness of the difficult decision that had to be made.

Thats largely why I poopoo the idea that Bush is "the worst president ever". Its been said too many times before about presidents that we now regard as some of the best leaders our country has ever known.

 

[The Yankee]

Correct. Some of his decisions will carry on, rightly or wrongly, for the next decade and then we'll have a more complete picture. We can still disagree on those things, however.

And I'd wager that his poll numbers are more of a result of "right-now" issues rather than worrying about how Iraq will be in 2009. Things that have smashed up his public opinion over the past year, for instance.

 

[Rambuchan]

Ram, just so you're not left out in the dungeon on this one, I read and agreed with your post on propaganda. The amount of propaganda turned out by USA's government since WWI has been astounding--you yourself have posted a ton of it here or linked to it regarding WWII, and there's a whole series somewhere (History? H&J?) of Cold War "information" from the CIA.

To my fellow Bush supporters: you are naive if you think the government is not lying to you.

To the others: just because the government lies doesn't mean I necessarily disagree with its actions.

FYI: The info you mention can be found in the Political Cartoons thread in my sig, and in various propaganda threads in History.

 

[Dann]

Their homelands like Bali, London, Madrid, et al. since 2001, right?

AFAIK Bali, London, Madrid, etc. are not US territory.

 

[Gelion]

Leadership is not winning a popularity contest.

Exactly how popular do you think Lincoln was during the civil war? I am willing to bet he was hated worse than Bush is today. And yet, he is viewed as one of our greatest leaders.

Once again, leadership can be making the right, however unpopular, decisions.

So if Putin insists that Ukraine pays for the gas according to the world prices he is being a good leader?

 

[MobBoss]

So if Putin insists that Ukraine pays for the gas according to the world prices he is being a good leader?

Only history can tell. Not being Russian or from the Ukraine I dont have enough information to comment on it.

 

[Gelion]

Only history can tell.

I think I agree with that answer.