I never wanted George W. Bush to fail. I honestly never did.
I would never wish such a comprehensive failure upon any President at any point. There's too much at stake domestically, and - especially these days - too much going on in the world for there to be too much room for error.
Yes, there are many initiatives proposed by the Bush administration that I'm glad did not come to fruition. I'm glad that Harriet Myers is not on the Supreme Court, for instance. I'm certainly glad that Social Security wasn't privatized (imagine the millions of seniors who would have lost literally everything they had when the stock market crashed). But hoping that these particular things, among others, would fail to become reality because of my own morality and political conviction is much, much different from hoping that the President himself would be a failure.
I realize that, for any president, there are two serious, innate issues regarding the position:
1. Nobody can really be ready to be President on day one. Or even year one, for that matter. Where would one begin to learn what needs to be known? There are so many issues one is expected to master in such a short amount of time that, even for a VP moving into the Oval Office like George H. W. Bush did after Reagan's second term, there's always going to be a learning curve.
2. The world is a throws nothing but knuckleballs, and no matter how many contingency plans are drawn up, awful stuff happens that nobody will be prepared for or would ever "look forward" to happening. 9/11. The current economic situation. "Paul Blart, Mall Cop."
But how one prepares, and the willingness to accept help from those who know better and can share wisdom ... I believe that makes all the difference in the world. And this is how George W. Bush ultimately failed.
George W. Bush failed because he was an ideologue, unwilling to listen to those with differing opinions, unwilling to bend his own opinions the slightest bit even in the face of the plain truth. And then, when his idealogical decisions did not yield the results he expected, he lied, created alternate histories, relied on obfuscation to escape public examination, denied reality, and then went on vacation.
For instance, the way he consistently changed the reasons for the Iraq war: first, it was to get the 9/11 terrorists. Then, when America caught on to the fact that 9/11 was not Saddam Hussein's doing, it was because Iraq had WMD's. When none were found, we were told that we went to war because we had to fight terrorists "there before we have to fight them here", ignoring the fact that Al Qaeda was not based in Iraq, and were not fighting from an Iraqi base until after the US decided to attack.
Or by altering scientists' reports on global warming and climate change because he didn't like what they had to say.
Or look up Major General John Batiste for more gory details.
George Bush failed by decided to simply look the other way to appease his "free market ideals" (until recently, when it was too late). How else to explain recent complaints of corruption within the FDA? ("In their letter the FDA dissidents alleged that agency managers use
intimidation to squelch scientific debate, leading to the approval of
medical devices whose effectiveness is questionable and which may not
be entirely safe.")
George W. Bush failed because he surrounded himself with yes-men who were either too afraid to tell him "no", or who were willing to manipulate the power they came to wield in order to gain politically, financially, or personally, rather than by using the power to help those who needed it most: the American public.
The accusations of cronyism in the Bush administration have echoed for years, and there is no need at this point to rehash the names ... the obvious, Michael Brown - head of FEMA post-Katrina - is just one of many. But it is widely accepted that Brown was unqualified for the position to begin with, but he was a "Bushie", so he got the job.
George W. Bush failed because, frankly, he thought everything would be so much easier than it actually was, is, or ever could be.
George W. Bush failed because even as circumstances changed, he never did.
And this is but a drop in the bucket of scandal, outrage, and hackery that we've experienced as a nation over the last eight years. Again, not worth rehashing, because what's done is done and I have already done all I can as one voice among millions: I voted.
I voted - very proudly - for Barack Obama.
Now, the overwhelming failure of the previous administration (a 22% approval rating doesn't happen by accident, or because of a handful of minor missteps) is being replaced by the much celebrated audacity of hope that we've heard so much about over these past few months. I certainly have hopes of my own.
I hope that he will learn from the mistakes of the Bush administration. I hope that the mistakes that he himself makes - and he will make mistakes, I have no doubt - are easily remedied or minimized.
I hope that President Obama lives up to the potential of President Elect Obama.
I hope that the media will finally do its job and harshly question the
President when it is appropriate to do so (which is ALWAYS).
I hope that the American public gives President Obama sufficient time to right the ship, and doesn't expect him to have everything fixed in just a few days. It took eight years of mangling to get where we are now, and it can't all be fixed immediately.
I hope that the Obama administration sets realistic and honest goals and time-frames to accomplish them -- none of these magical "we need six more months" (in Iraq) statements that never seemed to quite get the job finished.
I hope they don't waste time, either.
I hope that President Obama follows through on his promise to consult with the Republican minority and to give it a voice in his administration. I hope that the Republicans accept Obama's offer to listen without becoming so cynical to think that Obama isn't really listening, and that he's only doing it to look good in the public eye.
I hope that the Republicans also realize that they were overwhelmingly voted out of office for a reason.
I hope that we head in the right direction, more than anything else. Because despite what dudes like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity say, I love this country. Always have. I just want to be proud of it again.
Tomorrow is a good first step.
I would never wish such a comprehensive failure upon any President at any point. There's too much at stake domestically, and - especially these days - too much going on in the world for there to be too much room for error.
Yes, there are many initiatives proposed by the Bush administration that I'm glad did not come to fruition. I'm glad that Harriet Myers is not on the Supreme Court, for instance. I'm certainly glad that Social Security wasn't privatized (imagine the millions of seniors who would have lost literally everything they had when the stock market crashed). But hoping that these particular things, among others, would fail to become reality because of my own morality and political conviction is much, much different from hoping that the President himself would be a failure.
I realize that, for any president, there are two serious, innate issues regarding the position:
1. Nobody can really be ready to be President on day one. Or even year one, for that matter. Where would one begin to learn what needs to be known? There are so many issues one is expected to master in such a short amount of time that, even for a VP moving into the Oval Office like George H. W. Bush did after Reagan's second term, there's always going to be a learning curve.
2. The world is a throws nothing but knuckleballs, and no matter how many contingency plans are drawn up, awful stuff happens that nobody will be prepared for or would ever "look forward" to happening. 9/11. The current economic situation. "Paul Blart, Mall Cop."
But how one prepares, and the willingness to accept help from those who know better and can share wisdom ... I believe that makes all the difference in the world. And this is how George W. Bush ultimately failed.
George W. Bush failed because he was an ideologue, unwilling to listen to those with differing opinions, unwilling to bend his own opinions the slightest bit even in the face of the plain truth. And then, when his idealogical decisions did not yield the results he expected, he lied, created alternate histories, relied on obfuscation to escape public examination, denied reality, and then went on vacation.
For instance, the way he consistently changed the reasons for the Iraq war: first, it was to get the 9/11 terrorists. Then, when America caught on to the fact that 9/11 was not Saddam Hussein's doing, it was because Iraq had WMD's. When none were found, we were told that we went to war because we had to fight terrorists "there before we have to fight them here", ignoring the fact that Al Qaeda was not based in Iraq, and were not fighting from an Iraqi base until after the US decided to attack.
Or by altering scientists' reports on global warming and climate change because he didn't like what they had to say.
Or look up Major General John Batiste for more gory details.
George Bush failed by decided to simply look the other way to appease his "free market ideals" (until recently, when it was too late). How else to explain recent complaints of corruption within the FDA? ("In their letter the FDA dissidents alleged that agency managers use
intimidation to squelch scientific debate, leading to the approval of
medical devices whose effectiveness is questionable and which may not
be entirely safe.")
George W. Bush failed because he surrounded himself with yes-men who were either too afraid to tell him "no", or who were willing to manipulate the power they came to wield in order to gain politically, financially, or personally, rather than by using the power to help those who needed it most: the American public.
The accusations of cronyism in the Bush administration have echoed for years, and there is no need at this point to rehash the names ... the obvious, Michael Brown - head of FEMA post-Katrina - is just one of many. But it is widely accepted that Brown was unqualified for the position to begin with, but he was a "Bushie", so he got the job.
George W. Bush failed because, frankly, he thought everything would be so much easier than it actually was, is, or ever could be.
George W. Bush failed because even as circumstances changed, he never did.
And this is but a drop in the bucket of scandal, outrage, and hackery that we've experienced as a nation over the last eight years. Again, not worth rehashing, because what's done is done and I have already done all I can as one voice among millions: I voted.
I voted - very proudly - for Barack Obama.
Now, the overwhelming failure of the previous administration (a 22% approval rating doesn't happen by accident, or because of a handful of minor missteps) is being replaced by the much celebrated audacity of hope that we've heard so much about over these past few months. I certainly have hopes of my own.
I hope that he will learn from the mistakes of the Bush administration. I hope that the mistakes that he himself makes - and he will make mistakes, I have no doubt - are easily remedied or minimized.
I hope that President Obama lives up to the potential of President Elect Obama.
I hope that the media will finally do its job and harshly question the
President when it is appropriate to do so (which is ALWAYS).
I hope that the American public gives President Obama sufficient time to right the ship, and doesn't expect him to have everything fixed in just a few days. It took eight years of mangling to get where we are now, and it can't all be fixed immediately.
I hope that the Obama administration sets realistic and honest goals and time-frames to accomplish them -- none of these magical "we need six more months" (in Iraq) statements that never seemed to quite get the job finished.
I hope they don't waste time, either.
I hope that President Obama follows through on his promise to consult with the Republican minority and to give it a voice in his administration. I hope that the Republicans accept Obama's offer to listen without becoming so cynical to think that Obama isn't really listening, and that he's only doing it to look good in the public eye.
I hope that the Republicans also realize that they were overwhelmingly voted out of office for a reason.
I hope that we head in the right direction, more than anything else. Because despite what dudes like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity say, I love this country. Always have. I just want to be proud of it again.
Tomorrow is a good first step.
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