Did anybody think that W could screw up so bad in 2000?

[Botany]

The Family From Hell ... H.W., Bar, W. Jeb, Neil, & Marvin (by height) they have cost the U.S. at
least 5 Trillion Dollars.

BTW Doesn't W look just a little "out of it" or "troubled" so dad has to hold him.

I remember in Nov. 2000 around thanksgiving and W said "That Vice Pesident is doing good
he is just fine." And my friend, his wife and I yelling @ the T.V. "he just had a heart attack
you dumb ass," but I never thought he could do so much damage.

[WI_DEM]

1. Well, I knew it wouldn't be pretty--especially after how he "won" the election.

[tblue]

21. I knew he was no good when I read Shrub, and then came the stolen election.

I knew it was stolen the second Florida was recalled and placed momentarily in the * column. Yes, I knew he was bad before he even got started.

The Freepers still don't understand why there is so much hatered for their appointed POTUS. I will never get over that stolen election and I will never forgive the SCOTUS for what it brought to bear.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Yes!

They stole the election

[DS1]

3. I knew he was a fucking fraud from the first time I saw his stupid ass

[Botany]

26. The Great Cowboy Rancher who is afraid of livestock and is .....

.... scared of horses. In Spring 2001 W invited Putin to Crawford and his
Ranch ..... very rough quotes

Putin: It would be an honor to ride with you Mr. President.

W: I don't ride

What gets me is the media was in the bag for the whole trip .... they knew the
ranch was phony and built in 1999 by Enron .... nobody said shit! But we got
"And now from the bush ranch in Crawford TX."

[marmar]

4. Yep.....I had a Yoda-esque premonition about it.

That was one of those proverbial "Fork In the Road" moments. {Granted, the US Supreme Court came in and switched the road signs on us.)

[Jane Austin]

5. We Dems in Texas knew he was bad news and tried to tell people, but

I don't think it was possible to anticipate how thoroughly and completely he would damage the country.

[Botany]

13. A good friend of mine had family in TX ....

.... and told me that his sisters (a teacher & a school administrator)
said that W was a walking screw up in 1999 and later that Haliburton &
Enron were way dirty.

[Jane Austin]

36. Yep.

This was before DU, and I couldn't make any of our out-of-state friends hear me. :)

[Botany]

38. My Friend (an Episcopal rector) w/ a MBA from Columbia

Said that W had trashed the public schools in Texas and left them
broke ..... he didn't work year round like other Governors ..... and
that public school people were sure he was trying to break the system.

[Jane Austin]

44. I agree with your friend.

Where's your friend's parish?

[Botany]

50. It was in Worthington, OH

St. John's Episcopal oldest Episcopal Church west of the Allegheny Mts.






I did the grounds for 20 years .... he is now living in McAllen, TX in the winter and
Indiana in the summer.

[Jane Austin]

64. Ah . . .

he's retired. :)

[Horse with no Name]

56. Well let's be fair about this

Texas schools have been broken for a LONG time...and no Governor has been able to fix them.
That being said, he didn't TRY very hard to fix them either.
The WORST thing bush did was to privatize CHIPS/Medicaid (to companies who ultimately took the money and ran--who didn't see THAT coming?) and deregulating the electric industry.
Also...remember the Texas Lottery scandal? The one with Harriet Meirs at the helm? That was his doing as well.

Ahhh Good times....:puke:

[Botany]

58. What i heard was something about screwing up the TX school's funding

And then he took that natonal w/ NCLB.

I bet bush can't wait to get back to ranching :rofl:

[Jane Austin]

65. Aren't you forgetting the pollution

rollbacks?

:choke: :cough: :gasp: :wheeze:

[Demeter]

23. I Didn't Expect He'd Have So Many Eager Helpers

in industry.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. I said he would, but I thought I was being hyperbolic.

Since then, I give hyperbole free rein.

[daninthemoon]

17. the extent of the mess he has made defy language or comprehension

there is no way to overstate how bad he's been.

[ixion]

7. yes... it only tooka bit of digging, and the fact that he's a Bush

to know that it would be a disaster.

[liberal N proud]

8. Yes!

Our fears have come true

[cobalt1999]

9. Actually, no.

While disappointed, I had some faith in the team he had put together, especially Colin Powell. He did seem to have an experienced group surrounding him.

I never dreamed he could screw up the country this badly.

[orleans]

72. neither did i--i figured at least he seemed to be harmless!

omg! was i ever wrong! never more wrong about anything in my life!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Yes.

When it was announced that he had been selected, I was filled with the darkest dread I have ever felt in my life. I went into something of a fugue state. I saw us getting into wars, oppression, illegalities, economic ruin...in short, everything that has come to pass.

I tried telling some people but it suddenly dawned on me that if I kept that up, I was on hot rails to regular Thorazine suppositories as the center of my life. So I shut up about it.

It is very thin comfort to know how accurate that vision was. Very thin indeed.

[Mnemosyne]

42. "It's the end of the world as we know it..." ran through my head,

over and over and over again starting the day * was selected. I felt physically ill.

And have felt sick ever since.

Is * really going to leave? It still feels almost surreal to know Mr.Obama has truly been elected.

How nice it feels to write, President Obama! :applause::woohoo::bounce:

[BlueMTexpat]

71. Yes. Just yes.

That was exactly how I felt. Molly Ivins had his number from the get-go.

There were plenty of other indications for anyone who was paying attention. He was mean, lazy, spoiled rotten, still an immature frat boy at heart ... mentally incurious; he debased people with his oh-so-cute little nicknames (even some whose nicknames fit, like "Turd Blossom"); he got out of service in Vietnam through his family connections (OK, so a lot of people did what they could to stay out of that awful war) but then didn't even fulfill his obligations in the National Guard. He had everything handed to him merely by virtue of birth and felt no responsibility to anyone, even his own children. They were "Laura's." He had run his business ventures into bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by Daddy's friends. His addictions and mere substitution of evangelical religion for them, instead of making the acknowledgements and taking the steps that all recovering addicts must do did not bode well at all to anyone who has ever been an addict or lived with a family member subject to addictions. He also had an extremely vindictive streak and manifested it towards anyone whom he felt had slighted him or his family.

The mere fact that he selected Darth as his running mate was also a major indication. I remembered Darth and Mrs. Darth only too well from their previous incarnations in USG positions and chills ran down my spine.

And his obsession with Saddam Hussein had been evident since the '90s. That fit in quite nicely with the visions of Darth and the neocons for their anticipated redrawing of maps in the ME.

What amazed me most was that so many others simply hadn't been paying attention.

[This One]

11. No, because no one predicted 9/11

[hunter]

29. 9/11 ??????? WTF???????

Damn that Osama Bin Laden was like some kind of evil super-genius to outsmart our brilliant all-american hero George W. Bush...

[Donnachaidh]

32. no one predicted Cheney's War for Oil either.

:eyes:

[BrklynLiberal]

51. Wrong. It was predicted. BushCo ignored the warnings.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/18/intelligence.hearings/

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/politics/10terror.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13203-2005Feb10.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2098861/

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0523/p11s01-coop.html

http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_warnings.html

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/16/bush.sept.11/

[HughBeaumont]

80. Here's another giant comprehensive list.

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&warning_signs:_specific_cases

40 times? Kind of kills the whole "Bewsh was completely innuhcent! How could he've known???" argument, doesn't it?

[wildbilln864]

12. this was fully intended IMHO. Not a screwup. Mission accomplished again! nt

[Mnemosyne]

45. Word. Not incompetent at all. n/t

[MazeRat7]

14. Texas here. Yes we knew... but nobody listened n/t

[daninthemoon]

15. I knew he would screw up. I knew he would screw us with malice aforethought.

I couldn't have imagined how thoroughly he would dismantle the country, the world. I feel like we are only days away from a mad max world, on any given day the last seems could rip. I just hope Obama is up to fixing this: the biggest mess in human history. bush and cheney and the rest belong alongside hitler.

[leftofthedial]

16. I thought it would be worse

in that I doubted we would survive at all.


but I never imagined the devastation on so many fronts. EVERYTHING is fucked up. EVERYTHING.

Goddamned rich, privileged fucks.

[Cleita]

18. Considering the twelve awful years we had with St. Ronnie & HW

I did not have high expectations, however, I didn't expect the horror of the Bush Doctrine of wars and torture.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. I knew he'd be the end of the Republican party.

But since I didn't predict 9-11, I did not expect it would take him four extra years, several thousand U.S. troops, a million Iraqis, the stockmarket, and the U.S. Constitution to do so.

[Terran]

20. I didn't.

I thought he'd be weak and incompetent, not the bull-in-a-chinashop incompetent he turned out to be. My aged mom called it back in 2000. She said to me, "He scares me!" and I just laughed it off, thinking he was too dumb to be scary. Boy wuz I wrong.

[Are_grits_groceries]

22. No.

I knew he would screw things up royally, but not to this extent. However, when Darth Cheney made his moves, it was all over. He
is the one who knew how to work the government and had his fingers in every part of it. Read "Angler." That man is evil.

[AzDar]

24. I've been screaming like Chicken Little since 2000, to the point where

some friends and neighbors began avoiding me. I knew from the very moment I first laid eyes on Gee Dubya Fuckstick that he was that horrid combination of stupid and mean, and would mess things up accordingly if he somehow managed to weasel his way into the White House. I must say, however, that I NEVER thought he'd get away with SO MUCH. I couldn't possibly imagine how badly our system of checks and balances would fail us. I also knew, absolutely KNEW, that he would be a one-termer.
When he stole another term in 2004, I fell into a black depression that kept me confined to my bedroom for an entire week following the election. Dark, dark, days.

I finally am beginning to see the Obama at the end of the tunnel, though, and January 20 cannot come quickly enough.


I want the Bushes TO PAY for what they've done, the whole crooked lot...

[Liberal_in_LA]

60. No, I didn't think it would be THIS bad.

[sofa king]

61. Ah, a kindred spirit.

One of the things I look forward to is a world in which I can't accurately guess that tomorrow I will be lied to by the press and by my President. I've been right about that for the past 2,800 days in a row.

[CC]

25. Yes

I wrote an email to a repuke * supporter in 1999 with a list of things that would happen should * win. Only two things didn't, gas didn't get over $5. a gallon (yet,I keep reminding her there is still time) and I never even imagined he would get into office without winning it. I remind her often how she laughed at me about saying with him would come the high prices, lack of jobs, broken & broke government and wars.

[Double T]

27. W probably just got finished torturing frogs resulting in his 'out of it' or 'troubled' look.

This family is proof positive that criminals are borne from genetics and environment.

[tanyev]

28. I didn't. I thought it would be 4 embarrassing years with an aging frat boy

in the White House, but I never imagined the depths his administration would plumb.

[liberalmuse]

30. Yes...

I thought he would screw up really bad, but even back than I didn't comprehend the depth and scope of his ability.

[Donnachaidh]

31. for shit's sake -- the guy BANKRUPTED *2* Oil companies!

He was set on doing the same to the entire country. And all the doofus's that voted for him because they wanted to *have a beer* with him make me want to smack them ALL upside the head.

[Frank Cannon]

73. And he managed to do that during an oil boom

The guy was a plainly obvious fuckup from the very start. I knew he would run this country into the ground, but by the goddesses, I somehow hoped that he wouldn't.

[onethatcares]

33. all you had to do was try to find a copy of Fortunate Son,

when that got disappeared, I knew we were in for some bad times. Anyone know where I can get a copy of that book?

Peace

[dysfunctional press]

37. there are some available on amazon...

here's a pick of me with the now deceased author, j.h.hatfield:


the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunate-Son-George-Early-Years/dp/1904132464/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227136053&sr=8-13

[Joe Chi Minh]

34. There were som pretty clear signs. But sometimes distance lends perspective

as well as enchantment.

[dysfunctional press]

35. actually, we're in better shape than i thought we'd be in by now...

i guess i misunderestimitized his potentialishness.

[Turbineguy]

39. Well, yes.

I must say, he has done worse than I ever expected. But he had a lot of help.

[corpseratemedia]

40. yes

I had read an article about his years in Texas before the GE. Just imagine if he'd got his wish to privatize Social Security.

At least he didn't pull off war with Iran AND North Korea...yet! He's got a few weeks left!

[wryter2000]

41. I didn't know anyone could be this bad

For crying out loud, Reagan was senile for part of his administration, and he didn't wreak this much havoc.

[blm]

43. I did. But, then, I was familiar with BCCI and the Bush family relationship with Bin Ladens.

I also remember sadly reading Molly Ivins prediction that Bush wouldn't do anything too harmful, as he didn't really do too much damage to Texas as governor. Reading it from MY point of view, which was all about the growing global terrorism and the coverups of so much fascism, I was dealt a blow to my heart from Molly's soft view of Bush back then.

[Greyhound]

46. Once I got over the shock of enough people voting for such an obvious moran

to pull off the coup, I figured our days were numbered, but I didn't imagine that Congress would let him do as much as he has.

[Mnemosyne]

47. I knew, but really didn't believe he wanted to even finish the first year.

I hoped I was delusional alarmist. Wish I had been...

[Richard Steele]

48. I was not as "in touch" as many of you back in 2000. I never imagined it could be this bad.

I never imagined that ANY administration could do so much damage
to the foundations of our Nation in just a few short years.

Imagine my surprise. :(

[BrklynLiberal]

49. I was hoping I was wrong...but I had never read anything good about him...

[lib2DaBone]

52. All Hat.. No Cattle... God Bless Molly Ivins....

Molly was right on target all along. I saw through Bush during the election in 1999 when Beverely Harris caged all the voters in Florida. Remember when Karl Rove sent all the young Republicans to Ft. Lauderdale to bang on the glass and disrupt the re-count? The media covered it up and Americans went shopping at Wal-Mart.

My own family disowned me because I railed against Junior for 8 long years... no one wanted to hear about it. No one cared about the Patriot Act or Torture or FISA spying.

Everyone just wanted to "have a beer with Bush", because he is a cool guy. Ya, good luck. Hey NASCAR.. how's that support for Bush working out these days? What.. you don't have a job and they kicked you out of your doublewide? What a shame.....

[Richard D]

53. Yes.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

54. It was evident to anyone willing to see that he was great at ruin.

And little else.

[Horse with no Name]

55. Yes. I live in Texas.

I'm still suffering from the havoc he created here.

[Uncle Joe]

57. The debates sealed the deal with me, I knew then not only was he incompetent,

but a petulant liar as well.

When he and his goons fought to keep the votes from being counted in Florida, that put a double seal on the deal.

My words after the corporate media called it for him was God help us all, just before going to bed.

Nothing he's done over the past eight years has surprised me.

P.S. I was suspicious of Cheney's integrity and role from the start as well, anybody who searches the nation over for the best Vice-Presidential candidate only to have himself/herself "chosen" has a major blind spot where conflict of interest would be concerned. As to their administration this also smelled somewhat of incest to me.

I view the past eight years as a gift to the American People from a spiteful, vindictive and petty corporate media. Upset because they knew the Internet would grow to slowly suck their monopolistic hold on power, influence and money from them as the American People would be empowered to go through or around the corporate media filter. This is why the corporate media trashed and slandered the primary political champion behind opening up the Internet to the people for the better part of two years prior to the selection of 2000, while they simultaneously camouflaged Bush's obvious shortcomings, lies, mistakes and errors. The corporate media enabled corrupt, incompetence to the most powerful job in the land over vision and dedication to the people and the concept of democracy and there could be no other result from that betrayal against the American People's best interests.

[sofa king]

59. Oh hell yes, I did.

I believe I can recall verbatim one quote I made on the subject, over on the Straight Dope Message Boards about eight years ago: "mark my words: he's gonna be the worst goddamned President we've ever had." Some people laughed at me about that for, oh, another two months or so.

And then he took office.

Ever since Bush had a chance of stealing it, I've been the Chicken Little of the Internets. "He's gonna steal the election," I said. "He's gonna split to the right as soon as he takes office," I said. He's gonna ruin our international relations. He's gonna start an illegal war. He's torturing people. He's dealing heroin through the CIA. He's behind the anthrax. He dove out of the way of 9/11. He outed a CIA agent. He's systematically murdering Iraqis the same way the Germans did. He started a war in the Philippines you don't know about. Blah, blah, blah.

Nobody listened to a goddamned word, and now the only things I wasn't right about are the things they're still covering up.

I was one voice among millions who were screaming the same things. But people believe what they want to believe until the truth starts biting them in the ass, hard.

And I'll make one more prediction right now: if Barack Obama proves to be the real deal, as I think he is, and he matches his current level of competence and success, and I hope he will, the most important thing he will do in America is make it safe for stupidity to return to politics. Enjoy this guy while he lasts, because unless Obama is a truly special person, the Bushes and criminals like them will be back before you know it.

[McCamy Taylor]

62. Yes, but we are from Texas. I predicted most everything that has happened in a letter to Nader.

I predicted a staged war in a country with brown folks (was not sure whether it would be South America or the Middle East).

I predicted that the price of oil would go sky high, causing massive problems for many other sectors of the economy dependent upon oil and for consumers.

I predicted health care problems galore, massive profits for the insurance industry and drug industries with debt for consumers.

I predicted a repeat of Reagan/Bush in terms of no regulation of industry and raid on federal coffers.

I predicted dirty tricks against enemies of Bush.

I predicted selective enforcement of the law by the DOJ.

Since Bush was only installed in office through trampling on the Constitution, it was clear that was going to be trashed in order to give him legitimacy. And the MSM had to be co-opted, otherwise every unpopular thing he did would remind people he was selected not elected.

Those of us who knew about W. knew that he was big trouble. Rove and Cheney were bigger trouble and all the ex-Iran Contras and ex-Nixon people could only make it worse.

[RobinA]

63. I Didn't

I figured he was stupid, but wouldn't be dangerous because the people around him would save us from anything really nasty. Ha!!! Never, in a million years, did I figure that the United States would condone torture as a matter of policy.

[KatyMan]

66. I remember using the phrase

'Another Bush, Another War, Another recession'...don't remember where it came from though. Lost family and friends (still!) thanks to my anti-Bush stance in 99-00...

[TXDemGal]

67. As someone who has been on "the internets" since

the 1980s, I definitely knew a second Bush regime was going to be REALLY BAD. I remember lamenting to my husband, and others, before the 2000 election that another Bush in the White House would equal war, economic plunder, and all sorts of good shit like that. Hubby would look at me like I had two heads. Since we'd been living in Texas during Bush's stint as Guv, hubs would say, "But he's been a pretty moderate governor, so how bad could he be?" Gah. To his credit, hubs was (and is) a lifelong Dem, but he wasn't aware of PNAC and the neo-cons yet. At some point, he said to me, "You were right." Sadly, yes. :(

[The Inquisitive]

68. No, I didn't think such incompetence even existed.

[ConsAreLiars]

69. During the election I had to deal with an obviously RW putz "money manager"

after my mother's account got transferred from the good guy I had located, who died young (RIP Mr. Lu), to him. We were both obvious opposites, and I told him that he wouldn't believe me but a Chimpy regime would mean that the US would lose what little remained of its economic capacity and the only jobs growing would be as imperial mercenaries. Not those words, but that point. I didn't argue the case about the implications for money-grubbers, since I didn't want him to get any tips, but I assume he just laughed and is now worrying about his 3 car payments and McMansion payments.

[Subtropical]

70. More a sense of very deliberate, palpable, evil.

The thought in my head late that night was "slow-moving-coup."
The feeling in my stomach was pure fear and dread.
The take-no-prisoners attitude of the Bush team as they spoke on TV.
The sense that they were going to have the presidency, no matter what.
I had never felt that vibe before from any political campaign.
"This is going to be bad," I said out loud to myself, after getting back up during the wee hours,
unable to sleep, flipping the TV back on to see the bad news unchanged
and the black SUV's of the Bush entourage on the move.

[Hekate]

74. MOLLY IVINS WARNED US. SHE KNEW. Sorry for yelling. nt

[bmbmd]

81. So did Will Farrell.

He did a brilliant skit as W cowering under the desk drinking beer while the world was in flames around him.

[Hekate]

75. We had a coup d'etat. We had a bloodless coup. The SCOTUS went Banana Republic on us...

It put me in shock. For about two minutes I was willing to believe the *hole in Chief's claim to be a "uniter" but from Day One in the Oval knew that was a lie. Then on 9-11 he had me for a few hours, until it became clear that he was hiding and incommunicado, and by the time he told us to go shopping I knew that nothing he could ever say or do would be anything but a lie and a disaster.

So yes, based on the above and on Molly Ivins' warning, I sorta knew.

And he's not gone yet.

Hekate

[bklyncowgirl]

76. I thought he'd be pretty damn awful but the depths of his incompetence has surprised me.

Back in 2000 when I was trying to decide whether to vote for Democrat Al Gore or cast a protest vote for Ralph Nader, I decided to take a good look at George W. Bush. What I saw disturbed me. Here was a man with few accomplishments, a long history of screwing up and being bailed out by his father and as shown in his campaign against John McCain and his earlier campaign agains Ann Richards, a man who was capable of the most disgusting sort of gutter politics.

I voted for Gore despite the fact that I live in a safe blue state and was not happy with his campaign or platform and urged everyone I knew to do the same.

That being said, the sheer volume of havoc wreaked by this man and the crew of crooks and ideologues who used him has been remarkable. I'm trying to think of an historical precedent and about the only one I can think of are the reigns of Rome's greatest disasters, Caligula and Nero two "legacy" emperors who were totally unprepared for their roles and managed to run the worlds greatest power into the ground in a few short years.

The question about Bush for me has always been "Evil" or "Incompetent". Right now I'm leaning toward "Incompetent" but used and manipulated by "Evil". It doesn't matter. The results are the same.

[Botany]

77. thanx to all who posted!

Is there anyway * can just leave the keys under the door mat and
go away now?

[B Calm]

78. I knew the middle class were fucked when the Supreme Court selected him!

[Beausoleil]

79. Yes

to the point that I knew the next president would be a Democrat. Thought it would only take four years, though. I really wasn't thinking about election fraud before 12/2000.

I did not realize how bad it was going to be, but I pretty much knew that we'd be in a war and that the economy would tank and a Democrat would be needed to fix it.