Be honest: The successes of GWB

[DetlefK]

I'm about to lay a difficult task on you. Let's see if anyone can do it.

Name three domestic and three foreign-policy successes the Bush presidency has so far achieved.

And please no ironic answers like "He shredded the constitution and made rich people richer. Yuk, yuk."
No! Let's stay away from partisan rhetoric. Let's try to find all the good things GWB's policy has done to ordinary people, in the US and abroad.

Peace? Security? Social security? Economy? Health-care? Education? Image of the US? Environmental protection? Who can list some things? (Come on people! There gotta be something good somewhere on this planet.)

[Happyhippychick]

1. I'll name one

He attended the gold medal award ceremony for the Dali Lama.

That's literally the only thing I can think of.

[Bucky]

63. His two worthy quotes: "Soft bigoty of low expectations" and "Islam is a religion of peace"

The second quote, along with a couple of other cautionary statements he issued following 9/11 almost certainly saved dozens of lives in this country. While there were a few hate crimes in late 2001 directed against Muslims, there was nowhere near the level of hatred and violence we saw in 1990 when his Poppy started preaching hatred toward Saddam and Iraq.

Now there was still some pretty evil shit that went on, with dozens of innocent Muslims getting rounded up and in some cases shipped off and tortured overseas. But these were official acts carried out by government agencies. Broad sections of the American populace never bought into the hatred. Bush's rhetoric has a lot to do with that.

The Karen Hughes line about the "soft bigoty of low expectations" is pure marketing, of course, and masks an otherwise irresponsible policy. But it's a worthy sentiment and can be used in the years to come to slap around Republicans who don't live up to the lofty goals their own sock-monkey president squawked about. In the long run, it might even help us overcome the hard bigotry of underfunded schools.

[blogslut]

2. My mind is drawing a blank

I'm just like my president!

[marmar]

3. Self-Delete

....

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. 1) National Do-not-call list. 2) ... >

...I'm sorry, I can't think of anything else.

[yardwork]

47. Bush didn't do that - that was the Democratic Congress.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

68. This was done in 2003.

[GOTV]

69. That's all I could think of as well n/t

[whoneedstickets]

5. Gee a guy with 31 posts shilling for GWB...

..BYE

[Sal Minella]

6. Searching for ways to turn lead into gold would be a more productive use of one's time, imo. nt

[Richard Steele]

7. Hmmm...

:popcorn:

[onehandle]

8. He signed the "Do Not Call Implementation Act"

Somebody didn't bribe the GOP enough.

That's all I can think of.

He took insurance away from poor, sick kids. Does that count?

[magellan]

71. Do Not Call seems good on the surface, but it's crap

It would have been much better if it were opt-in ("I like being cold-called at all hours!") instead of opt-out...and if you didn't have to update it yearly.

[gatorboy]

9. What's on your list?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

10. Not a goddamn thing.

Deal with it.

[Richardo]

12. It's a legitimate question.

Work your brain a little.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Maybe So

But, a legitimate question needs to be asked legitimately. This was a drive-by posting apropos of nothing.
The Professor

[Richardo]

11. National No-Call List; Declaration of Darfur Genocide

(not that he's DOING anything about Darfur)

That's all I got.

[madinmaryland]

13. He said he was going to get Osama Dead or Alive and those who

perpetrated 9/11.

Oh well.

[Done]

14. But he has made rich people richer, and that is success

...for him. Even if you look at the failure of Iraq, the war has been a great success for him...for his priorities...for his agenda...for his buddies.

Do you expect him to pursue the agenda of someone else?

Bush is all about money, and like others who are all about money Bush doesn't see global warming as a threat since he doesn't want to see global warming as a threat since it could hurt his bottom line and the bottom line of his buddies. Since he does not see global warming as a threat it is unrealistic to expect him to do anything about global warming. He has pursued his agenda, and he has been very successful. This is why he continues to see himself as a great success, because in his eyes he is.

[Bandit]

15. According to the rules here you need to give us your list as well.

Name them....

[DetlefK]

45. Maybe...

Maybe if his Israel-Palestina-conference would work, that would give him credit.
That's it for me. Can't remember any others.

[VP505]

16. He has done a really

good job of cutting through all the Republican rhetoric to expose what Republican Values REALLY mean and reinforce why I was correct in thinking that I should NEVER,NEVER vote for Republican for ANYTHING.

[WinkyDink]

18. Are you crazy? NOTHING, is your answer. ZEEEE-ro.

[redqueen]

19. What's the point?

Seriously... why?

[dmallind]

23. Actually I like the question

Nobody but nobody is a caricature with no redeeming benefit, and an inability to see good in the bad is a sign of close minded demagoguery that should never be countenanced by anyone who claims to be progressive or even rational. Bush is an incompetent arrogant dolt who could not president his way out of a wet paper bag, but that does not mean there is absolutely nothing he has ever done which is not 100% harmful and evil. Such cartoonish exaggerations say more about the exaggerator than their target. Hitler liked dogs. Stalin and Manson had great personal charisma. The Catholic church sponsored some of the greatest art produced in human history. If we can find such tidbits about real monsters such as these, we should be able to prove our rationality by looking for the same in a dilettante of evil like Bush.

[redqueen]

26. Sounds like a waste of time to me...

someone already mentioned the Do Not Call thing... that's all I can think of.

RE: liking dogs, etc... the OP asked about successes... not "what are some nice things about George Bush as a person".

[dmallind]

Fair point on examples

I wanted to make sure I did not fall porey to Godwin's law but you could point to political successes for Hitler and Stalin etc too. Specific benefit does not negate overall harm, but neither is the reverse true.

But wasn't the drug benefit helpful to some? Did a chastened Qadaffi not help at all? Again nobody is exclusively bad/evil/failure or good/beneficent/successful.

[redqueen]

32. The drug benefit was helpful to big pharma, sure.

And those lucky enough not to hit the "donut".

[dmallind]

34. Again you apply different criteria

Did it not provide more coverage than was there before?

[redqueen]

36. Yes... but...

I have to wonder which constituency came out ahead.

Those who saved some money, or big pharma.

Even though it did some good... I'm not prepared without that information to decide whether it is "good" on balance.

[dmallind]

39. which IS the difference in criteria

To me good is good. If you rescue a couple of puppy dogs and murder ten of your neighbors because they were unkind to those puppy dogs, you are on the whole a nasty person who was harmful to society, but you still helped puppy dogs. Such is Bush on a political scale.

[yardwork]

48. The Do Not Call thing was not Bush's initiative. It was a Democratic Congress's bill.

[Richardo]

61. He signed it.

That counts.

[Richardo]

28. Well said.

Except for the gratuitous Catholic = monster reference. Don't think you can really single out one faith for that label; if that's your inclination.

[dmallind]

33. Also a fair point

But I singled them out because of their undeniable patronage of great art. They happened to be the dominant church when Christianity was going through its fire and swordpoint phase though, so I think it's fair to label them as being more monstrous than most from a historical perspective, although admittedly there's nothing particular to Catholicism beyond historical accident that makes them more monstrous than any other denomination.

[Richardo]

35. I'll buy that.

:patriot:

[Richardo]

24. I think it enhances one's position to concede some successes for the other side

It shows that the views held are not just the knee-jerk hate reactions that the RW is always claiming they are. Which marginalizes the opinions as irrational or merely reflexive.

[redqueen]

29. No matter how many prove that BS wrong,

the spew-slingers will still say otherwise, so... I still think it's a waste of time.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. he managed to get the Bin Ladins out of the USA re 9/11 in one piece?

[dmallind]

21. OK I'll try

Remember though that I value benefit achieved, and do not see lack of perfection as harm inflicted.

Therefore to me the insanely complicated and woefully orchestrated, pharma-propping Medicare drug benefit did get more people more affordable drug coverage than they had before it. So it's a plus. It wasn't a great bill or even a good one, but it was a bill that did some good.

National do not call list was a nice thing to almost everyone not in telemarketing.

Qadaffi did start acting less nutso when he saw what happened to Iraq. Again - not a good thing overall by any stretch, but a bad thing that achieved some good.


I think that's all I can recall.

[Greyhound]

22. His Presidency has been successful on a scale that they didn't even dream of

when they nominated the asshole. His administration has accomplished every one of the goals they set out to, and they did it all with the full cooperation of the Democratic Party "leadership". Meanwhile, the sheeple sat on their overstuffed asses in their overstuffed, over sized, easy chairs and shopped on line and pretended it wasn't happening.

Congratulations.

[leftofthedial]

25. zip

nada

zilch

[JBoy]

27. He made my Canadian dollars worth more in the US

Thanks for that, George!

I'm going to Disneyland!

[MrScorpio]

30. He made the French look good

And on a personal level, he finally disproved the myth of white superiority

[Richardo]

38. Ha!

:rofl:

[lame54]

31. Bush's successes in his own words

[Occam Bandage]

37. I looked at RW lists of his accomplishments.

I think you're quite possibly being dishonest in your intent, but I did indeed decide to look at a RW site listing Bush's accomplishments. I found only one that was not either a lie nor was an atrocious, America-harming scheme.

Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child.

That's it.

[Johonny]

52. I think the problem with things like this is

The cost of higher education sky rocketed during his term as president. Particularly for many state schools. So a small increase in Education IRA's really didn't do anything to make higher education affordable. Yet he did literally have the money to give every American child that wanted higher education, a free 4 year scholarship. Instead he spent all that money and more in Tax cuts to the rich, Iraq,... That's why the list is really impossible to make. Every little positive thing he did was really a Token program that has no long term ability to solve any problem facing the US in 2000. Basically he will leave office with America facing the exact same major long term problems (plus the additional ones Bush has created) as the country faced in 2000, but with the country no longer having the economic power to address them due to his economic policies. There's a reason he is the worst president ever.

[smalll]

40. Even here at DU, Bush and his administration have made "surge" a favorite word -

Obamans, Hillarites, Bidentians, everyone seems to use it when their candidate gets some good news. It's definitely replaced "momentum" or "big mo."

[CT_Progressive]

41. He exposed vulnerabilities in our voting systems and presidential powers.

This will result in a Democratic Congress and President (in 2008) which will fix these vulnerabilities.

[redqueen]

44. Oh if only...

there's been so little done about those flawed voting systems...

[flying rabbit]

42. He caught a really big fish.

Ask him- He'll tell you about it.

[regularguy]

43. I believe he met his main goal of a massive

transfer of wealth to the rich of the sort never before seen. Now *I* think this is very bad, but that's me.

[HughBeaumont]

46. Nada Gawd A-m'd Thing.

Even the "Do Not Call" list has loopholes which corporations can easily get around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Do_Not_Call_Registry

[Javaman]

49. Why do I think this thread is a set up?

who give a fuck what "successes" if any moron* has theoretically achieved, the guy* fucked our nation hard and for the next several generations. any "successes" are temporary to the very real long term damage he* has committed against this nation and the constitution.

Total bullshit thread.

low poster from "germany" trolling for ammo to fire back at us.

don't give him any rope.

[DetlefK]

53. You think I'm a Bushie?

I can guarantee you, I'm not. (He gives me creeps, when I watch his speeches on CNN. His grammar is so bad, I have to switch the channel, before I puke.)
I'm a 25 year old student from germany and international politics is one of my hobbies. If you you don't believe me, I could yell at you in 4 different german dialects. :D :D :D

I made this thread, because I really wanted to know, what ordinary americans think about GWB. I read Buzzflash and democraticunderground. I watch Dailyshow-clips on comedycentral.com, but I want to be sure I don't get biased infos from angry authors and caricatures.

Honestly, I don't recall (can I say that?) any news I've heard, that said: "We should applaud George W. Bush for his outstanding performance in negotiations or something." And that's quite astonishing to me. The german parties don't like each other either, but they don't bash each other as vigorously as it seems common in the US.

So I thought, as you get news from the US all day long, maybe you found any positive news about GWB?
I just can't believe, the head of one of the most important nations on earth is such a looser.
(Where the f**k does his 30% approval rating come from? Don't these people care about their money, their health or their children?)


EDIT: http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/the_presidency_in_the_year

[Javaman]

54. Okay :)

no probs.

the only "positive" spin comes from the networks. And basically everyone over here that has a clue, pays them no attention.

The real reporting is on the net.

And far as I'm concerned. I honestly, can't think of a single thing that he* has done that could be looked upon in a positive light.

The one thing I have found about every "program", "law" or "bill" he* proposes, there is always something amiss in the details.

If one was to take everything he* says by surface value, one would believe that he* is actually doing some good.

But...

Since most Americans really don't read any longer or at least hadn't a few years ago, he* appeared to them as being good and honest.

However, that said, because his* actions and words did not match the results, people here started to become suspicious and started little by little, paying attention. In other words, they began to read and get the read story off of the internet.

And lo and behold, the people here began to see that he* may paint a rosy picture, but in reality, he* really doesn't care about us at all and all the tax breaks, all the plumb jobs, all the money is going to his* rich buddies and largely cutting out the middle and poorer classes of American society.

So in a nutshell, moron* (I honestly can't even say his name I'm so angry), has sold the American public a bill of goods based upon profits for his* rich friends.

A majority of American now accept this as fact. However, our congress still refuses to hold him accountable and as a result the American public feels abandoned by it's government.

Least to say, things are not very good here right now. And with the growing recession, it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets better. (if ever).

I hope that gives you some insight.

sorry for accusing you of being a troll. :)

Cheers.

[Lilith Velkor]

60. You sure sound like one

The tipoff is that you characterize Bush's critics as "biased and angry" as if it is an unreasonable reaction to a President who MURDERED A MILLION INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR A LIE.

You also pretend not to know that his party has spread propaganda that it's patriotic to denounce half of your own countrymen as traitors. If you have such a hard time believing the head of an important nation can be a total nutcase, ask your grandparents about Hitler sometime.

Bloody hell, I thought Europeans weren't as ignorant as we are. Guess it takes all kinds.

[BurtWorm]

72. The GOP stole the WH because they knew Americans wouldn't elect such a loser.

They stole it twice. The GOP is the worst thing that ever happened to the US. They've nearly killed this country.

[yardwork]

50. He set aside some national park land underwater off Hawaii

or something like that. I'm sure it was payback for some nefarious deal, and it doesn't make up for what he's done to the global environment, but it was a good thing, all by itself.

[book_worm]

51. He once managed to walk to a podium without slipping.

[rAVES]

55. hmm... set the conservative movement back a couple of decades..

[blondeatlast]

56. You start. Seriously, I hate when people post stuff like this without adding their own opinion. nt

[undeterred]

57. Best Recruiter Al Quaeda has ever had.

[warren pease]

58. Made the Nixon era look like the golden age of American politics. n/t

[blondeatlast]

59. Best response to this thread. nt

[porphyrian]

62. Why? Fuck that, let the piece of shit traitor come up with his own successes. -n/t

[Marr]

64. Frankly, his administration has been one long stream of successes.

It's just that Mr. Bush's concept of "us" does not include about 98% of the country.

From the economy to foreign policy to New Orleans land deals, he's come through for *his* people again and again. You are not one of his people. Neither is the vast majority of his supporters, though they'll never understand that their dear leader was *trying* to make their lives harder all along.

[blondeatlast]

65. I've come to appreciate the sartorial delicacy of Nancy Reagan.

Beyond that--I got nuttin'.

[Bucky]

66. He unified all of the once-cannibalizing sects of Islamic fundamntalists

As Napolean once said, "Unite and conquer"!

[devilgrrl]

67. Let's hear your list of "successes" first

:popcorn:

[DetlefK]

70. ok

1. He revealed some loopholes in the US-american democracy, that need to be closed.

2. He will become the historical example of where mass hysteria could lead to.
His example will keep future politicians from daring to repeat his shit. (How many republican candidates mentioned GWB during their speeches?)

3. The fallout of the reign of this wannabe-dictator will guarantee, that it will take at least several decades, before anybody can again violate democracy in such a extreme manner.

4. Maybe the Annapolis-conference will indeed lead to some results.

5. His aggressive foreign policy lead to a rift in US-EU-relations, for a short period of time. Maybe this will force the EU to start speaking with one voice and to accept it's responsibilities as an economic and diplomatic global player.

6. Maybe his support for Pervez Musharaff prevented an islamic revolution in Pakistan.

7. He revealed, what happens if you elect a "guy you could have a beer with" to such an important job. Maybe people will realize that the "meh, I don't like his appearance, but he knows how to do his job"-guy would be a better choice.

8. Maybe the next generation will have a bigger interest in politics and keep an eye on their government.