if Bush was President Nobody would Care if he went

[JI7]

because nobody likes him . in fact they would probably prefer he not attend.

Obama is actually popular and very well liked around the world so it's important to keep that in mind. people would liked to have seen him. just having obama there would have made the images more appealing.

[unblock]

1. across the board, obama has been judged by an entirely different standard.

not sure i can find exact links, but i'm pretty sure the msm at one time characterized shrub as a "popular president" when he had a 52% approval rating and obama as an "unpopular president" when he had exactly the same rating.

the stock market actually went down over shrub's 8 years, something that probably has never happened for any two-term president ever. obama's stock market performance so far is among the very best. i know, the stock market isn't the greatest measure of the economy, but it's not completely independent of it either.

shrub is judged by the standard of his incompetence, and given that the country didn't *completely* fall apart, he's judged a success; obama is judged by the standard of hope and of his potential, and given that we can *imagine* an even better presidency, he's judged a failure.

a small taste of what many minorities face in their less visible jobs, alas.

[NuclearDem]

2. If Bush went I'm pretty sure we'd see accusations of the whole situation

being just a neocon plot.

[hughee99]

3. If Bush were President, many here would be upset that he didn't go,

or send the Sec. State (no one would even suggest Cheney would be a good person to send to this) and some would blame him for the attacks in the first place.

[glasshouses]

4. A week from now no one will be even talking about this

We have our own shit to worry about