Post #252 History, Pt. III

I got some comments covering the past 50 years of Presidents from an e-pal that he picked up on a blog somewhere and wanted my opinion -- so: First, interesting -- a good starting point, but I thought the commentator played arm-chair psychiatrist too much -- I'm more interested in what each President did or did not do in office. This is Pt. III. My additional responses and additions... in [brackets]....

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CLINTON - Arguably the most intelligent and thoughtful President ever to hold office, Bill Clinton's poor judgement doomed his time in office from the outset. Initially optimistic and enthusiastic supporters had great expectations - the town hall meetings conducted between Election and Inaugural Days were invigorating. The performance, afterward, was a massive letdown.

Clinton promised a major energy policy initiative - and failed to follow through. he promised a major urban revitalization program, a major effort with education, health care and numerous other policies, and failed to deliver. Instead, Clinton wasted his initial political capital with the "Don't Ask, don't Tell" policy, activating opposition from all sides. he then took an overblown and impossible health care project on and used up what residual goodwill he owned before the 1994 elections.

After that, the ultra-right campaign under Newt Gingrich to cripple Clinton went into full swing, and the battle was never let up - it continues to this day, now aimed at Obama. Clinton's bad judgment and personal dishonesty only made matters worse during the Lewinsky affair. Ultimately, Clinton did achieve more than many today admit, but the taint of his failures follows him like a bad smell.

[;O -- A good summary. But I give Gingrich more credit for the balanced budgets than the writer probably does -- 50/50, but Clinton showed his political mastery by blaming Gingrich for the government shutdown. That should doom Gingrich's chances in 2012. Who wants a President who'll shut down the government?]

BUSH II - No President has ever done a worse job in office, damaged the nation's international standing more, or lied and manipulated the country more than George W. Bush. He led the country into the Iraq war on a platform of lies...

[Well, the "lies" were as a result of incompetence -- peeps in his own government were warning him about his overheated rhetoric concerning WMD in Iraq, but he was too lazy to reach out for contrary opinions -- instead of evil, but that is a distinction that doesn't need to be made. Ask the over 4000 who died for Bush's lies if that distinction is important. A lie is lie.]

... for reasons that were never disclosed to the nation.

[I doubt if Bush knows why.]

He abandoned the more important war in Afghanistan, which in its early successes had had a chance of being completed well and effectively before Bush's diversion allowed Al Quaeda and the Taliban to regroup and damaged irretrievably the faith of Afghanis in American commitment to the country.

[That is a good summary of our adventure in Afghanistan. Bush lost that war. Tho the war initially was justified, once we lost -- let Bin Laden escape, what is our justification for staying?]

Bush attempted to buy votes in 2001 with his ill-advised "rebates." His tax policies increased burdens on the middle class. His abandonment of environmental regulations wrought physical ruin and death across the nation. His absolute incompetence in office was evident long before the horrendous crisis after Hurrican Katrina.

[I had assumed that Bush was a decent guy but was being steamrolled by the darker influences in his Administration. But Hurricane Katrina showed that Bush just did not care. Nero fiddled while Rome burned -- where was Bush while New Orleans drowned? He was strumming his guitar on stage at a Republican fundraiser in San Diego.]

His insouciant urging of the nation to run up massive mounds of debt, coupled with utter lack of regulatory oversight of the financial industry (among others) culminated in global economic crisis. He manipulated national elections in 2000 and 2004 and is arguably the only President since Rutherford B. Hayes to hold office in spite of truly losing the election.

[The 2004 campaign was full of lies and smears and fear-mongering -- ya know, the usual stuff. I have no problem with 2004 -- we got what we deserved.]

[However, Bush was an illegitimate President during his first term. Not because he lost the popular vote nation-wide and not because Florida's electoral votes were in dispute but Bush was an illegitimate President during his first term because he was appointed by the Supreme Court instead of following the law -- ironically, the law was in Bush's favor.]