WORST PRESIDENT EVER

Is there anyone who’s not happy it’s the end of the Bush presidency? The only thing George was kind of good at was spinning the truth (a.k.a. lying). Now that reality can’t rain on his parade any more he has only history, which is a little more malleable, to contend with, and he’s already trying to spin that. It’s kind of sad to see him up there as the only person trying to pretend he was a good president, but with the passing of time, who knows, there might be some others. As usual his words are at an oblique angle to reality and I think it’s up to me and every other person who can bear witness to say that GEORGE W. BUSH WAS AN AWFUL PRESIDENT.

He claims that even his harshest critics (I’d be proud to be called that – I didn’t even like him when 90 percent of America did) will have to admit that he didn’t shirk from making the hard decisions. What a crock! Every president has to make decisions, that’s what the job is about, the question is were they the right ones. Invading Iraq was not a hard choice it was merely a stupid folly, one that was in the cards even before 9/11. As I’ve said before, even if we’re able to get out of there with any grace, the goals set before the invasion, either the bogus ones of the elimination of WMD’s and some kind of revenge for 9/11 or the semi-real one of creating a democratic, secular, capitalistic beacon of tolerance and hope in the Mideast have not or cannot be met and the most obvious result has been the growth of the power of Iran, which is something nobody wanted, not to mention the unnecessary slaughter of soldiers and civilians which doesn’t seem to bother George and company at all.

Another pathetic justification that you’ll actually hear from bonehead Quislings like Dennis Miller is that there hasn’t been a terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. To me that doesn’t show the fantastic vigilance of the Bush crowd – why should they be any better at that than they are at any other form of governance? – but rather the weakness of the threat itself. The Islamic terrorists who Bush has so signally failed to get "dead or alive" seem to be more like Timothy McVeigh than Emperor Hirohito. The 9/11 crew took years to prepare and would have quite easily been spotted had Bush heeded any of the many warnings he’d been given. Some apologists darkly suggest that there are "things we don’t know," i.e. big attacks that have been foiled by Bush vigilance but can’t be disclosed for national security reasons. Baloney! Any administration that would out a functioning CIA agent (Valery Plame) for PR reasons wouldn’t hesitate for a second to trumpet their own successes, national security be damned.

No, the greatest contemporary threat to the Constitution and freedom in general has come from the Bush regime themselves, in their crusade for a one party system, a police state, torture, surveillance, executive autonomy and all the other fascist stuff they tried to ram up the butt of a hypnotized populace. But their failings were too obvious even to the "American Idol" audience. Bush is even trying to spin New Orleans as a federal triumph, but nobody (except maybe Sarah Palin) is that stupid.

Another thing to remember is that this administration has been the most consistently autocratic, right wing one on record, governed by the principles cobbled together by conservatives (mostly, it seems, on shouting "talk" shows). Governmental power both legal and financial was ceded to the rich and their corporations with unsurprisingly devastating results both for the economy and the populace at large. No other president has seen such dramatic failures in both foreign and domestic policy. Great job, George! At least you made your father’s administration look a little better in contrast. But in the end the lessons of the Bush regime are straight from Herodotus – hubris and pride lead to the ruination of great powers led by vain, shallow men. It’s a story told time and again by history, and the one that, despite all his spinning, will cling to George.