God knows that I'm gonna get deeper into this thread than I should, but as you all know by now.... I'm not going to be able to help myself.

Right now, rying to decide whether Bush was a good president or not (overall) is futile and grossly nearsighted. We, as a country, have become so accustomed to instant gratifications, that if we don't see instant results in a given arena, it's instantly dubbed a failure. Was Iraq a mistake? Maybe... we won't be able to tell until we can see if democracy takes hold there in 5, 10, 20 years. If there is a lasting democracy in a country divided along Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish lines, that's a huge achievement for that region of the world. And no matter how you slice it, a deposed or dead S. Hussein is a good thing. Was the War on Terror mishandled? Maybe... we won't be able to tell until we gauge the level of terrorism both worldwide and domestically relative to levels of terrorism in the 90s, 80s, 70s, and so on. As it stands right now, terrorism in the 2000s occurs much less than it did in the past. Correlation is not causation obviously, but still... it's intriguing and worth looking at int he future.

Now, that said, there are a few things we can objectively criticize and laud Bush over.
Hurricane Katrina response: that could probably have been handled better, but at the same time, the local and state governments somehow avoided most of the shit thrown at government officials. Did Bush do himself a favor by seemingly taking the situation lightly (e.g., You're doing a heckuva job Brownie." Of course not.

Torture/Abu Gharib: Although IMO this sort of thing needs to be taken out on commanders, Bush did not do enough to speak out against it. Even McCain said that torture sucks. Whether or not Bush was at fault, he didn't do himself any favors by staying quiet.

AIDS Relief in Africa: Provided something like the most AIDS relief of any American president to Africa. Got a shitload of care centers and hospitals built. Unassailably a good thing.

Stem-cell research: Provided the most funding for stem-cell research (albeit not on unborn fetuses). Catches a bad rap on this one, especially since he's pledged more money here, even than Clinton.


I could go on and on, issue by issue, but it seems to me that the likes of Olbermann and company have an axe to grind, so that's what shows up on shows like his. Syd nailed it, Olbermann is a pompous douche who fancies himself Edward R. Murrow. Bush wasn't our best president, but he wasn't our worst, despite the fact that many Americans with either (1) short memories, or (2) no history book like to say.

SoldierHawk wrote:

I will say that his signing off with "good night and good luck" drives me batshit every time I hear it. Either come up with your own sign off, or stfu.

QFT Hawk. QFT.

UsaSatsui wrote:

And Americans look at this, and not only do we see nothing special about it, we take it for granted that this will happen.

That's because Democrats and Republicans, despite having varying opinions on a number of matters, generally both have the same goal when in office: maintain the US position in the world and keep Americans safe. Those two meta-goals usually mean that changing parties in the White House doesn't mean all that much change in the grand scheme of things. Either that or we're just bunrt out from hearing Obama's knob get waxed.