George Bush, the Connecticut cowboy, the good old boy from Yale is a man of mediocre intelligence, little imagination, and great stubbornness and vindictiveness. He may be the Decider but his handlers have long known how to manipulate him. The key is to hook him with short, simple sells. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice knew that once he has consulted his gut and perhaps his higher father his decision is forever. So whoever gets to him first is likely to carry the day because he doesn’t like to be challenged and is, quite simply, too lazy to change his mind. The Bubble is a natural consequence of this decision making process where logic, reason, and facts have little or no role.
Bush’s Presidency began in the shadow of a contested and likely stolen election and promised to be unsuccessful in a largely forgettable and unremarkable way. 911 changed all that and transformed a plodding, and essentially AWOL one termer into an accidental hero. Enormous power flowed to his office but Bush had no idea how to use it. He liked to campaign, not govern. In those around him, he prized loyalty over competence and honesty. A believer in the notion of "to the victor go the spoils," he was the perfect mark for every conniver, bumbler, bungler, hack, hanger on, and would be crony that Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and their friends could find. In the normal course of things, this would have spelled failure. Post-911, it was catastrophic.
At this critical juncture in our history we needed an adult but got an adolescent. Instead of responsibility, we got a truant. In place of flexibility we got obduracy. In the face of great and complex challenges, we got strawmen, a black and white universe, my way or the highway, regurgitated stump speeches, and a steadfast refusal to compromise not just with opponents but with reality.
What all this comes down to is that George Bush should never have become our President. He is not just a bad President but the worst one we could have had, the worst our country has ever seen. This is a judgment that many Americans have come to but which our political establishment and media, even after 7 years, have yet to acknowledge, accept, and act on. This is the tragedy and crime of our times.
it's a l o n g list.....here is just the beginning...
1. Patient neglect at Walter Reed Army Hospital
2. US Attorney firings
3. Libby/Plame Affair (Outing a CIA agent)
4. Iraq war
5. Afghanistan (leaving before the job was done)
6. Iran saber rattling
7. North Korea (mishandling nuclear issue)
8. The War on Terror (failure to capture Osama bin Laden, dubious allies)
9. Civilian contractors in Iraq (poor service for big bucks)
10. Military Commissions Act (torture, kangaroo courts, indefinite detention, and loss of habeas corpus)
11. Hurricane Katrina and the drowning of New Orleans
12. NSA warrantless wiretapping
13. SWIFT (international money transfers)
14. Black sites and rendition
15. Department of Homeland Security (a massive boondoggle)
16. K Street lobbyists (for government you can buy)
17. Dusty Foggo (No. 3 at the CIA)
18. Duke Cunningham (a corrupt politician)
19. Tom Delay (another corrupt politician)
20. Mark Foley and the House pages
21. Cheney Energy Task Force (and hiding info about it)
22. Tax cuts for the richest of the rich
23. Global warming (denial and stalling)
24. Terri Schiavo and the attempted trashing of family privacy rights
25. Budget deficits and a greatly increased national debt
click here...ahem...for the last 372 (and growing) scandals
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