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Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:18 AM Mar 2013

Is Bush Evil or Just a stupid pawn?

Last edited Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)


11 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
George Bush was a stupid pawn led by evil Cheney?
3 (27%)
George Bush was equal evil partners with Cheney?
7 (64%)
Stupid and Evil Inherently
1 (9%)
Stupid and Evil (Cheney pulled him in)
0 (0%)
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Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll
44 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is Bush Evil or Just a stupid pawn? (Original Post) Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 OP
I say evil AND stupid! MarianJack Mar 2013 #1
+ 1 Berlum Mar 2013 #2
Yep. 99Forever Mar 2013 #11
No reason why he can't be both. baldguy Mar 2013 #13
Bush can be evil by not doing anything to stop Cheney's actions but too stupid to actually be the Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #22
yup RedCappedBandit Mar 2013 #27
The entire Bush family is evil lunatica Mar 2013 #3
Yes. But as far as Iraq is concerned....I just can't see him being involved enough - or rather give Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #5
I believe that before he was anyone else's pawn he was his family's pawn lunatica Mar 2013 #9
Read Richard Clarke's first book. Egalitarian Thug Mar 2013 #39
W is the 3rd of so far 4 Bush's to run and 2 who won the Presidency graham4anything Mar 2013 #4
As for GB not being stupid...you reminded me of seeing some clips here from when he Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #7
Paul Waldman's book "Fraud" about W showed how they did it again and again graham4anything Mar 2013 #15
Well...supposedly Romney was the "sane" choice...the one who could win in a general. Do Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #16
No, because no one would have beaten President Obama in 2012, which is why Jeb did not run graham4anything Mar 2013 #17
Last year, I would have voted that Little Georgie was just plain stupid. jerseyjack Mar 2013 #6
Yes, I was just remembering that too. But, how could he keep that rube act up? Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #10
I think he also fried out his brains quite a bit with drugs & alcohol Arugula Latte Mar 2013 #30
Yes, I agree. If it was a dumb act then somehow it became more - self medicating. nt Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #42
More and more since he's been out.. I'm thinking stupid. annabanana Mar 2013 #8
Agree. I picture him thinking..."This is just too hard, I thought it'd be easy just walzing around Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #12
George W probably thought he could outdo Dad, claimed Saddam "threatened my daddy". Thinkingabout Mar 2013 #14
no option for both dembotoz Mar 2013 #18
The expression "dumb like a fox" comes to mind. A psychopathic fox. WinkyDink Mar 2013 #19
Both, but the evil was just small scale on his part. hobbit709 Mar 2013 #20
Two war criminals! dmosh42 Mar 2013 #21
He can't be both? jmowreader Mar 2013 #23
Yes, in some ways. too late to add both as a choice. Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #24
Bush isn't stupid LeftInTX Mar 2013 #25
So maybe it's not dumb or evil - but disengaged and not involved. He always wanted Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #32
I think he is more stupid than evil. Kalidurga Mar 2013 #26
I had to pass as i belive it is both- ruffburr Mar 2013 #28
100% agree with your assessment Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #34
I don't think he was quite as evil as Cheney aint_no_life_nowhere Mar 2013 #29
I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. TroglodyteScholar Mar 2013 #31
Laura, where' the "both" option? David Zephyr Mar 2013 #33
i got reamed one time for adding a choice after the poll was active. Scars Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #35
Now I voted!!! Thanks. David Zephyr Mar 2013 #38
Bush is evil and used Cheney as the fall guy. You think a Bush ever takes the fall? DevonRex Mar 2013 #36
They are not mutually exclusive The Second Stone Mar 2013 #37
I think he's a stupid person who willingly allowed himself to Raine Mar 2013 #40
you are so smart...this says it all Laura PourMeADrink Mar 2013 #41
Both. A stupid pawn who allowed truly evil people to do truly evil things. Initech Mar 2013 #43
Yes. nt tblue37 Mar 2013 #44
 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
22. Bush can be evil by not doing anything to stop Cheney's actions but too stupid to actually be the
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 06:03 PM
Mar 2013

impetus behind it?

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
3. The entire Bush family is evil
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:21 AM
Mar 2013

They have a legacy of evil, long before Cheney gained power. George Bush, at the very least, is a nasty sadistic smirking frat boy.

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
5. Yes. But as far as Iraq is concerned....I just can't see him being involved enough - or rather give
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:29 AM
Mar 2013

a shit enough to actually come up with the idea to invade. I think he was talked into it and he trusted everyone else. I wonder now if he really hates Cheney for forcing it to happen. To me, it was more like he thought it was cool to act like a prez, but never had any intellect behind it.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
9. I believe that before he was anyone else's pawn he was his family's pawn
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:39 AM
Mar 2013

Without his family and their contacts the Supreme Court wouldn't have selected him. His father kept him out of Vietnam, and even covered for his going awol. He was the child of privilege who had a role to play and he played it. He was even given passing grades at Yale, his father's Alma Mater and he was inducted into Skull and Bones only because of who his father and grandfather were.

We see him as a fuck up. But he was far from it. He came closer to achieving the goal of his family than even his father, with all his CIA power. He was very effective. If we ever survive him it'll take generations. Now they want Jeb to come in and finish it because George was just the scapegoat, set up by his own parents.

 

graham4anything

(11,464 posts)
4. W is the 3rd of so far 4 Bush's to run and 2 who won the Presidency
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:24 AM
Mar 2013

Prescott wanted it
41 achieved it
43 got seated
Jeb wants to win and/or be seated

George w.Bush is NOT stupid. It was a persona created and it worked

Whether or not Cheney was his own person, manipulated things, or not, is 100% irrelevant IMHO, becuase it suited George Herbert Walker Bush41 and his own 3 step ahead plan
(only outmatched by the not counted on Barack Obama.)

Same supporting actors in their play.
They are all showing up doing their role

And Jeb looks stronger to be the republican nominee every hour that passes.

The question really should be-
How Stupid are the voters, the ones in the Bush's own party, and the ones who might
just think and say the Bush/Nader meme that both parties are the same

and then the wheels on the Bush's bus will once again go round and round and round

It could have been 53 straight years and counting, but now it's just 4 and a few months
so we have to 100% vote for the democratic party, and only in the rare instances someone who would 100% when a 60th vote is needed (ala Bernie and Angus) caucus with the democratic party. (while leaving them free to vote any way they choose when their vote doesn't matter).

imho

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
7. As for GB not being stupid...you reminded me of seeing some clips here from when he
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:37 AM
Mar 2013

was governor. No country boy thick accent. No bumbling around.

But, if it is a persona they created - he certainly never went off script. Deserves an Oscar.

You are so right about stupid voters. The minute it was proven there were no WMD, I would have bet my life savings that Bush would have been impeached and he went on to "win." Or at least stay close enough to make a rig believable.

 

graham4anything

(11,464 posts)
15. Paul Waldman's book "Fraud" about W showed how they did it again and again
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:15 AM
Mar 2013

How they created the Bush is stupid, doesn't have the brains, therefore, as someone without brains, he couldn't possibly look someone in the eye and lie, because he wasn't smart enough and he was as they also created, a man of integrity.

and it worked.

and now Jeb is poised to be nominated as the sane republican in a sea of insanity candidates
as if the others are and have been all on the Bush family payroll to be so out there, that they
will have people begging for Jeb

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
16. Well...supposedly Romney was the "sane" choice...the one who could win in a general. Do
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:43 AM
Mar 2013

you think the wingnuts would go along with this idea again? Given CPAC picked Rand Paul?

If Bush was a created character - and really is smart, how can you explain how he doesn't seem to care that the whole country thinks he's a an idiot? You would have to say he is that much of a Machiavellian that the greater neocon always was and is still more important than his ruined reputation from the ridicule of millions.

 

graham4anything

(11,464 posts)
17. No, because no one would have beaten President Obama in 2012, which is why Jeb did not run
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 09:04 AM
Mar 2013

It had to be 2016.

As I keep saying with those who put President Obama down, think long term eye on the prize, not instant gratification.

For the family it is the long time goal and the decades in the future.
Why would W care at all what people think of him? He isn't running, and Jeb can play the
"I am not W" version and have people separate the two.

The whole inner family argument is also manufactured, like the fact that he said he was a Cowboy, which also wasn't true, and the ranch itself was a prop.

But Mitt never was going to win, neither were the others(any others), same as McCain was never going to win in 2008, so much so, that Hillary would have easily won had she been the nomination (so those saying Hillary lost, she never lost the General election, both her and Obama easily would have won in 2008.

But who would have thought Jeb is a serious contender, and the way the republican rules have been setting up in 2016, all fits for Jeb. (especially that the insane branch of their party is just as strong. Rand will never get the nomination, nor would he be able to even win 100 electoral votes. It would be a landslide. Maybe 80- 20%.(But he won't win the nomination).

 

jerseyjack

(1,361 posts)
6. Last year, I would have voted that Little Georgie was just plain stupid.
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:35 AM
Mar 2013

I heard an interview about his running for Congress in the 1970's. His speeches were in perfect, Yale English. His facts were in order.

He Lost.

What he learned is that you talk and act like a rube and you win.

There are times when, out of microphone range, he will still speak Yale.

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
10. Yes, I was just remembering that too. But, how could he keep that rube act up?
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:40 AM
Mar 2013

Surely, he would have slipped out of character at some point in 8 years. I never saw him do that. Or, you would think in his second 4 years, when he became such a laughing stock it would have propelled him to show the Yalie in him.

 

Arugula Latte

(50,566 posts)
30. I think he also fried out his brains quite a bit with drugs & alcohol
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:39 PM
Mar 2013

in the years since he ran for Congress. But, yeah, also part of it was a good-ol-boy act to appeal to the dumbasses of the dumbmasses.

annabanana

(52,791 posts)
8. More and more since he's been out.. I'm thinking stupid.
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:38 AM
Mar 2013

When he was doing the MOST evil things, he had the mein of a small boy, puffed up by flattery, strutting around like a child.

Since he's been out he's been completely disengaged. I don't think he liked being President and he sure as hell wasn't very good at it.

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
12. Agree. I picture him thinking..."This is just too hard, I thought it'd be easy just walzing around
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:45 AM
Mar 2013

telling people what to do."

I saw part of the HBO special on Cheney. He ran the show on Iraq for sure. But, you would think if Papa Bush was against the idea, then he could have told his son to not listen to Cheney. He must not have. So we can assume the father was in the thick of things too.

Or maybe all our theories about him drunk a lot were really true and Papa asked Cheney to take over and cover for him?

Thinkingabout

(30,058 posts)
14. George W probably thought he could outdo Dad, claimed Saddam "threatened my daddy".
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:11 AM
Mar 2013

No regret for his actions shows absolute evil on W's part. Almost 4500 have lost their lives and many more injured and he doesn't have any regrets, I doubt his sincerity in "born again Christian" status, lied to American citizens about his reasons to invade Iraq. He is a war criminal, maybe water boarding him and Cheney until they admit they lied.

LeftInTX

(25,126 posts)
25. Bush isn't stupid
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 06:48 PM
Mar 2013

Harvard MBA.
He might not be as bright as Clinton or Obama, but there was plenty of opposition prior to the invasion. He would have had to been really dumb to overlook it. He chose to ignore it.

I think he believed the war would be short like the 1991 Gulf War. I think he thought it would be fairly easy.

Colin Powell had told him that Iraq would shatter like crystal, but I don't think Bush quite believed it or understood it. Bush probably thought if we got rid of Saddam, then everything would work out. Bush didn't have military experience - Rumsfeld did and Cheney had been defense secretary, so he believed them and brushed aside Powell's concerns.

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
32. So maybe it's not dumb or evil - but disengaged and not involved. He always wanted
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:57 PM
Mar 2013

the easy way since things were always handed to him. Intellectually lazy

Kalidurga

(14,177 posts)
26. I think he is more stupid than evil.
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:04 PM
Mar 2013

Despite his credentials which we don't know for sure if he earned them or if he was given them due to connections. Or, he might be a fine actor that never broke character for the 8 years he was CEO err President of the United States. Either way he seems pretty stupid, in that he has little to no wisdom to his name. He surrounded himself with people that he thought were smarter than he is. But, really they were just power hungry and he wasn't wise enough to see the difference between sheer power hunger and smarts, so that is kinda stupid.

But, I am not sure about the evil at all, he did a lot of things that are evil. But, the motive, not so sure that makes him evil or more of a child. I believe he was motivated by wanting to make his family proud. The war stuff was from being around power hungry people that made him a puppet and he didn't have the ability to get rid of those people or speak out against them. So, he really seems more like a child that had nuclear capabilities.

ruffburr

(1,190 posts)
28. I had to pass as i belive it is both-
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:30 PM
Mar 2013

A dumbass being led by an evil ass, While the dumbass soaks up the evil, The evil ass steals his soul.

aint_no_life_nowhere

(21,925 posts)
29. I don't think he was quite as evil as Cheney
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 07:37 PM
Mar 2013

but he had a sociopathic bent. I remember what they said about his attitudes towards the poor when he was at Harvard and argued with the professors as well as how he mocked Carla Faye Tucker when she was on death row and pleaded for her life during his Governorship..

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
35. i got reamed one time for adding a choice after the poll was active. Scars
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:03 PM
Mar 2013

still there. haha. But, will add

DevonRex

(22,541 posts)
36. Bush is evil and used Cheney as the fall guy. You think a Bush ever takes the fall?
Mon Mar 18, 2013, 08:04 PM
Mar 2013


Sorry, but I never did buy the ruse that W. was dumb. He hammed it up and had way too much fun with the role. Then wound up showing up his father, getting Saddam, making the family loads of money in defense contracts. Who knows what they got out of oil there?

Cheney? He's a nobody compared to them. A willing nobody who could play the part and be rewarded for it. Who knows exactly how. But they've also got leverage over him.

ETA: when I say fall, I mean publicly. The people put more blame on Cheney than Bush. That's why nothing was pursued. Who wants to prosecute the VP when it's supposed to be the Pres in charge? That's kind of embarrassing for the country. So it all just went away quietly.
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