The Bush Legacy

**nativetexan** · 12-29-2008, 04:58 AM

So what is your final take on GW? Please keep your responses thought out and factual.

**wtnhunt** · 12-29-2008, 08:01 AM

Think there will be pretty broad range of critiques in the coming years on this topic, might see some pretty varied replies here.

Pretty simple really in my opinion, Bush like most presidents was faced with different situations than what others have been faced with, he met those situations/challenges and made difficult decisions that were not always the most popular and as a result his favorability/approval rating suffered. Easy for the critics to say what they would or might have done differently, but no way to really know what might be different had the popular decisions been made. This country has not seen another terrorist attack on our soil though and in that respect I think his presidency has been successful. Had he waivered I do believe that might not be the case.

**JJL** · 12-29-2008, 09:24 AM

20 years from now will be the time to write and discuss the influences of Bush 43.

For now let it suffice to say that the Country is alot better off that if Gore or Kerry had been elected.

**Tominator** · 12-29-2008, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by JJL

20 years from now will be the time to write and discuss the influences of Bush 43.

For now let it suffice to say that the Country is alot better off that if Gore or Kerry had been elected.

Good assessment IMHO. The country stayed safe, some capitalistic "controls" went too far.

**Missilelock** · 12-29-2008, 10:17 PM

I have bben asked a few times, whenever I speak up in favor of Gw, "what did Bush ever do for you"- my short answer is He never did anything against me.... I still have my same American rights that I had when he took office. I love the country I live in & the Christian principles it was founded on & I dont think GW tried to take any of that away from me. I sure gotta hope Obama will do as well, but I dont have very high hopes.

**colorado bob** · 12-30-2008, 08:52 PM

I usually don't post on a thread about politics, But I have on this one. George W is the worst president in my lifetime. I'll be glad when 1/20/09 comes. CB

**stevebeilgard** · 12-30-2008, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by colorado bob

I usually don't post on a thread about politics, But I have on this one. George W is the worst president in my lifetime. I'll be glad when 1/20/09 comes. CB

i couldn't hardly disagree more. jjl had it right. he was much better than gore or kerry. the country is better off with him. i'm not optimistic about obama, but i hope he does well. and bob must not have been around for carter..
i don't like bush. mccain was even worse than bush. i did vote mccain because i believe he'd be waaaaay better than obama. in 3 years it will be one simple question: are you better off now than before obama got into office? i hope the answer is yes, but i know better.

**colorado bob** · 12-30-2008, 10:10 PM

Steve, your entitled to your opinion. Answer your own question---Are you better off now than when Bush took office? Answer is a resounding NO. We went to heck in a hand basket under him.

As far as if Gore or Kerry would have been better or worse----Who knows. But it would have been different.

I voted for W the 1st go round but not the 2nd.

I was around for Jimmy.

Best one in my liftime-----from JKF to present. Most are mediocre.

Obama has a big hole to come out of----We all better hope he does well. CB

**MUDRUNNER** · 12-31-2008, 08:39 AM

I personally thing GW did a decent job.In my lifetime, I can't remember any other president that had the magnitude of things to deal with that GW did.With 9-11,Katrina, and the war, he's had an uphill battle almost constantly.It's hard to really say what Gore or Kerry would have done differently and how things would have turned out.There's no doubt that there were some mistakes made, but overall I would consider his presidency a success also. I believe I read somewhere that out of his 8 years in office 6 of those years showed postitve economic growth....that doesn't seem too bad to me.

**wtnhunt** · 12-31-2008, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by colorado bob

Steve, your entitled to your opinion. Answer your own question---Are you better off now than when Bush took office? Answer is a resounding NO. We went to heck in a hand basket under him.

As far as if Gore or Kerry would have been better or worse----Who knows. But it would have been different.

I voted for W the 1st go round but not the 2nd.

I was around for Jimmy.

Best one in my liftime-----from JKF to present. Most are mediocre.

Obama has a big hole to come out of----We all better hope he does well. CB

Are you saying Jimmy Carter was the best President in your lifetime here? Interesting opinion if that is what you are saying.

Obama does have some serious hurdles and I agree we had better hope he does better than most of us expect, however given his record I am a bit skeptical, maybe he will surprise us all. I do foresee a burden being put on the working class for the programs that he intends to help the not working class, which in my opinion may send us further into trouble.

Think people need to remember why the economy while Clinton was in office had done what he was given credit for, it had everything to do with what took place in tech, and maybe not really quite so much to do with Clinton himself. Also need to remember that the market hit all time highs while Bush was in office and recovered pretty nicely over time after it took hits from 9/11/2001. After the market recovered it was not until this election year that the market really took its biggest hits(people are concerned and have little confidence, wonder why, future maybe?), of course the housing bubble burst that in my opinion the liberals allowed to happen by not listening to John McCain 3 years ago. That probably has not helped the economy either, people seem to be pinning that on Bush too. Really is unfortunate that the media helped people with deciding to blame Bush for anything and everything that they could think of that was going wrong, do not hardly think that helped matters in this country. Never in my lifetime can I remember so much negative media bias any president was faced with.

I also agree with MUDRUNNER, Bush was faced with issues other presidents had not been faced with. Hard to assume how Gore or Kerry might have handled those issues. I do believe that Bush probably handled the issues he was faced with in the way he felt best served the entire nation, not one group. With that said, I think he was the better man for the job of the options we had to choose from.

**JJL** · 12-31-2008, 09:44 AM

The bottom line is simply this.....................

If you're NOT better off than you were 8 years ago.............YOU screwed up.

8 years ago O'Bama was a "community organizer".........Now he's the President of the United States.............He's not complaining one bit................He did pretty well for himself under Bush.

8 years ago I was a go to work everyday kind of guy and my net worth was around $75,000. Now I'm a work smart everyday kind of guy and my net worth is over $1,000,000........

Is G. Bush responsible for this..........NO. I AM.

The same thing will happen during the O'Bama administration. The game will just be played a little different. The question you have to ask yourself is..........."Am I willing to change in order to play?" I am and expect to excell at it once again.

If you are going to sit on your butts and whine about how tough it is.............Welcome to the club of 95% of the rest of the country............losers.

They can take my money. They can take my rights. They can TRY and take my guns. But, they cannot take my SPIRIT..............and that's why it'll be fun to play..... Even if I lose, at least I played.

You want to complain about taxes...............loss of freedoms.............loss of rights................quit complaining and start doing.

Lesson # 1...............................Money is CHEAP...............I just signed another mortgage at 4.25%.

CHEAP money equals OPPORTUNITY for those who have a set. Where you spend it separates the men from the boys.

**goodnottygy** · 12-31-2008, 10:04 AM

The 1st Bush was not bad. I think that the 2nd Bush has sent our country down the toilet. Our country is broke and we are in a recession. Russia went broke fighting terrorism, now here we are. Haliburton is doing well, with no-bid contracts. Oil companies have done well. But the rest of the country is going down the tubes. We were misled to go into war, and now our country is bankrupt because of it. I would hate to be the one trying to fix what has been screwed up in the last 8 years. That isjust my opinion, but you asked for it! It is all in good fun, though. I am not big into politics, but I am not happy with things the way they are now, compared to 8 years ago.

**Gator** · 12-31-2008, 10:19 AM

I just love how everybody blames big oil, and Haliburton. Lets talk about Haliburton for a second. Unless I am wrong, I bet ya'll are referencing the fact that their subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root are the civilian contractors that are in Iraq, correct? How many of ya'll know that they were also involved when CLINTON sent troops on a peacekeeping mission into Croatia and Bosnia back in '95? Yes, they were in those two places, along with Hungary setting up and maintaining Base camps. But NOOOOOO, Cheney is responsible for that this time around, isn't he, since he used to be the CEO of Haliburton. Makes me sick when people talk about this, because I know for a FACT they are clueless.

Big oil, now there's another one. Is it THEIR fault that oil prices got as high as they did? I mean, they WERE drilling ALL OVER the place looking for gas and oil pockets. Yeah, they were making money at the same time, but do you know what it costs to even drill nowadays? ALOT, will into the millions for 1 well. And do you realize how many people are employed when drilling is good, ALOT, IF they want to work. There's rigs that were running that they couldn't fully man because they didn't have the people to work it. And now I wonder, since oil prices have bottomed out, just how many of those same people are out of work? But no, noone probably gives a rats *** about that, all they care about is the price of gas now. Now I wasn't happy to see oil at $140 a barrel, way to high IMO, and now I REALLY don't like seeing it at $34 a barrel.

**nativetexan** · 12-31-2008, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by goodnottygy

The 1st Bush was not bad. I think that the 2nd Bush has sent our country down the toilet. Our country is broke and we are in a recession. Russia went broke fighting terrorism, now here we are. Haliburton is doing well, with no-bid contracts. Oil companies have done well. But the rest of the country is going down the tubes. We were misled to go into war, and now our country is bankrupt because of it. I would hate to be the one trying to fix what has been screwed up in the last 8 years. That isjust my opinion, but you asked for it! It is all in good fun, though. I am not big into politics, but I am not happy with things the way they are now, compared to 8 years ago.

If this is all you have based your opinions on, then you NEED to get big into politics. We are not Russia either. Russia has been on the brink for decades. The USA has not. Oil, Oil, Oil...who cares. Much more to this country than oil. In case you haven't been watching, the housing crisis was started by Clinton, in which the people screwed themselves by overpurchasing. The auto industry screwed themselves because they pay HIGH wages to their union labor and the American car market sucks. The finance industry..screwed themselves...BECAUSE they had crooked people in charge. Now they all want bailouts. Bush had NOTHING to do with any of that. It is not his responsibility. This is a capitalistic country. If a business fails, it should, and be buried like the rest so a new one can rise. The war...I have preached enough about that, as well as everyone here has too. Terrorism, and countries that harbor such individuals who support it, should be FORCED to not do it. If that means that we will be there until the turn of the century, then so be it. This war is about people trying to force their way of life on us and others..violently. The United States was founded on the principles that you are free to create your own life, and to escape those that wish to conform you to another. We are retaliating against such individuals. It's what we do. I am glad that you have come here and reminded us of one more great reason why people voted for Obama. "Because I don't like the way things are going, and I am not big into politics." Ever look past 4 feet in front of you? There is a much bigger picture out there....