Why Bush's presidency was an Epic Fail
By David Neiwert Monday Dec 01, 2008 6:45am
Karen DeYoung at the WaPo had an interesting report on the change of style that Obama is bringing to the White House, particularly in how it approaches the military:
Obama has been careful to separate his criticism of Bush policy from his praise of the military's valor and performance, while Michelle Obama's public expressions of concern for military families have gone over well. But most important, according to several senior officers and civilian Pentagon officials who would speak about their incoming leader only on the condition of anonymity, is the expectation of renewed respect for the chain of command and greater realism about U.S. military goals and capabilities, which many found lacking during the Bush years.
"Open and serious debate versus ideological certitude will be a great relief to the military leaders," said retired Maj. Gen. William L. Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations. Senior officers are aware that few in their ranks voiced misgivings over the Iraq war, but they counter that they were not encouraged to do so by the Bush White House or the Pentagon under Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"The joke was that when you leave a meeting, everybody is supposed to drink the Kool-Aid," Nash said. "In the Bush administration, you had to drink the Kool-Aid before you got to go to the meeting."
There's no better way to lose a war than to have your on-the-ground decisions be forced through an ideological prism. And it was obvious even to outsiders that this was how Bush was conducting the Iraq war -- indeed, it was the decisive factor behind the very decision to invade in the first place. It's even more telling that the military minds involved saw that this was occurring too.
But in truth, this constitutes not merely the entire Bush approach to governance, but conservative governance as well. Thus -- to use one example out of many -- during Bush's tenure there was not a single economic problem that could not be solved by anything other than tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation of the financial sector.
Of course, we now realize that this was simply a prescription for gobbling PCBs after a diagnosis of cancer.
So when we hear conservatives tell themselves that the reason they lost this last election was their failure to adhere to "conservative principles," we know they're continuing to cling to the very reason they lost. Because such adherence inherently means that these "principles" -- that is, conservative dogma about how they believe the world ought to be, particularly the insistence that government itself is the problem, when the reality is that bad governance is the problem -- trump their ability to face realities on the ground.
From the outset, it's clear that reversing that approach is the most fundamental aspect of the "change" that Barack Obama intends to bring to the White House. And that is a very good sign indeed.
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Is Lincoln pretending to pick his nose (but his forefinger is secretly folded down)?
More and more veterans, active duty and even potential recruits see it. I think the Commanders will find an Administation that will actually listen to their recommendations and more than that, they will act upon them. This should be a real morale boost for the military that is for sure.
I would also add, that even though some may not like several people that Obama picked for his national security team those same people are not the people calling the shots either. If anything, those people not only will provide a wealth of foreign and military experience to Obama, they will also give the impression that an Obama Administration isn't a push over either.
It'll be just like when the wicked witch died in "The Wizard of Oz".
Bush is one of the members of the Lollipop guild or at least a flying monkey... but I like monkeys and I would hate to deregulate primates into the same category as Dubya.
That's why I don't bathe.
Like the French I use tons of cologne.
Someone got it all wrong. From Prescott Boosh and Henry Ford to today, two things have changed: Congress has been completely corrupted and the country is not the concern of the government.
It may have looked like ineptituide, but the treasury has been handed over to the rich, programs for the poor and middl-class are being cut. Social Security has been raided. the rich have been given tax cuts.
Boosh and the millionaire House and Senate have robbed this country and destroyed the constitution.
Failure? W is still trying to destroy financial and environmental protections and someone is calling him a failure.
He's succeeded in killing a million Iraqis and over 5000 americans and torturing hundreds. Used congress to invent his own court system. Changes legislation with 1000 signing statements. Has silenced the press.
and he'll go back to private life as part of a trillionaire family.
and the only thing he's ever had to face was brutal invective from harry reid and nancy Pelosi
Failure?
Really!!!!!!!!
The failure is as President of the United States, not just his family nor his friends.
he and chainey did what they wanted and got what they wanted.
the previous thread sums it up nicely
...on top of it all, the Bushes will get to have coffee with Osama the next time they visit the bin Laden family in one of their palaces in wherever-the-fuck-they-want-their-palace-to-be.
Nailed it!
What Jesus's executioner said.
The Bushevik regime was NOT an "epic fail."
It was a splendid success, if you once realize that they were installed to accomplish certain purposes, the main one of which was to reduce the powqer and authority of the "people" to a level at which they were helpless to resist the massive corpoRatization of the State...
Their JOB ("JOB ONE!"), from Day 1, was to undermine, diminish, reduce and subvert any and every institution, or instrument, by which the 'people' could repel the wholesale cooptation of their rights by the corpoRat interests utterly inimical to democratic self-governance.
To be honest, the Bushebitches were only the latest regime to attempt the feat. But, with the Shock Doctrine effect of the 9/11 attacks, they were unprecedentedly successful.
excellent point!
...the've never had to be accountable to anyone. NOBODY in their family has.
NOT NOBODY, NOT NO HOW!!
gotta video for THAT, ysbaddaden? please?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEplSHLZlYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa-4E8ZDj9s
appropriately enough, the Cowardly Lion's "Not Nobody Not No How" speech inserted between parts of "If I Were King of the Forest".
Don't know where you find them. :)
That goal was to become rich no matter what in the next four or eight years. That was the plan. Before 9/11 corporations were already lining up for the "rebuilding of Iraq". A "Yes" man. That why Bush was appointed President. He was the ideal man for the man for the job. It was simply a trade off. You make President to show Daddy I'm not a loser. You get anything you want. Enriching all his buddies that is. All the sound bytes,"God bless American, No child left behind, Abstinence, was just cover up for the real purpose. To ransack the National Treasury. And that they did pretty efficiently.
Successful as a corporate whore.
He never had to work as hard as a whore. Never.
As mentioned in the previous topic, for some it was 8 yrs of heaven.
But those are not the people that actually can put a president in place. When it comes down to the ballot box they themselves do not have enough votes so they have to convince millions of others to vote for their candidate. This is where the ideological song and dance comes in. I don't know many of the Repuke rabble (the base) that are great thinkers. They are quite happy to be told how to think. For some it's all about money, others, patriotism, American, mom and apple pie and Dems tax and spend. Never mind that it's only rhetoric and most mom's couldn't cook an apple pie if their life depended on it, most won't think beyond the words.
on exotic lending practices that contributed to the financial meltdown to his list of epic failures:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081201/ap_on_bi_...
WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.
When you come to think of it. He took money from the poor and gave it to the rich in the way of tax cuts. I would call that "a distribution of wealth, in reverse". A new sort of socialims? Sure for the rich people of course.
Maybe they'll make an Epic "comedy" about the last eight years.
Agreed. Part of Bush's agenda was the privatization agenda (e.g.; handing many government functions over to big business). On that score, Bush's presidency has been a grand success.
... but the core MO of the conservative movement:
They hate public institutions because they are accountable to the citizenry. So in order to undermine them, they seek public office, fuck things royally and then claim that public institutions don't work. Obviously they have their private "alternative" ready for us to swallow. Which has no accountability and gives them our money directly.
Basically it is the old "create the disease that fits your cure" approach.
In his new work entitled "the Predator State" James Galbraith describes the current US as a "corporate republic" and states that "In the corporate republic that presides over the Predator State, nothing is done for the common good. Indeed, the men in charge do not recognize that public purposes exist. For this reason, the concept of competence has no relevance: to be incompetent, you must at least be trying. But the men in charge are not trying: they have friends, and enemies, and as for the rest - we are the prey." Without saying so specifically Mr. Galbraith describes our leaders, both government and industry, as sociopaths. 'Epic Failure'? - perhaps in normal terms but to these folks with their personality disorders it will never be seen as such.
Now as far as the military leaders are concerned. How can any one of them claim to be militarily competent with all the courage of their convictions that implies? They should have resigned en-masse. The fact that they didn't speaks volumes.
The wars of the 20th centruy were ALL fought to determine which kind of fascism would prevail into the foreseeable future.
World Wat I brought down all the monarchies except Japan.
World War II ended the aspirations of both Nazism and Mussolinism.
The cold war killed off Sovietism.
Leaving only OUR own unique version: Market Fascism.
Iow: WE WON!!!!
Hope you've enjoyed the ride, cuz it ain't over yet: China's in the wings, figuring out how to offer its citizens prosperity instead of "liberty." I got a feeling they're gonna get it...
Progressives, liberals, those in the "great" middle class and below, plus almost every other actual human being are disgusted with the Bush Crime Family, what they stand for and what they've done to the planet. In that sense, they are "epic fail" as they did nothing to advance civilization and everything they could to enslave it (through military, economic, and political endeavors).
Neo-cons and reich-wing evangelicals, corporatists and conservatives, most especially those in the upper echelons, are pleased with the outcomes from Dubya's 2 terms. (And, thank Gawd there are term limits and the GWB didn't try sign them away.) King georgie succeeded beyond their wildest dreams by trashing the Constitution, enabling the shift of wealth to the corporate elites by the gazillions of dollars, and putting our nation on the threshold of collapse to pave the way for GHWB's New World Order.
In addition to utilizing the military in an appropriate fashion, Obama and his team, as well as our "representatives" in the House and Senate also need to focus on undoing a lot of the crap that was put into place by Bush and restoring civil rights and the rule of law. That should be #1 on the agenda, followed by correcting the econoomic situation and ending the stupid wars.
get back into power.
It is impossible for even the GOP to mess up so badly, that they would become unelectable. Yet another problem with the two-party system.
The only ones who will keep the Democrats from messing up too badly, is the watchful public.
Why do so many Obamaniacs sound like they've just drunk a different flavour Kool-Aid?
Hope is a narcotic.
It's what's left when all else is spent.
and as obama just said im prepared to waste your tax dollars and soldiers lives in afganistan, warmongering at its finest,you may depend on it, after we funnel thousands of troops into afganistan wich country will provide afgans the weapons to defeat us, where will the next joe wilson come from?
Tyree, you really have no clue to how successful Obama will be.
no l&l i only have your word for it! thats not good enough!
[I am deleting all responses to this comment thread. The topic of the post is "Why Bush's Presidency was an Epic Fail." Now I realize that Obama WAS mentioned in David's piece, but the main trust of the article is "Why Bush's presidency was an Epic Fail." It's not an invite to a flame fest. Please calm down-Sitemonitor]
But in your world that makes me an "Obamabot".
I prefer Spamalot.
while Obama's approach might lead to failure, his approach is not certain to fail like Bush's approach. And that is a huge improvement.
[Deleted. The topic of this thread is "Why Bush's Presidency was an Epic Fail," not "What Emmett Thinks of Obama's Appointments" That falls in the 'Open Thread' category-Sitemonitor]
Studing the History of 1992 to 2000 the plan was layed out when George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton. Americans were living great with a savings account and jobs/homes and didn't bother to question the actions of the Law Makers. The Bush/Cheney Crime Team found a weakness in all Americans GOD. Yes by using God and even so far as saying God wanted GW to be President, Americans didn't look or ask the candidates anything. Even when it was proven Bush stole the 2000 election people did nothing. 4 years of crimes, stealing, bring chaos and lies still Americans did nothing but blame Bill Clinton for the problems. after 8 years the bottom fell out and the US was distrusted around the World as when the recession set in Americans woke up. No Govenment can stand with so much corruption and lies. Many look to how Rome fell with the same combination. We the American people allowed these things to happen by not demanding our Law Makers do their job to represent us.
Now as we are at the bottom everyone is now demanding that Obama work for the people. Not one out cry about Bush in 8 years who caused this mess. Some call to God as they allowed Satan in the White House for 8 years never asking God a question.
Many remember who their parents told them you'll have to deal with the mess you made as you didn't pay attention and let's hope you learn from it. ( That's what we have to deal with as Adults )
This f*cker should be arrested and dragged before the ICC and charged with war crimes the minute he leaves office.
This is the Pentagon attempting to distance itself from this failed administration. William L. Nash is a Pentagon mouthpiece, a member of the Pentagon Military Analyst Program, that was used to sell the Invasion of Iraq via the mainstream media. I remember on Christmas Eve 2002 he appeared on NPR (interviewed by Susan Stamberg) to explain when it is appropriate to "Make War for Peace". His comments now are totally disingenuous. The Pentagon actively promoted this war and was complicit in policy development around it.
Is that the sound of 24/7 shredding I hear?
Failure? All W has left to do now is burn down the White house.
Is he STILL president????
Was he ever? Let's ask Cheney.
A lot of great comments here, but the bottom line is that these sociopathic GOP nutcases should never ever be allowed control over the white house or Congress "EVER" again. letting that happen is like putting the old crazy uncle you keep in the basement in charge of the household bills.
Believe it or not, Jr has actually had quite a few successes in his life, here is a short list;
• He successfully impregnated Laura
• He has succeeded in turning America into a rogue nation; he also succeeded in making us the laughing stock of the world.
• He has successfully enriched the lives of many, many really rich people
• He has successfully disenfranchised even more people.
• He has successfully polarized an entire nation if not the world.
• He has lied most effectivelly if not successfully.
• He has succeeded in causing the deaths of more Iraqis’ in five years than Saddam Hussein was able to pull off in a couple of decades.
• He has successfully worn out his welcome.
• He has successfully proven that government is best left in the hands of competent individuals.
• He has successfully earned the hatred of not just elements of the military, but the entire world.
• He has successfully declared a war on a verb.
• He has consistently succeeded at being a failure at all he does.
• He has successfully become a more successful criminal than Al Capone.
• Where many others have failed, he has succeeded in defeating the entire U.S Military.
• He succeeded in taking a budget surplus, and turning it into one of the biggest deficits in history all within his first term.
• He has succeeded in making cronyism and corruption into desirable traits in government officials.
• Although not smart enough to have thought it up himself, he has succeeded in making election theft look easy.
• He has successfully fooled some of the people all of the time.
• To paraphrase Rep. Rangel; he successfully shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all.
• He has successfully embarrassed not only himself, but the entire United States of America in every country he’s set foot in.
• He has succeeded in becoming the worst president of all time.
• He has successfully destroyed not only his own credibility, but also that of the Republican Party and of America in general.
• He has succeeded in spreading more fear and terror than Freddy Krueger in his prime.
• As Governor of Texas, he succeeded in executing more people than any other U.S Governor in any other state in the entire history of the United States.
Heck’uf’a job Bushie;
Mission Accomplished
Maybe Bush shouldn't be so worried about his "legacy". This'll be one for the history books :-(
The conservatives have confused government with religion, theology with ideology, to the point now that they just believe they are right. Not that they are right but they believe they are right and no matter what they do, as long as they ask god for forgivness, It's OK! If that is the case, it's a wonder the world is as sane as it is.
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