Seven most horrible things about Bush presidency (and more)

[ProSense]

Seven most horrible things about Bush presidency

Commentary: An alternative to commander-in-chief's view of his time in office

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

Contrary to the president's own assessment of his tenure earlier this week, it was an astonishing eight years - and not in a good way. The country suffered two recessions, and two shooting wars. The government botched its response to a brazen attack by terrorists on two cities, and then four years later utterly failed to react when another city was consumed by a natural disaster.

The president took on tyranny by embracing torture. He fought a war for freedom by trampling human rights. He enriched the already rich, excused their excesses, and then bailed them out of trouble and handed us the bill.

He politicized everything, promoted incompetents, and -- whenever things got tight -- appealed to our basest instincts of fear, greed, ignorance and hate.

Bush had all the luck of Jimmy Carter, the attention to detail of Ronald Reagan, the adaptability of Lyndon Johnson, the abiding respect for the Constitution of Richard Nixon, the humility of Teddy Roosevelt, the rhetorical skills of Calvin Coolidge, the fiscal restraint of Franklin Roosevelt, the cronyism of Warren Harding, and the overreaching idealism of Woodrow Wilson.
And his election had all the legitimacy of Rutherford Hayes'.

None of the disasters of the past eight years can be entirely blamed on Bush, of course. No president is all powerful, and Bush was handed some raw deals, especially in that first year with the recession and then the nightmare of 9/11. But other presidents - Lincoln, Roosevelt, and the incoming Obama come to mind -- have had to deal with worse. The test of greatness is what you do when faced with the impossible.

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Here's my list of the seven worst things Bush did during his time in the White House.

7. Bush politicized parts of the government that should be nonpartisan....

6. Bush squandered the budget surplus...

5. Bush comforted the comfortable and afflicted the afflicted...

4. Bush rewarded incompetence...

3. Bush lied us into war...

2. Bush has exposed himself to war crime charges...

1. Bush weakened our democracy...

One final note: Bush had the opportunity to be a great president. After 9/11, the nation was as united as it had been since Pearl Harbor, and Bush rode a wave of popularity that he could have used to turn around the nation's politics, security and economy.
Instead of uniting us as he promised, he divided us instead.

George Bush's 20 worst moments

Any list of errors is unflattering, but President George W Bush's catalogue of mistakes is particularly impressive. Some may argue that some entries here, such as not signing Kyoto, belong in a best moments list. Others even the president has admitted were cock-ups.

1) No WMDs...

2) "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job"...

3) No Post-War Plan for Iraq...

4) Permitting Torture...

5) Ignoring Pre-9/11 Terror Memo...

6) "Mission Accomplished"...

7) Entering Iraq without a UN mandate...

8) Insisting there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda...

9) Failing to capture Osama bin Laden...

10) Abandoning the Kyoto Protocol...

11) Refusing to let Katrina ruin his holiday...

12) Underestimating the cost of the war...

13) Lack of body armour for US troops...

14) Failure to include Louisiana's coastal parishes in state of emergency plan...

15) Tax cuts for the wealthy...

16) Losing focus on Afghanistan...

17) Limiting stem cell research...

18) Appointment and backing of Alberto Gonzales...

19) Awarding lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts to Halliburton...

20) Warrantless Wiretapping...

Shortly after 9/11, President Bush authorised the warrantless wiretapping of certain telephone calls for the sake of national security. Eavesdropping would often top most Presidents' list of reprehensible acts but Mr Bush, supported by Congress, contended that it helped keep America safe.

[Demeter]

1. My Selections for 7 Most Horrible Things

1. George Walker "Two Shoes" Bush
2. Dick "Angler" Cheney
3. Condoleeza Rice
4. Ashcroft
5. Gonzales
6. Muckasey
7. Roberts


I could go on, listing Agencies and Departments.

[ProSense]

2. Americans think history will judge Bush harshly

Americans think history will judge Bush harshly:

More than half, 53 percent, say history will be cruel to the president, while 30 percent say history will be kind, according to the final Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Corporation poll of the 43rd president’s tenure.

Despite an uptick in the last couple of months, Bush will leave office near the nadir of his sagging popularity, with 34 percent of Americans approving of his job performance and 58 percent disapproving. Bush bottomed out in early October 2008, when his favorability rating dropped to 25 percent.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted Jan. 9 through Jan. 12 among 1,007 adults showed Bush equaling the lowest approval rating of his two terms; in that survey, just 27 percent said they approved of the job the president is doing, while 67 percent said they disapproved. That poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.

The Fox News poll showed Americans are pessimistic about the outgoing administration just as they have high hopes for President-elect Obama. More than three in four voters, including a surprisingly high 55 percent of Republicans, have a favorable impression of the incoming president and 77 percent of voters are optimistic about the next decade in the United States, with just 21 percent admitting to being pessimistic.

Poll Finds Disapproval of Bush Unwavering :

President Bush prepares to leave office with no evidence that public opinion toward him is softening during his final days in power, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

When asked about Mr. Bush’s performance over the last eight years, 22 percent of respondents said they approved. That matched Mr. Bush’s job-approval rating for much of last fall, the lowest of his presidency. In the current poll, 73 percent disapproved of his performance over the course of his two terms.

Disapproval cut across party lines, with Democrats, independents and even 34 percent of Republicans critical of Mr. Bush’s performance.

In contrast, Mr. Bush’s most recent predecessors left office with approval ratings ranging from 68 percent, for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to 44 percent, for Jimmy Carter. Mr. Bush’s father left with 54 percent.

When asked to assess Mr. Bush’s presidency more precisely, just 17 percent of those surveyed rated it very good or good, while 83 percent said it had been average or poor. Fifty-nine percent of Americans regarded Mr. Clinton’s presidency as very good or good when he left office, and 40 percent viewed the presidency of the elder Mr. Bush the same way.

[oasis]

3. kick

[AlinPA]

4. Abu Ghraib is near the top of the list. When he ordered it and was caught, the entire

Muslim world turned against the U.S.