Bush's presidency has failed because. . . You decide.

[saltpoint]

The Bush presidency is a significant failure in more than one domestic initiative or policy and quite comprehensively in foreign policy generally and Iraq specifically.

It's easy to blame him alone, but as with most human beings, ourselves included, personal or professional failures are usually more complex, more layered.

If we are appalled by Dubya's political posturing and machinations, can we also determine the human reasons why his administration appears to be so out of favor and doing so poorly in the public eye?

Below are nine possible explanations for the failure; choose from one of these if they match your view, or choose slot 10 if more than one of the first nine is the closer match.

Slot 10 can also be used for 'OTHER.' Your comments are welcome below.

TIA

- - - - -

The presidency of George W. Bush is a failure because:

[tuvor]

1. He's in power. He does what he wants.

How is that a failure?

[saltpoint]

3. Hi, tuvor. I guess he can argue that he is a 2-termer where his daddy

got whupped by Bill Clinton.

But I don't see any substantive initiatives coming out of this administration, unless you count the tax cuts, which are only really helpful to people who don't need tax cuts in the first place.

The Social Security (reform) initiative has been completely abandoned; the Patriot Act, while it passed the Congress and has been renewed, is already a flashpoint to this administration's legacy, and the Medicare reform initiative is widely opposed by career health professionals.

Teachers, for their part, are by no means on board for No Child Left Behind, especially when Bush left it unfunded. So much for commitment to reform.

His poll numbers are in the tank and colunnists now -- even conservative ones -- are openly abandoning him.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. All of the above.

[saltpoint]

4. Hi to you, Rabrrrrr. Haven't seen you for a while on DU and it's nice to

see you tonight.

"All of the Above" works for me too, at least in one degree or another. I can't help but think that a few of the graybeard GOP elders will arrange a private meeting and get a few sane people in the place to run the government for the next couple years.

As things are going now, I'm just not sure Dubya's going to be spiritually hale enough to meet the challenge. I think the failure can't be compartmentalized; I think it's across-the-board.

[rocktivity]

5. ...because it's not a presidency. It's a figureheaded monarchy

Like the Queen of England. His presence, and authority, are merely symbolic. He's a puppet willingly operated by his family's financial interests.

:headbang:
rocknation

[saltpoint]

6. A lot of people would agree, rocknation. Kevin Phillips, who used to

be an unflinching conservative, has written about just this thing. And well, too.

Thank you for your post. I have no trouble with the word 'monarchy' in a description of this president.

[Ecumenist]

7. A failed presidency because it's a bush presidency....

'Nuff said.:hangover:

[saltpoint]

10. Yes. The Bush name is under darker and darker shadows these days.

What is shocking and very disappointing is that as bad as the first George (H.W.) Bush was, this one is far worse, and almost -- almost -- makes Poppy look halfway effective.

But then I snap out of it and realize that they both were weak executives, and Junior is arguably the worst president this country has ever (not) elected.

[Rocknrule]

8. Because he didn't let Gore take his rightful place as president

[saltpoint]

14. True. Even perilously true for Bush, because I believe history holds

accountable people who cheat. A lot of my instructors mentioned Rutherford B. Hayes, but few dwelled on any accomplishments he might have made and focused instead on his stealing the election from Democrat Tilden.

And that sure rings true in the present case.

There's a good article about President Gore in the latest AMERICAN PROSPECT magazine if you're near a newsstand today, Rocknrule.

Thanks for your post & I agree with your point, too.

[Zookeeper]

9. All of the above. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

11. I'd Combine #1, #2, and #4

Silverspoon dumbass empty suit with money brokers pulling the strings. He is totally under the control of puppet masters.
The Professor

[saltpoint]

15. But how do you REALLY feel about the incumbent?!?!

Only kidding.

I found that I had to re-write and restrain the actual descriptions I first jotted down for the poll choices.

I think your combination is potent and would get somebody to an understanding of this guy swiftly and convincingly.

Appreciate it, ProfessorGAC.

[EFerrari]

12. That Felon isn't a president, he's a hijacker.

:)

[saltpoint]

16. And he's having one bad week after another, isn't he, since he tried

to hijack a government that in fact belonged to all of us and not just his rich fatcat friends and his morally bankrupt political party hacks.

Howdy, good person.

Always nice to hear from you on these boards.

[TayTay]

13. Because he has dangerously over-reached, as every tyrant

eventually does. This man genuinely thinks he was elected King and God's Own Representative on earth. The breathtaking arrogance that this Admin has shown is their undoing. They have a substituted smarmy sense of self-righteousness for competence and tried, time after time, to excuse their hideous inability to govern by claiming that people are 'out to get them.'

They will fall, as all tyrants eventually do, because they sought to overplay a weak hand. The quesiton is how much damage they will do as they slink from office.

[saltpoint]

18. Ok, TayTay. I insist that you drop the pretense of being merely an

insightful and brilliantly perceptive poster on DU and become instead a candidate for political office.

Your response here to the poll was among the very best-written posts on DU I've ever read, and god knows there've been some damn good ones.

Loud, sustained applause here at my house for ya, and more power to ya, too.

[meganmonkey]

17. I disagree with the whole premise that he 'failed'

He has gotten almost everything he wanted to get done for his family, cronies, and their business interests. Iraq is going the way he wanted, the economy is keeping the rich richer and the poor poorer...Granted, the people are suffering for it, and they don't 'approve' of him, but what does that matter? He practically has absolute power - he is brazenly breaking laws and the congress and people are sitting by and watching it happen :shrug:

[saltpoint]

19. He's been allowed free reign to date but I feel that that leniency and

unearned forgiveness is coming to a rapid end. I share your feeling that too many folks looked the other way for way too long.

His poll numbers are in the tank and his base has begun to question the piss-poor financial stewardship on one hand and the unethical assaults on sovereign nations on the other. The skyrocketing record debt added to the calamitous occupation in Iraq, not least including the cost of both, has trainwrecked any momentum Dubya had after his re-election, if he had that much to begin with, and if he even won.

The historians will decide better than we the living, etc. And it's my best guess that they'll regard him as a grossly underprepared and possibly unstable, certainly incompetent president. Lower than Harding, possibly right there with Nixon.

It's no small feat for Dubya to do so very badly as to make his daddy look halfway competent.

Joan Didion writes that "the ability to think for one's self depends on one's mastery of the language." I think Didion knows her way around the language well enough to use that as a gauge against this president's performance.

That's the basis of my assertion that his is a failed presidency.