Canada's Globe And Mail: "George W. Bush: The Bygone American" ('Forgotten,' 'Ignored')

[Hissyspit]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080330.wIbbitson31/BNStory/International/home

Bush: 'The Forgotten American', Being Completely 'Ignored'

George W. Bush: The bygone American
JOHN IBBITSON

From Monday's Globe and Mail

March 30, 2008 at 7:23 PM EDT

Meanwhile, back at the White House … George W. Bush is in danger of becoming a forgotten President.

The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is consuming most of the political oxygen, and what's left is taken up by Republican nominee John McCain's efforts to define his candidacy.

All presidents in the final year of a final mandate are lame ducks. But Mr. Bush is experiencing something unheard of for a U.S. president. He's being ignored.

Did you know, for example, that Mr. Bush will be visiting Russia this week to meet with outgoing President Vladimir Putin? Meetings between U.S. and Russian leaders used to be a big deal and the agenda for this one is important: disputes over missile defence and trade, for starters.

Yet The Wall Street Journal consigned the announcement to page 11 and The Washington Post put in on page 5, while The New York Times figured it was good enough for page 15.

The U.S. economy teeters on the brink of recession, threatened by falling home prices and worthless mortgages; even Wall Street has lost confidence in Wall Street.

What is the President doing to avert the crisis? Who cares?

- snip -

The problem is that Mr. Bush's legacy is unambiguously dismal. He is leaving the economy in worse shape than he found it, with an extra $4-trillion added to the national debt for good measure. He presided over a vast expansion, and abuse, of the powers of his office. The legacy of Guantanamo, torture and wiretaps will not soon be forgotten.

The war on terror has had few tangible successes and many apparent failures. And elsewhere in foreign policy, the record has been bleak. To take just one example: when Mr. Bush first met Mr. Putin, Mr. Bush declared that he had looked the Russian President in the eye, “was able to get a sense of his soul,” and found him “very straightforward and trustworthy.” Seven years later, Russia is more powerful, more aggressive and considerably less friendly toward the United States.

Because Mr. Bush is held in such low regard by Congress and the American people – his popular approval rating is currently one of the worst ever recorded for a president in office – he is even more constrained than other lame duck presidents.

- snip -

Bill Clinton, despite the embarrassment of impeachment, had sufficient political capital in his final year to come within a hair's breadth of negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

- snip -

And then, first and finally, there is Iraq. Prof. Berman predicts that “in 10 or 15 years, when all of the information is out on the decision to go to war, and all the intelligence is available, I think that President Bush will not fare well.” Some would consider that a scholarly understatement.

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[tuvor]

1. I'm sure he's glad no one's paying attention.

Imagine what he'll get away with.

[JeffR]

2. Ibbitson's usually a bit of a dunderhead, but in this case

he's dead on. If anything, his assessment doesn't go far enough. And the Berman quote is a profound understatement. Ain't going to take 10 or 15 years at all. Many of us know now, and many people will soon realize, that Bush will not fare well in public hindsight. Sad that more people didn't see this in 2000, and especially 2004. But a hell of a lot of people did.

[L. Coyote]

3. Ignored? Not when a chance to BOOOOOO him arises! LOL