Is GW Bush the worst president ever?

[RawAlex]

The history books usually refer to the major events of a presidency, and rate it based on the end results. Bush took over a country with a booming economy that was safe, at relative peace, with the NASDAQ at 5000+ and the Dow at 11,000 and everything was pretty much all right.

The last 8 years have been pretty much endless shit. While it can be argued that much of what happened wasn't specifically his fault, it happened and continued to happen under his watch.

Today, the NASDAQ is at 1649. The Dow is at 8451. Thousands of soliders have lost their lives and tens of thousands more have been injured fighting a foreign war, all over WMD that just were not there. The US is teetering between recession and depression, and risking losing it's super power position in the world, sliding back to third (or maybe fourth) behind the likes of China and Russia.

So yeah, when the history books are written, he will likely be the guy who mislead the US from feast to famine, from financial success to financial ruin, from super power to also ran. This will be the time in history where "everything changed for the worse".

[Hell Puppy]

Did any of you guys ever actually study History? Economics? Business?

Or are you just going based on what your spoon fed by the media in between TMZ and Entertainment Tonight?

Bush inherited the dot com bubble. The Dow and NASDAQ were loaded with way overvalued companies. Companies valued at billions upon billions of dollars when they hadn't yet made a buck, aren't cash flow positive and have no idea when they will be.

Is 9/11 Bush's fault somehow? Seems same group attacked the WTC in 1993, Clinton's watch. He also opted to NOT grab Bin Laden in 1998 when he had the opportunity. Remember the USS Cole was on his watch as well. The U.S. was under attack by Al Qaeda BEFORE Bush came to power.

And then there's the mortgage crisis, again, please try to keep up. The problem here is subprime mortgages and a housing price bubble. That started in the 90's as well. And it was the Democrats who repeatedly shot down reform while Bush was in the White House.

Again, I'm not a fan, I think both parties suck. I'm a Libertarian if anything. But I hate to see ignorance propogate.

[boobbucks]

How did he get elected? lol Or is that question opening up a big can of worms?

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Did any of you guys ever actually study History? Economics? Business?

Or are you just going based on what your spoon fed by the media in between TMZ and Entertainment Tonight?

Bush inherited the dot com bubble. The Dow and NASDAQ were loaded with way overvalued companies. Companies valued at billions upon billions of dollars when they hadn't yet made a buck, aren't cash flow positive and have no idea when they will be.

Is 9/11 Bush's fault somehow? Seems same group attacked the WTC in 1993, Clinton's watch. He also opted to NOT grab Bin Laden in 1998 when he had the opportunity. Remember the USS Cole was on his watch as well. The U.S. was under attack by Al Qaeda BEFORE Bush came to power.

And then there's the mortgage crisis, again, please try to keep up. The problem here is subprime mortgages and a housing price bubble. That started in the 90's as well. And it was the Democrats who repeatedly shot down reform while Bush was in the White House.

Again, I'm not a fan, I think both parties suck. I'm a Libertarian if anything. But I hate to see ignorance propogate.

Clinton inherited a trillon dollar debt. And balanced the budget within 8 years. Bush inherited a balanced budget and ...

I could do a dozen of those right back at ya, HP. My point is you're good at saying the bad things Bush inherited, but you're a) not mentioning the gold he got and turned to shit or b) the shit he got that he turned into megafuckingshit. So don't play ignorant yourself now.

Plus, Afganistan was retalitory for 9-11. Iraq was finishing up the clusterfuck Daddy Bush didn't end and making it into a bigger clusterfuck. And that was his only reason for that war; if you really believe it was for 9-11, then you're smoking something.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

Clinton inherited a trillon dollar debt. And balanced the budget within 8 years. Bush inherited a balanced budget and ...

I could do a dozen of those right back at ya, HP. My point is you're good at saying the bad things Bush inherited, but you're a) not mentioning the gold he got and turned to shit or b) the shit he got that he turned into megafuckingshit. So don't play ignorant yourself now.

Plus, Afganistan was retalitory for 9-11. Iraq was finishing up the clusterfuck Daddy Bush didn't end and making it into a bigger clusterfuck. And that was his only reason for that war; if you really believe it was for 9-11, then you're smoking something.

it's still all about the cycles.

i would contend that whoever was elected in 1992 was bound to have a good economic ride.

likewise, whoever was elected in 2000 was bound to inherit one hell of a shit sandwich economically.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

it's still all about the cycles.

i would contend that whoever was elected in 1992 was bound to have a good economic ride.

likewise, whoever was elected in 2000 was bound to inherit one hell of a shit sandwich economically.

No, sorry, not exactly true. If Clinton was a "tax and spend liberal" he would have taxed the crap out of that good economic ride until it died, and the poor people would be eating steak instead of bologna. Things were on the upswing, yes, but poor management or agressive moves would have killed it dead.

On the other side, Bush came into an almost perfect situation. He could have eased taxes slightly for everyone, and the economy would have continued on it's merry way. But the same people that brought you voodoo economics decides to screw the pooch, and in doing so, made America weaker than it had been. 9/11 blew a hole in the US economy, and Bush then let loose the dogs of war and they chewed the economy's feet out from under it.

It's all about choices. The economic conditions are NOT set in stone, they can aided or hindered by the administration. GWB has engaged the US into a number of costly wars (that are likely not even needed) which has turned the US from a prosperous nation to one bailing out it's banks and other financial institutions. Not bad for 8 years.

97 days. Can you guys get him to leave sooner?