The Bush Legacy (Canadian editorial)

[KukriKhan]

What do you guys think?

Much like President Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression, Mr. Bush's main contribution to the crisis was his failure to recognize its dimensions until irreparable damage had been inflicted.

That one sentence about wraps it up, for me. Although it refers to the economic crisis, the bolded bit ('failure to recognize...') is what has characterized Mister Bush's administration.

Not a week has gone by in the past 7 years without Bush himself, or one of his hand-picked crew saying something along the lines of:

"Well, we never saw THAT coming - nobody did."

In his defense, I observe that he faced some pretty big 'THAT's; but his and his team's decision to re-invent the wheel when finally devising a strategy to (usually, too late) handle the latest crisis, impeded his/their ability to either foresee or handle the next one, or the next, or the next.

So, every day a new surprise. Every day a new cobbled-together response. Alway playing reactive defense, whilst mouthing as if on proactive offense. He never caught his breath and focused, it seemed to me.

He hasn't totally wrecked the place, but he has certainly dictated what the next guy has to work on for the next 2 years.

[Oleander Ardens]

Well while I surly don't rate myself too highly when it comes to predictions I fortunatly sold almost all my stocks in August 2007. Why? Because I had the sense to read Shiller's "Irrational Exuberance" and his column at the NYTimes, John Kenneth Galbraith's book about the crash 1929 some time before, read Marc Faber and read quite regularly the Business Section of the NYTimes. This crisis was predictable, but it took a clear and educated mind to draw the right conclusions, and doing so standing against the majority . No easy intellectual task, and clearly out of reach for Mr. Bush and his inner circle.

The summary is still too forgiving for almost 8 years of Bushism. It started with lies, abuse and incompetence, continued with lies, abuse, incompetence and war-mongering, and ended with lies, abuse, incompetence and no ability to handle one of the most serious economic crisis in 100 years. And the list is still incomplete.

[gaelic cowboy]

The Bush legacy is a non white president in the white house by next January. If Bush had not been such a monumental clown he might actually have done a few good things but he jumped at the chance to view things from a security standpoint and only a security standpoint hence his own base lost what seemed unstoppable power only 2 or 3 yrs ago.