Just one more year! Good riddance to George W Bush

[Lasher]

But what kind of mess will the next president inherit, exactly 12 months from today? By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Published: 20 January 2008

Today is a sombre milestone, marking the start of the last of Mr Bush's eight years in the White House. This being a leap year, exactly 366 days remain until 20 January 2009, when his successor will be sworn into office. It is a time when incumbents look to their legacies. And for this President the view could scarcely be bleaker.

Is he the worst President in US history? Mr Bush faces stiff competition from the likes of James Buchanan, who watched as America slipped towards civil war, or Warren Harding with his corrupt administration, or Herbert Hoover, who failed to halt the slide into the Great Depression, or, more recently, Richard Nixon, the only President to be forced to resign. But in terms of dogmatism, incompetence, ignorance and divisiveness, Mr Bush surely compares with any of the above.

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Corporate cronyism has been rife. Globalisation and cuts driven by ideology have turned the wealth gap between rich Americans and the rest from an embarrassment into an obscenity. Since 2001 the real income of ordinary Americans has stagnated.

<snip>

Of even more immediate concern will be the surge in inequality that affronts America's inherent sense of fairness. Nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare. As Mr Bush has fiddled, the sickness of the existing system, which leaves a sixth of the population without coverage while consuming a similar share of the country's entire GDP, has become near terminal.

Even more corrosive has been the damage inflicted on the US system of governance. This President may have blithely ignored mainstream science, pretended global warming was not happening and only belatedly grasped the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In one domestic activity, however, Bush has not tarried: that of perverting and undermining the constitution in the name of expanding the President's power to fight his "war on terror".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3353777.ece

[hisownpetard]

1. "Just"? To me, one entire year to go with this lunatic at the helm makes me shudder.

What evil will he attempt to commit, before he steps off into the darkness?

[Lasher]

2. He'll try again to gut Social Security

Let's see: So many opportunities yet so little time left.

He's trying right now to somehow ensure the next president can't get our troops out of Iraq. And there's always the invasion of Iran. We'll see more wasteful tax giveaways to his rich cronies. He's not through destroying WH records. Gotta make sure the next guy can't give people access to records from his, Saint Ronnie's and Poppy's time in office.

Lots of potential there.

[hisownpetard]

3. So much to do, so few shredders that haven't melted yet.

[Lasher]

5. Hah!

Like your handle too.

[hisownpetard]

6. I like yours, too (and assume you have lots of wet noodles lying around).

[Daveparts]

4. George Lite

There won't be one dimes worth of difference between george and his successor. George is an actornot a producer.

[hisownpetard]

7. ???

Come again?

[Lasher]

8. Yeah, reads pretty much like, "Democrats are just as bad."

Looks like the standard former-Republican cop-out. Like, Junior is not a real Republican. Or I voted for him but I was never a Republican, and that's retroactive, BTW. Yep, libertarian, that's what I always was, that's the ticket. By disclaiming membership or agreement with either party some seek to throw rocks at both of them while claiming no responsibility for anything that happened in the past or will happen in the future. But you can't win a race if you don't enter it. Same thing if you get behind a snowball's chance like the idiot Ron Paul.

[DeeDeeNY]

9. Um, a year can be a very long time