George W Bush

It would not be hard to sum up the 2008 presidential debates in a few words:

Democratic nominee Sen. Barak Obama to Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, “Your George Bush!”

Sen. McCain to Sen. Obama, “No I’m not!”

“Yes you are!”

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are…NA NA NA NA NA!”

That’s about as cerebral as I remember it. Ah, George W Bush, member of every evil secret society that “exists”, the epitome of evil, the man who made hurricanes and thrust them at the poor blacks in New Orleans, the man who blew up the twin towers just for the heck of it, framed innocent Bin Laden, tried to conquer the middle east for cheap oil, and the man who single handedly deceived the entire world into believing that poor Sadaam Hussein was a bad guy, and that he actually had the weapons of mass destruction that he used on his own people. All this was done as simultaneously he was the most stupid, inarticulate man to hold high office in the history of the world. So which was it, was he the incarnate form of the Prince of Darkness? Many Republicans thought he was the man, in fact ati one time nearly the whole country thought he was, were all befogged by his evil powers or were we right, maybe he was “the man” after all. Let’s look back at some of the issues and see.

Issue #1 Immigration….not the man.  I disagree with those who say President Bush betrayed conservatives on this issue, he was consistent both as Governor of Texas and President, he was always in favor of a more lax policy and a guest worker program that was a code word for amnesty. We voted for him in spite of this because it wasn’t a key issue until during his second term when the Bush-McCain crowd tried to push through his unpopular program. Closing the border was never an emphasis of his.

Issue #2  economy…. THE MAN.  (Most of the time any way) President Bush inherited a recession that was complicated by the September 11^th attacks, but once his tax policy went into affect, economic activity increased and 52 weeks of job growth ensued. In fact unemployment reached record lows during this time. the housing bubble did aid Bush job growth and its bursting did hurt extensively and it is popular to blame Bush but we should remember that in 2003, long before the collapse, Pres Bush proposed a regulatory authority to reign in Freddie Mac and Fannie May, the big culprits in the sub prime crisis but was soundly rejected in his effort. Where Pres. Bush went wrong was in his 700 billion dollar bailout scheme which was loosely defined and as the President himself admitted,  “I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisors that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression.”  Free market principles should never be chunked aside; it’s never a good idea. For this reason and an overall failure to reduce the size of government Pres Bush’s overall economic legacy will likely not have the long term sticking power of Ronald Reagan’s but start to finish his economic policies were a success. Gas prices were the other killer of the Bush economy but it was he who proposed sweeping energy reform that would have likely alleviated most if not all of the gas crisis and put us on a true path of energy independence.

Issue #3 foreign policy… THE MAN ! I miss the day when we helped our allies and opposed our enemies. President Bush had a no nuanced straight forward approach to the world. Al-Quada attacked us and went from being a global terror to a desperate regional group desperately clinging to its last stronghold of power. Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban and supported our enemies now the Taliban is a rag tag insurgency trying to threaten the new Democratic government in Kabul. Sadaam, who did have chemical weapons and used them, is dead as are his sons and Iraq’s democracy will be extremely difficult to turn back in the near future. (Even though we did not discover the stockpiles of weapons, we did find the facilities to make them, the systems to deliver them and facilities where terrorists were being trained to use them so lets lay this myth to rest once and for all).  Gaddafi  was a non issue, and the Somali pirates were reluctant to attack an American flagged vessel as long as Bush was President. President Bush also gave Israel their best chance to defeat Hamas, though the previous Israeli administration was too timid to take full advantage. While some of us feel that the road map to peace made too much demand on Israel, they being the only rational party involved, there is no real doubt of where we would have stood if Israel was attacked. Likewise China would have been hard pressed to take aggressive action with Taiwan, even though President Bush continued a policy of engagement that allowed China to prop up there own economy with our money and debt.

Issue #4  defense….THE MAN!  Following the September 11^th, attacks President Bush reformed our intelligence agencies and put into action a plan to secure the nation. Gone was the Gorelick wall that prevented the sharing of information between agencies and a new series of tools were implemented in the form of the patriot act. None of these measures were perfect and I believe sun setting the patriot act was wise, I wish all governmental expansions had a sunset date, but over all the plan worked and compared to past wartime presidencies the infringement upon civil rights was a nonconcern. President Bush largely allowed the military to do its job, at times political correctness interfered with the rules of engagement, but in the end we won in Iraq and we can win in Afghanistan if our current President will let the generals make the strategic decisions. Let us also remember that it was President Bush’s policies that lead to finding Bin Laden. Let us also remember that it was never our policy to torture people,  what the Bush justice department did was to establish guidelines as to how far can you go before it is torture, any administration should have the same debate, even if it reaches different conclusions. Personally I think it was a debate better held behind closed doors. Why do we want our enemies to know what we will and won’t do?

Issue #5….tax and revenue…THE MAN!  When President Bush cut the tax rates and the economy grew, as it always does, tax revenue skyrocketed, as it always has.

Issue #6  spending and deficit…NOT THE MAN! Perhaps the greatest failing of the Bush Presidency was the failure to diminish and at times even encourage the government’s insatiable appetite for spending. The bailout and prescription drug plan are prime examples. While the Bush deficit was a relatively small percent of GDP and while the wars added to the deficit, the unbridled entitlement and social spending was the devouring beast that has grown exponentially and has now come to threaten our very existence. To Pres .Bush’s credit though he did attempt to reform social security though few in his own party had the guts to stand with him at that time.

Issue #7 judicial appointments….THE MAN!     Even though the Harriet Meyers nomination was suspect to some President Bush went a long way toward populating the benches with strong constructionist judges. Too bad McCain and his gang of 14 cut his legs out on some of the most important ones.

Issue #8  social (moral) issues….THE MAN!  Again not perfect, but Pres Bush did support life unfailingly, he stood against gays in the military and in defense of marriage as between a man and woman.

Issue #9 environment….NOT THE MAN! While the President avoided most of the radical environmentalist positions one of the many “bipartisan compromises” he agreed to, was the moronic and damnable rule that soon will outlaw incandescent light bulbs    ! Unforgivable!

Issue #10 education…NOT THE MAN! No child left behind was a good idea with noble goals but in the end it was too much government, too much spending, too much bureaucracy, and too much Ted Kennedy (who wrote the legislation)

President George W Bush was a social conservative and a foreign policy hawk, and when he was true to these concepts he really shined. He believed in American exceptionalism and in the moral superiority of freedom. He succeeded in making America stronger and more secure and until the Democrats took over congress more prosperous. He conducted himself with dignity and respected the office he held.

Unfortunately the concept of compassionate conservatism was really just more government. The idea that government should be smarter not smaller, is incorrect, government is not the solution to our problem too often it is the problem (as Reagan warned). As a recent presidential hopeful stated President Bush believed that we have no enemies in politics just opponents. His opponents never thought of him that way. I think George W Bush will  be remembered as a very good President perhaps a great one, he united the country after 9-11, my first memory is of him throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium or yelling in that blow horn, “the people who knocked down these towers will hear from us all soon!”  

In my opinion Bush was the right man for 2001.He is also the last in the lines of conservatives who can afford the idea that we all want to get to the same place we just have different ideas about how to get there. The liberals’ designs for our country are no better than the terrorists. The day of the new tone is over and it is time for a President who will fight the liberals with the same devotion that President Bush fought Al-Queda. 

until next time keep on the firing line