Ya know, Bush could have been a great president

[quaoar]

Just think....

What if Bush has actually captured Osama bin Laden and delivered him, in shackles, to the federal district court in Manhattan for trial?
What if Bush had smashed al Qaeda?
What if, instead of invading Iraq, he had deployed another division along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan?
What if, instead of rewriting the tax code to favor the rich, he had asked all Americans to make a sacrifice to defeat terror by paying a little extra?
What if, instead of telling the rest of the world to fuck off, he had recruited other nations to join us in the fight against terror?
What if, instead of arranging for secret flights for the Saudi royal family, he had challenged Saudi Arabia to end its support for schools that teach anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism?
What if, instead of ignoring the Middle East when he first took office, he had worked to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians?

Yeah, I know -- what if pigs could fly.

My point is this: After 9/11, Bush had the opportunity to be a great president. He fucked it up completely. And all the crimes he has committed since then pale by comparison.

[Oversea Visitor]

1. What if?

He is a loser a bum
All your if...ing just a sad wish
Some people are born loser
Dont matter how rich a family they born into
A bum is a bum

[Flabbergasted]

2. I'm sure the folks in New Orleans would have appreciated a extra

few dollars that were spent on the war

[aquart]

3. terror is a state of mind.

As long as you buy the utter crap that a "War on Terror" is something that can be won, you are already in 1984 and Bush doesn't have to do another damn thing.

Terror, honey, is the LEAST of our problems.

I cannot believe there is anyone who still buys that insane garbage.

(And it doesn't matter how many battalions we stash in Afghanistan, ask the Russians.)

[WildEyedLiberal]

15. But you can minimize the impact of violent Islamic fundamentalism

Bush has done nothing but fan the flames of the jihadists and reinforced the anti-American sentiment in the Arab world, and made anti-American Islamic fundamentalism a real, viable political force in the Middle East. A great president would have united the world against these purveyors of hatred and made their ideology as obsolete and ineffective as Nazism. But Bush is, unfortunately, a TERRIBLE president, and so more and more of the Islamic world hates America and is committed to its destruction now, thanks to Bush's policies.

[aquart]

16. He doesn't have communists. He needs a boogeyman.

Terror as a tactic has existed for a very, very long time.

But it's still a small problem. Yeah. SMALL. Osama is not a Cat 5 hurricane. He's insignificant. UNLESS you require a boogeyman for a fascist takeover of a nation.

Focus! BUSH DESTROYED AN AMERICAN CITY. No terrorist has ever done that. You're looking out at the mess he's making that other people will have to clean up. Look IN at the mess WE will have to clean up.

He sent our money abroad. Muslim extremists are nothing to us until they are within our borders. Seen any?

[WildEyedLiberal]

19. Muslim extremists killed 3000 people in an American city.

Yes, more died during Hurricane Katrina. I don't think anywhere in my post I implied that Bush wasn't deserving of every ounce of scorn for his destructive, evil politics. But Osama really did attack us four years ago, unless you're a member of the Bush MIHOP crowd. And 9/11 is not something you should just brush off as Republican propaganda - perhaps time has dulled your memory of that day, but it was a real event that affected us all, and it was a blown opportunity; a chance to unify the entire world behind a grand vision of benevolent foreign policy and a chance to broker peace in the broken Middle East. An effective response to 9/11 could have neutered the threat of Islamic fundamentalism for generations. Instead, it has become a thriving force, thanks to Bush. These are chickens that will come home to roost, and I'd prefer to not close my eyes to that reality. Bush has fucked up America in more ways than just his disastrous nonresponse to Katrina.

[CJCRANE]

20. That's the whole point - 9/11 was a set-up.

The plan all along was to use the required "catastrophic event" to get everything they wanted.

Bushco could never react to 9/11 in good faith because they believe in "creating reality" not dealing with reality.

[aquart]

38. i live in lower manhattan. i kinda know about it.

The city still stands. Terrorism is a piece of crap. Not quite 3000 died and it was a bitch for their families and friends and I know some of them, too. But the city stands.

Terrorism is just there. It will always be there. If someone wants to, they sorta can. Have you even noticed that we have no carbombs? No suicide bombers walking into crowded venues? Bag checks, good stuff.

But it is ridiculous to devote this much of our time and energy to crap. We have REAL problems. This is a fleabite. There will always be fleas.

No terrorist has ever destroyed a city. We have problems that WILL.


You a New Yorker? I usually find the people most perpetually freaked are the people who weren't here. We had all the stages of grief. We even had a nasty period of really snarling, more than the usual New York stuff. And the shock lasts a long time, it does. And the grief. But the first thing you find out is that everybody who lives keeps living. You have to. They block off streets, you use others. They need boots, you hand them in. You do what you can and keep going.

And it astonishes me that anyone would even mention 9/11 after Katrina, after the tsunami. We cried in our HOMES in New York and Washington. We wept over DINNER. We had our STUFF. Damn, I felt deprived not having regular TV for six weeks. It simply embarrasses me to hear people speak of 9/11 now. Just embarrasses me.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

42. and now...

FEMA is telling hurricane victims the free ride is over here in Alabama. I heard it on the news tonight. Homeless from New Orleans are being evicted into the cold winter night by FEMA, an organization that claims it has fulfilled it's commitment to these refugees. I ask our supposedly Christian administration; Is this what Jesus teaches us to do when our brothers and sisters become homeless?

[Nutmegger]

43. .

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[NanceGreggs]

4. Oh, you are SO right!

And the sad part is, it would have been so simple!

I suspected from the beginning with Bush (and was later proven to be correct) that he was the puppet chosen by the Neo-Cons to 'front' their plans of world domination, more wealth to the wealthy, et cetera.

But in the aftermath of 9/11, his now-famous bull-horn moment, I thought, "This is your chance to make history as a GREAT president. Tell your Neo-Con buddies to go f*ck themselves, take the goodwill of your countrymen and the world, and RUN WITH IT!"

Of course, we all know what he did with that goodwill - he dropped his pants, along with his 'buddies', and shat on it.

Sometimes greatness is thrust upon a man -- and sometimes a man is just so pig-ignorant, he takes greatness and throws it away ...

[quaoar]

11. Exactly

After 9/11 Bush had a 90 percent approval rating. He had an opportunity to use that to unite this nation and bind the wounds from the 2000 election. Instead he rubbed salt into those wounds.

That is what I find most unforgivable about Bush.

[burrowowl]

5. Terror!

Created by BFEE and their Co-horts through their foreign policies: e.g. kill Guatemalean Indians, 200,000 of them; bomb Panama to test stealth fighters; drop 22,000 bombs on Iraq from the end of Gulf War I upto the Iraq War, etc., etc., etc.
Bu$h II can never have been a 'great' president.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. The tax cuts alone doomed us

Everything else is just piling on. Sure most of the country would be worshipping him, but screwing us to make his cronies richers is the ONLY THING HE'S ABOUT.

[tmooses]

7. From the time Bush was selected by the Supreme court, he started a

process where the country was finally and utterly turned over to corporate interests. Whatever worker rights, environmental safeguards, personal freedoms were left were on the chopping block. Bush could only be a "great" president if you believe the bullshit of the neocons.

[NativeTexan]

8. Although I would NEVER have voted for him...

.....the man that I have always believed to be a complete idiot looked so presidential after 9/11, that he had me nearly eating out of the palm of his hand. I mean, good leadership is good leadership, no matter where it comes from.

But as soon as the word "IRAQ" started coming out of his mouth, he lost me and I realized that I was RIGHT ALL ALONG!

[TankLV]

36. Never could look "presidential" to me - ESPECIALLY during and after

911.

That made me more angry than I ever was!

I was never fooled for ONE FUCKING MOMENT that this AWOL WAR CRIMINAL was anything but what he has proved out to be.

That is one of the reasons why I sought solace here on DU.

[amerikat]

9. Bush was always to small a mind to be great at anything

that would be relevant to our fellow citizens. He is a follower not a leader.
That is all.

[Lexingtonian]

10. But he has no greatness within himself

which is why they made him their Presidential candidate, and voted for him, and idolize him. He makes them feel large. People with greatness make them feel small.

He knows he's not great but has to deny it, which is why he has so desperately tried to surpass his daddie and Bill Clinton. And why he prefers to think God talks to him rather than admit to absence seizures and minor hallucinations.

[Hardrada]

12. This is like wondering if a flesh-eating virus

is capable of greatness.

[jobycom]

13. He may have had the opportunity, but certainly not the ability.

Bush has failed at everything he's ever tried, from fatherhood to sobriety to business to politics. He had to steal an election that the media worked their asses off to give him. He could have stopped 9-11 by simply reading his CIA briefings and ordering the FAA to step up airport security. (BTW, that's not just my opinion, it's also George W Bush's: when it was revealed that Bush had received the infamous August memo warning of attacks, Bush claimed he had told the FAA to step up security, but that they had not followed through. It was a lie, but the lie reveals that even Bush realizes that's what he should have done. 9-11 was a weak-ass plot that would have never worked if Bush had done his job.)

He had planned to attack Afghanistan and Iraq before 9-11. I see 9-11 as one event in his flawed plans. My own belief is that he pulled back surveillance of Bin Laden just so Bin Laden would give him an excuse to attack, to pass the Patriot Act (which was written before 9-11), and so that he could use it to invade Iraq, as well (as Paul O'Neil has stated). The people Bush hired to advise him on foreign affairs had been calling for invasions of these nations since 1998, at least. Clinton refused to do it. Part of the cabal that pushed Bush into the White House was the same cabal that had lobbied Clinton so hard to invade, and then wrote formed PNAC.

Bush brought 9-11 about, not deliberately, but because his foreign policy was to bully the terrorists until he got a reason to attack. They gave him one, and he used it for the exact purposes he had been appointed president to fulfill. So I don't think Bush could have been a great president after 9-11. He was too much a part of it.

[CJCRANE]

21. Good summary.

Condi Rice virtually admitted as much in her testimony to the 9/11 commission when she said they were "tired of swatting at flies" and "Bold and comprehensive changes are sometimes only possible in the wake of catastrophic events -- events which create a new consensus that allows us to transcend old ways of thinking and acting". (It's pretty much a repeat of what's in the famous PNAC document that mentions a new Pearl Harbour).

To me what she seems to be saying is "we couldn't be bothered to react to the small attacks so we waited for a big one to come along". What's worse is that it never was about fighting terror but more an excuse for a pre-emtpive war policy to do a smash-and-grab raid on Iraq.

[orleans]

14. "bush could've been a great president"

in an alternate universe in HELL!

[diamondsndust]

17. He would be an even greater president if he simply....

slipped a rope around his neck, attached it to something strong, then jumped from a high place. But thats asking too much, isn't it? We'll take the political suicide he committed for himself and the repugs. They fumbled, we recovered, now it's time to PLAY BALL and win this game of human chess. Using our troops as his pawns is unacceptable, and Herr Chimporer should be held accountable for every one of them that gave the Ultimate Sacrifice for his actions.

Support Our Troops, but Impeach Bush/Cheney!

[diamondsndust]

18. oops, double post n/t

[Toots]

22. Bush* could never have been a great anything let alone President

Bush* is now and has been his whole life a complete incompetent. He has failed a every single venture he ever engaged in except politics. In politics he has done very well. What does Bush* possess that makes him a good politician? The only thing I can think of is money. Everyone knows he is a bold faced LIAR and his smirk gives him away about how seriously he takes things. He was born with "a silver foot in his mouth". A real man could have used the energy created after 9-11 to make the world a better place for the benefit of mankind. Bush* only saw a way to benefit his cronies. War Profiteering is the only thing he really knows...It is the Republican way and he is Republican through and through..

[kentuck]

23. I don't think so....

His character is so flawed that he could never succeed at anything, except stealing elections and screwing people...

[WinkyDink]

24. Yeah...if he'd been

A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSON!!!!!!!!
Oh, wait; make that: "IF HE'D BE A HUMAN BEING!"

As for that "bullhorn moment": Bush was LITERALLY standing on the CREMATED REMAINS of the WTC/plane victims. Did he express, either in words or visage, MOURNING? SORROW? REVERENCE? Freakin' AWARENESS??!

No; he was all about HIMSELF, puffed up and macho, his faux-courage on disgusting display, shouting of VENGEANCE ("is Mine, sayeth the Lord". Not that there oughtn't to have been any, but that Bush sees himself as a deity, much as Caligula did.).

Sociopathological from birth, where he ought to have been strangled.

[leesa]

25. He DID 9-11.

[zann725]

26. No matter WHAT "good" actions COULD'VE been taken, "small" men do NOT good

Prez. make. Shrub simply doesn't have it in him. Besides, "Boy Kings" are ONLY that...BOY KINGS. And history has told us so...again and again.

[leftofthedial]

27. this asshole has fucked up everything he ever did in his whole life

why is he rich and powerful?

[90-percent]

28. slime

GWB is putrid, but you all will notice HE'S STILL GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER/GENOCIDE?MASS DESTRUCTION!

He's continuing to "just do it" however he pleases, as one who is completely above the law without any moral grounding what so ever would continue to do.

IS America strong enough to withstand 8 years of a sociopathic president? The next three years will tell.

By the way, if the Dems don't sweep every fucking election this fall, we as a country are doomed! Perhaps our only hope is to catch MIHOP v2.0 perps in the act on live national TV?

-85% Jimmy

[boomboom]

29. He's a politician

Not a scholar, leader, great thinker, businessman (especially successful). The only half success he had was as the front man of the TX Rangers. It's not like he managed, he used his name and connections. As governor, he was a non-entity except to allow guns on buses, pass pollution control that was mostly no professional landscaping services before 10:00am (huh?), and execute many many people.

He's a photo-op politician, way more concerned with how he ends up in history than on his effect on the history or future of the people who actually did contribute something to this country.

[leftofthedial]

30. for the Rangers, all he did

was sit behind home plate and pick his nose

(and cash the fat check he walked away with for having done nothing but sit behind home plate and pick his nose and be named "Bush.")

[Frank Cannon]

32. I OBJECT, leftofthedial. That is just unfair.

Bush is a GREAT nose picker. Don't you dare diss him for that.

Bush picks his nose like nobody else I've ever seen since..well, I don't know...the first grade. He truly is a champion. He picks his nose in the same way that the amazing Red Adair used to put out oil well fires. It's a true mixture of sublime artistry and technical excellence.

So, shame on you. I can blow a lot of crap on George Bush for a lot of things, but I will NEVER cut him down for his nose-picking skills. Neither should you.

[leftofthedial]

34. LOL

it's because since the 70s, he has no septum, so he has full access to both sides of the nasal cavity and all his sinuses through either nostril.

[ddeclue]

31. Brilliant! He is even more of a loser for having such opportunities

to be great and squandering them so pathetically.

I would have added, rescuing the people of New Orleans BEFORE the storm or better yet taking the warnings from 2004's Hurrican Season seriously or taking the famous PDB from August 2001 seriously.

The difference between Clinton and Bush is that to my knowledge Clinton did have nearly as many opportunities to be great, but he NEVER squandered them as Bush alway does.

Doug D.

[Uncle Joe]

33. I have never believed he could be anything but the

spoiled, cheap, petty, vile, disgusting, hypocritical, two faced,ignorant, vain glorious sack of dung beetle's rejects ever since he went to court in 2000 to stop the people's votes from being counted. His cheap, half ass ed, faux attempts at being anything else is just a series of sad jokes on the nation and the planet.

[TankLV]

35. Never a possibility. If you attain the office ILLEGALLY, nothing else

matters.

GORE WON.

It's that simple for me.

Everything else is judged by that one fact.

That is the only conclusion.

Bunkerboy was INSTALLED ILLEGALLY by the REPUKE SCOTUS.

That fact, and that fact alone, would preclude him from being anything other than a caretaker pResident at best.

Now we know that there are MILLIONS of reasons why he is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

[Lindacooks]

37. He certainly has had opportunities to succeed, but he's a little man

with a huge ego and a psychopath to boot. I don't think it was possible for him to do the right thing.

[Dr Fate]

39. This thread should be called : "What If Bush Was a Democrat" n/t

n/t

[Hyernel]

40. No...he couldn't have. The man is too dumb.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

41. I agree

I will only add that the price of greatness is responsibility and no irresponsible individual is ever destined for greatness.

[mwooldri]

44. Thankfully we don't make bad presidents re-sit their terms.

like we do poor performing schoolkids. Saw that (what I presume was a re-run of Saturday Night Live) tonight on the TV. That bit was a hoot!

[HughBeaumont]

45. His job was never to BE a good president . . .

He was the most electable out of the cabal, and therefore, used for his name and his "aw shucks", everyrube persona; perfect for the Joe Sportsbars and Jane Housefraus of Dumberica who could give a rats ass about things like PNAC and, well, politics in general. Cheney was too old and too much of a slippery snake to be in the public eye that much.

His job is pretty much to tell everyone what they want to hear while PNAC and the Corporate Cronies use the middle class as their ballgagged bitches. Everything's allright in Iraq. The economy is strong and gettin' stronger. Mer-ka's safer and more secure than ever. The same three Karl Rove notecards, over and over and over again while the police state gets put into effect and our rights get trampled upon and our future goes overseas.

[Binka]

46. His Job Is To Be A Petty Thief While The US Treasury Is Robbed

By the heavies. They are getting away with it folks. Abramoff will bring them all down IF he lives and IF he is fully prosecuted. BIG IFs.