Final Thoughts on the Exit of President George W. Bush

NOTE: I had hoped to finish this and post it yesterday, but a family medical emergency prevented me until today.




Late in the afternoon of September 11, 2001 after all the phone calls trying to track down friends in NYC (where I had lived for 15 years) and family members in the DC area, after all the feelings of sorrow and rage, and after I could no longer watch another minute of the day's events (but I couldn't make myself turn off the TV), I finally went outside and sat in my postage stamp-sized city yard and a thought occurred to me:

Thank God that Gore isn't president. After eight years of watching many in the Republican Party and the media do everything possible to pull down President Clinton, I didn't trust that they'd actually be able to rally around Gore if he was president. I thought they would crucify him for anything and everything he did.

And then I had a far darker thought:

Oh God, that shallow, ignorant, fake cowboy, cheerleader Bush will now get anything -- everything -- that he wants.

It wasn't but a day or two later that I heard talking heads on TV first throw out and test the waters with the word torture.

I wasn't familiar then with the Benjamin Franklin quote, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" but I would learn of it in the following years.

And, after all he many, many sins of the Bush Administration and the never ending attack on our Constitution, I feared this country would lose its soul.

Still, I believe it wasn't the loss of our liberties and moral high ground that turned the majority of the country against Bush -- it was the other half of the quote's equation -- it was Bush's inability to secure the safety of our citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

People finally woke up to the fact that politicians who say that government is the enemy cannot be trusted to govern.

Bush proceeded to fuck up everything he touched in his years in office.

The words of The Onion's January 17, 2001 post seem downright prophetic now: Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over.'

This bit from A Tiny Revolution from May of last year is not meant as any slight against Obama's amazing victory, but damn if it doesn't hold some truth:

It's September 12, 2001. You're sitting in front of a TV, watching footage of the World Trade Center collapse over and over and over again.

All of a sudden, someone from seven years in the future walks out of a tiny temporal vortex, and tells you: George W. Bush is going to fuck this up so badly that in 2008, the United States of America will likely elect as president a black man whose middle name is Hussein and whose father was Muslim. Oh, and he also admits he's used cocaine.

I think it would have been easier to convince me of the reality of time travel. "No, no, I believe you really are from the future. But the other stuff, that's CRAZY."

Yes, Bush will properly go down in history as The Worst President Ever.

He gave us neither neither liberty nor safety.

He failed at everything that a president can fail at.

I feel almost like I have been holding my breath since the November election. That it can't be true that we will finally be rid of this horror show of the last eight years.

At noon today, at long last, I can finally exhale and breathe again.
.

Bush: "I was willing to make the tough decisions."

"You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

- President George W. Bush


(h/t to Daily Kos)
.

Bush's Farewell Address to the Nation

(h/t to firedoglake)

.

BEST PRESIDENT EVER!

The View From Below

"President Bush temporarily will transfer power to Vice President Dick Cheney while Bush has a colonoscopy Saturday."

One would certainly assume by now that Bush has had his head up there long enough to know every nook, cranny and crevice in loving detail.

Also, one could be forgiven for wondering how Cheney could possibly take control for the Prez when he's not even a member of the Executive Branch . . .

(h/t to Shakesville.)

More Poll News

There's a new poll out from the Washington Post.

First the bad news for dubya - his approval numbers are still horrendous.

When asked the question:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? Do you approve/disapprove strongly or somewhat?

Only 35% of those poll said they approved. 62% disapproved.

When asked the question:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?

Only 29% of those polled said they approved. 70% disapproved.

And now the worse news for dubya - the public seems to like Speaker Pelosi.

When asked the question:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Nancy Pelosi is handling her job as
Speaker of the House?

53% said said they approved. 35% disapproved.

This is AFTER the Pelosi-plane smear (which our good friend Ruth Ann Dailey did her darndest to promote and protect) and AFTER the Pelosi-Syria smear (which the Mike Pintek's been trying to promote).

Poll numbers are a snap-shot. They change all the time. But at this point and according to this poll, the American People APPROVED of Speaker Pelosi and DISAPPROVE of President Bush.

Chew on that for a bit.