President Bush's Farewell Speech

As always, spoken from his heart. A true patriot that served this great Nation and its citizens well.

Enjoy your retirement, W. Hoist a cold one.

Nicely, said, though I'd have to diverge a bit on giving Bush credit for not "allowing" another terrorist attack. It's probably a topic for another thread, but it's also possible that we weren't attacked just because they didn't attack. The plots headed off you heard about from time to time were just wanna-be's. The real bad guys didn't attack because they didn't need to. They have us right where they want us: bogged down with all our military committed in the Middle East, where they're bleeding our military with a thousand pin pricks; ruining our nation by bankrupting us just like we bankrupted the Soviet Union with the arms race. If they really wanted to attack us in-country again, they'd do so. And when Obama starts pulling us out of Iraq is when they might do so.

Well, OK, I suppose I convinced myself that Bush might be given credit for preventing another attack by keeping us in Iraq. That's a pretty high price to pay.

I do agree that Bush acted out of honorable and patriotic intentions; I don't lay to his account all the rotten things that have happened to this country, to our freedoms and liberties, to our economy, and to our power and prestige during his term. I think that he was probably badly advised, too much of a worldly-wise naif, too trusting of his subordinates, and too inclined to see everthing through rose-colored glasses. I do think he's a decent human being, probably best qualified to go out drinking with his oil-drilling pals in Midland. Putting him into the Presidency was way above his level of competence. The Peter Principle on steroids. So Cheney and Rummy got what they wanted.

I wish him a pleasant retirement. Maybe he can get involved in something where he really helps somebody, like Jimmy Carter did. And Laura is a very nice lady. She might do something likewise.

Now we don't have George Bush to kick around any more (thank you Dick Nixon), and so let's just let him ride off into the sunset (thank you Ron Reagan).

I miss Reagan.

Me too. He caught a lot of flack while he was in office ... I remember all the jokes about napping during Cabinet meetings and so on, but I'd hazard a guess that he was the best President of the last half of the 20th Century. And all that napping might have been a management strategy......

I do think Laura Bush is a much nicer person than Nancy Reagan, though.

I hope not, since I consider Carter a traitor who should be arrested for treason for negotiating with known terror organizations. Only current diplomats are authorized to negotiate on behalf of the United States.

I think a case could be made that he was one of the best Presidents of the 20th Century as a whole, certainly in the Top 10 out of all of the U.S. Presidents.

I was referring to Habitat for Humanity, Dave.

I don't see Carter in that negative a light, and I do think his intentions were above board. And he did some good work monitoring elections. But he did step out of line, diplomatically speaking, trying to negotiate as a private citizen. Tut tut. Back to the peanut farm, Jimmy.

I think that's easier to make now at a distance. Perhaps President Bush will be judged more favorably at a remove of several decades, I don't know. Right now, our judgments are all still influenced by events being too recent to see them objectively.

I'm sure that the plan is to let everyone forget or pass on, and then rewrite history in Bush's favor. But of course, they'll probably refer to it as something other than rewriting, because only "bad guys" rewrite history.

I hope Bush gets tried and found guilty of war crimes. Maybe that will wipe that smirk off his face. HE IS A DISGRACE and an embarrassement. It will take us decades to live him down. that will probably be after we that live during this time are gone, and the "rewritten" history will have become fact. I hope his years of retirement are plagued with suffering and guilt for the 4500 Americans he killed and the hundreds of thousands of Iraquis he killed. He deserves no better, nor does Cheyney.

I don't think there ever is any "plan" to rewrite history. It's just that each generation develops their own view of past events, emphasizing some and deemphasing others, and usually intentionally so, in order to support their view. And so the way the events actually took place gets warped into a picture that's more suitable to the thinking of those subsequent generations. I'm sure everyone reading this thread has played that kid's game where the first person whispers something into the next person's ear; that person whispers it into the next person's ear; and so on down the line until when it comes out the end it's something totally different. And so it is with history. The only way to find out what really happened is to go back to the original records. Whatever is written today about what happened 100 years ago is probably so changed that if the original players would read it they'd think it was fiction.

Oh, I agree completely. That is exactly the reason I feel that when someone casts a critical eye on "recorded history" with an interest in finding out what actually happened, a charge of "trying to rewrite history" is such a silly thing.

And I suppose you're referring to a recent thread where I took exception to a couple of political scientists trying to rewrite the Reagan years. And in my post above, which you say you agree completely with, I said:
And since I was there, I am the original record and that's why I can say those two yahoos are rewriting history, and intentionally so, I suspect.

Uh, no! I didn't even have an opinion on the Reagan years

A case could also be made that he was one of the worst Presidents, particulary since it was his policies that started the economy on it's downward spiral.

The downward spiral actually started during Carter's Administration. There were good and bad aspects of Reagan's economic policies. His change in his policy helped pull the country out a recession in the early 1980's but may have helped contribute to the S&L crisis. No president is perfect, it's not humanly possible, bit overall I think history will look kindly upon the Reagan years as a whole. I guess it comes to which side of the fence you sit upon. There are those who would argue that some of FDR's New Deal policies have continued to hurt the country to this day. I'm not up to speed on what those may be, though.

I'll go out on a short limb and state that this current Congress is going to do more to harm to the economy long term than any recent sitting president.

Well said - I am glad you said it first though.... Unfortunately we can't delete History... For me, he is no better than any tyrant, or terrorist for that matter - he only has more money, means, and followers. IMO him and Cheney were 2 of the most dangerous people around; but since Iraqis' lives are worth sooooo much less than Amerinca lives, I don't think they will ever be punished. Boy, if Karma really exists those guys are up to an interesting retirement!

I don't need to rewrite History - I would need to quit my job and spend a LONG time cleaning up the mess he did it. I stand firm to my convictions, and I am sorry you feel the way you do. I guarantee you I am not the only one who thinks this way; actually there are many more today that agree with me than with you.
Anyway, Bush is out, and the war will be over soon. I hope that all the lives recklessly lost in Iraq are never forgotten. I hope this is not the history that will be re-written.

I agree that it's far too early to determine what his legacy will be. But, just as things can be seen in a different light after the passage of time, so can things that have been hidden be found.

So, the passage of time can cut both ways. We've only to wait and see.

That's why Obama won. People were tired of the lies over the last 8 years. They didn't want another 4.

Good for you - I also know many of them who have lost limbs, and don't even know what the heck they were doing there. And THEIR opinions are the ones that I care about; so........ I am done here, as I clearly do not care for your opinion... Sorry.

Now that would be funny - Bush running for a third term would give the comedians a lot of jokes. I don't recall saying McCain lied - Bush on the other hand...
As far as the military goes, unfortunately we all know that it is not how it works... These kids did not enlist to go to the war in Iraq. I would go as far as saying they would be proud to serve in Afghanistan; but Iraq is a whole other story.
But really - this is a cat loving site on that we all share our views!
Good night!

Don't think so. Obama won because he had unlimited funds and the media in his hip pocket. And to top it off, he ran against a very weak opposition candidate. Under the circumstances, it would have been amazing if he "hadn't" won.

Then the opposition should have run a stronger candidate

I probably would have voted for either Romney or Huckabee. I've seen a few episodes of Huckabee's show on Fox, he's great