Historians: Bush presidency 'battered,' 'incompetent,' 'unlucky'

[babylonsister]

Unlucky? :eyes: It's what he didn't do, his lack of leadership, that makes him incompetent, not his luck.


Historians: Bush presidency 'battered,' 'incompetent,' 'unlucky'
By Ed Hornick
CNN


(CNN) -- With record low approval ratings and intense criticism for his handling of the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina and the economy, the word most used to label George W. Bush's presidency will be "incompetent," historians say.

"Right now there is not a lot of good will among historians. Most see him as a combination of many negative factors," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.

"He is seen as incompetent in terms of how he handled domestic and foreign policy. He is seen as pushing for an agenda to the right of the nation and doing so through executive power that ignored the popular will," he added.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/06/bush.legacy/index.html?eref=rss_us

[Triana]

1. bu$h presidency: incompetent, dictatorial, arrogant

He's not some innocent victim of his legacy. HE created it.

[gratuitous]

2. There's an old saying

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. So were there just no opportunities for Bush? Or was he totally unprepared for anything that came down the pike? In Bush's case, "unlucky" is because everything, and I mean everything, was run through a political prism before anything was done, and that includes the completely foreseeable, such as natural disasters (cf. Hurricane Katrina). They didn't do a thing without first slapping their peculiar brand of political calculus on it.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Good Call

It wasn't bad luck. All presidents have something bad happen. It's how they respond that matters and Silverspoon and his gang failed in nearly every regard.
The Professor

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Yeah, I read that yesterday. Unlucky my ass - he made all disasters worse.

we all knew how incompetent he was at the outset. pity so many had to die in his eight year reign of terror.

[Gin]

6. the man got "EVERYTHING" he wanted.....all we got was screwed

he leaves with a cushy pension foR life...his friends became insanely wealthy...the government is bankrupted...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ..GOOD RIDDANCE!

[Bandit]

4. I wish the word "Criminal" would pop up now and then

And "Arrogant". I think those are even more truthful descriptions than incompetent. He actually achieved every goal he established..They weren't goals that benifited America but they sure benifited his base, "the haves and the have mores"

[tularetom]

5. Unlucky WTF -he's lucky to even have the job in the first place

His own general fuckedupedness is the reason things didn't go very well during his term.

[Crankie Avalon]

It's like how repugs blame "the economic crisis" for McCain's loss...

...and not McCain's erratic and revealingly unpresidential reaction to it.

Leadership is just a game of chance, apparently.

[patrice]

7. "unlucky" is an insult to us.

The guy is essentially anathema to the Middle-Class. He didn't just happen to go wrong. George Bush is WRONG itself.

[Poiuyt]

9. Intense criticism for his handling of the Iraq war?

He started the damn thing! Even if he had handled it like Alexander the Great, it would have been wrong.