No country for the burnt Bushes

[seafan]

No country for the burnt Bushes

Stefanie Balogh
November 16, 2008

Suburban streets littered with mortgage foreclosure signs are some of the worst images that taint the eight-year US presidency of George W. Bush.
Amputee soldiers recuperating in a rat-and-cockroach infested military hospital ward and thousands of hurricane-belted Americans chaotically crammed into the New Orleans Superdome make up the rest.
When he hands over the keys to the White House on January 20, taking his swagger, tortured phrases and cowboy boots back to his Texas ranch, Mr Bush will have sunk to the lowest approval rating for any post-World War II president.

The country's president-elect, Barack Obama, will inherit the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and, generally, worldwide against terror. Not to mention the continued quest for elusive al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

And Senator Obama also enters the White House knowing the US's reputation overseas is in tatters.

George W. Bush will be remembered for leaving his successor with, as he may well say, one helluva mess.
The outgoing Commander-in-Chief can add to his CV the flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, Republican corruption and the Abu Ghraib jail scandal.
Note, too, the bungled response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, Guantanamo Bay isolation and the Walter Reed National Army Medical Centre scandal of sub-standard treatment of wounded Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

.....

But as grandson of powerful US Senator Prescott Bush, son of former US president George H.W. Bush and brother of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, George W. trashed the family name.
For many, the President has become a joke, cruelly lampooned as the idiot son who ran his country into the ground. On the bright side, he is so vilified, unpopular and so viciously criticised that the only way from here is up.
Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, in President Bush's home state of Texas, cautions that it would be premature to say the once all-powerful conservative Bush dynasty had ended with a lame duck. Jeb Bush, the smarter brother who many thought would be president, has probably missed the boat. But there is always Jeb's son, George Prescott Bush, 32.

"The Bush brand is badly tarnished, but nothing is permanent," Prof Jillson says.
"The current feeling is very negative and will remain negative in the analysis of his (George W. Bush's) place in US history among the presidents. I think he will be lucky to get out of the bottom five or 10."

.....

On the weekend, George H.W. Bush, 41st president and vice-president to Ronald Reagan, told a hometown audience he and wife Barbara were looking forward to "getting our son back from the rat race there".

.....

His presidency began and ended with extraordinary events: the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon and ended with the world's worst financial crisis. ..... He leaves behind a national debt that has soared from less than $US6 trillion when he took office to more than $US10 trillion.

The US Federal Government's deficit for the 2008-09 financial year is almost $US455 billion, up $US162 billion from last year. The size of the bailout package and possible extra stimulus measures could take the deficit to $US1 trillion.

So George W. Bush can add to his legacy, literally, bankrupting the family name.

That ride into the sunset may not be so blissful for George W. Bush. The International Criminal Court may come calling for the giggling murderer.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Indeed...NO COUNTRY FOR THE DUDE....HE HAS fucked up so many to benifit so few

Evil man he is....

[hobbit709]

2. May the Bush name become as the name John in the British royalty.

There hasn't been a King John since 1216 and with good reason.

[aquart]

3. Unfortunately, their names are George.

George is a name we're fond of on our side.