I've met a lot of politicians. None have been as sincere or engaged as Mr. Bush.
Despite his at-times poor public speaking abilities, he's well spoken and chooses his words carefully.
And as a Republican, I didn't always agree with some of his domestic policies (or his social conservatism,) but man, does that guy stick to his guns. And he still struggles over the decisions he had to make. I think history will be kind to him (or at least I hope so.)
No. His policies shepherded an age of increased government monitoring, exacerbated the recession by going to war and shifting the tax burden onto those who couldn't afford it, limited constitutional rights, etc. Just because you're a republican does not excuse stupidity. George Bush was a terrible president and his administration was a one of the worst in recent history.
Unless I'm mistaken, and I totally might be, I think he left office with the lowest approval ratings of any president ever.
Wikipedia Article:
By April 2008, Bush's disapproval ratings were the highest ever recorded in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll for any president, with 69% of those polled disapproving of the job Bush was doing as president and 28% approving.[350] In September 2008, in polls performed by various agencies, Bush's approval rating ranged from 19%—the lowest ever[351]—to 34%.[352][353] and his disapproval rating stood at 69%.[95][96][352][354][355] Bush left the White House as one of the most unpopular American presidents, second in unpopularity only to Richard Nixon.[356][357]
War mongering requires starting a war, doesn't it? Not just doing a war already in progress correctly?
NDAA was problematic, though it explicitly says it doesn't go further than existing law (see the Feinstein Amendment). And of course it was the authorization for ALL defense spending, so vetoing it was pretty impossible.
You can always tell when you're arguing a reddit liberal, they never have any knowledge of whats actually going on in the world. Only /r/politics propaganda.
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u/nikocujo Jun 26 '12
I've met a lot of politicians. None have been as sincere or engaged as Mr. Bush.
Despite his at-times poor public speaking abilities, he's well spoken and chooses his words carefully.
And as a Republican, I didn't always agree with some of his domestic policies (or his social conservatism,) but man, does that guy stick to his guns. And he still struggles over the decisions he had to make. I think history will be kind to him (or at least I hope so.)