G. W. BUSH: THE MAN AND THE MYTH

I’ve Tried To Stay Away From Politics. Politics is an integral part of our lives. Perhaps it shouldn’t be but it is. I know there are many readers who will disagree with my view point on a lot of things and what I am about to write about will be the most controversial post I have made. I am no great fan of any government official and George W. Bush made his share of mistakes while he was in office. Despite the fact that he won two elections, he ended up being one of our most unpopular presidents. I can agree with many of those who criticized some of his policy decisions but there is little doubt in my mind that many of these critics carried things too far, to the detriment of our country. Here are some of the criticisms I disagree with.

George Bush Is An Intellectual Lightweight. I wonder how many intellectual lightweights got an undergraduate degree from Yale with a Harvard MBA. Granted, family connections could have got him in to these institutions but, once admitted, he had to face liberal professors who probably resented his family connections. Many of these would have been more than happy to give him failing grades and end his academic career. He also learned to fly jet airplanes. Most people on the low end of the intelligence scale would probably have washed out as a pilot. People often mistake poor communication skills for lack of intelligence. I believe this was the case with George Bush. The bottom line is that it takes considerable effort and data analysis to assess the intelligence of an individual. None of us has sufficient data to judge the intelligence of the President.

George Bush Stole The First Election. Take your choice. Is he stupid or is he smart enough to engineer the greatest election fraud in the nation’s history? There is no creditable evidence that the Florida recounts would have resulted in a victory for his opponent. I agree that there were many errors in the Florida voting process. Some would have given him more votes and others would have given him less, but if his detractors had their way, they would still be holding ballots up to the light looking for hanging chads. One of the most important factors here is the fact that several media sources paid for more thorough recounts and Bush won all of them. Others make much of his loss in the popular vote. That is a dead issue. For the past 200 years we have used electoral votes to select our presidents. Until the constitution is amended, the popular vote means very little in the election process.

George Bush Turned Bill Clinton’s Surplus Into A Deficit. Certainly, the surplus we enjoyed when Clinton was president turned into a deficit. When you give Clinton all the credit for the surplus and Bush all the blame for a deficit, you are giving both men responsibility for economic factors that were beyond their control. Clinton benefited from reduced tensions that resulted in dissolution of the Soviet bloc. He also benefited from Alan Greenspan’s keeping interest rates at unrealistic levels. Consumers went on a spending spree and the resulting boom brought huge revenues for the government. There was also the “wealth effect” that was a result of an optimistic investor population driving the price of tech stocks to levels totally unjustified by the ability of these companies to produce revenue. This bubble burst shortly before Bush took office and consumers who lost their shirts in the market became less active. Regarding George Bush, he was much too willing to spend borrowed money and he followed the spending practices of previous administrations who spent money whether the revenue was there or not. He also had to deal with the 9/11 disaster and was forced to increase defense budgets to protect us from further attacks. He accomplished this very well. While all of our elected officials are guilty of huge spending indiscretions, the president is but a small factor in whether we have budget deficits or surpluses.

Bush Lied. Thousands Died. This is a clever rhyme useful in campaign ads but it is not necessarily a fact. Much depends on your definition of a lie. I believe a lie is a statement that the speaker knows is contrary to the facts. I don’t believe that George Bush knew there were few WMDs in Iraq. Saddam Hussien had agreed to destroy all WMDs, provide evidence that he had done so, and allow inspectors to verify this compliance. He failed to do this and made himself subject to the consequences. The Bush Team aggressively sold reasons to justify the invasion and convinced a large majority of congress to agree with them. Colin Powell’s speech to the UN was a great example of a well constructed argument designed to convince other nations to join in the fight. It was not necessary to lie and the Bush Team was justified in using good salesmanship to convince others that their approach was valid. You can argue that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and I might agree with you. You can also argue that the salesmanship of the Bush team caused congress to reinforce this decision. But the hate speech that accuses Bush of lying is not supported by the facts.

These are The Main Reasons Why I Disagree With the Bush Haters. There are others; however, this post is too long already. The Bush haters have convinced me of one thing: I will criticize the practices of those who hold powerful government positions but I will not engage in personal attacks. Those who disagree with the points made in this post can feel free to contact me by fax, phone, or e-mail. I will post well constructed arguments on this site.