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Old 01-11-2008, 04:23 PM
 
5,764 posts, read 11,591,134 times
Reputation: 3864

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This isn't an ideological post - I'm not talking about the content of Bush's policies or proposals. I'm talking about his poor ability to implement those policies.

This is something that Republicans, Democrats, and others have all commented upon. If you go back through Bush's various policy initiatives, from social security reform to tax reform to immigration reform to things like military base realignments or school vouchers, he has gotten very few of them implemented. In fact, in terms of major initiatives, we can identify only a handful that were actually put into place, and many of those came during his first term. Those would include:

-The Iraq War

-The tax cuts

-No Child Left Behind

-The Patriot Act

-CAFTA and a few other trade measures

-The tightening of bankruptcy laws

-His two Supreme Court appointments (though Harriet Miers, his original choice for Sam Alito's eventual seat, was rejected)

But not many others. Most other measures have been minor reshufflings of things within the budget, or were so overwhelmingly supported by the Congress that no big initiative was required (the 2001 war in Afghanistan, or the creation of the Homeland Security department, for example).

Compared to other two-term presidents, this is a rather thin record. Clinton and Reagan, to cite examples from recent history, both got much more passed during their times in office. And with hostile Congresses much of the time. Now, this may be either good or bad, depending on how you look at it, but they certainly did get more done in terms of their stated initiatives than Bush.

There are different explanations for this. Some claim that the Iraq war basically sucked the oxygen out of Bush's non-Iraq policies, and diminished them. However, LBJ and Nixon both managed to ram through a lot of non-Vietnam legislation while in office, so I'm not sure how convincing that explanation happens to be.

Some claim that Bush has been hobbled by events beyond his control, like 9/11 and Katrina, and that rushing from crisis to crisis has absorbed time that would otherwise be used to pass legislation. However, FDR during WWII faced far greater crisis, and yet still managed to run a cohesive domestic policy.

Some claim that Congress itself has become lazier, working three-day weeks and waiting until the last moment to take up legislation, or letting things lapse altogether. However, Bush was the leader of the party in control of Congress until November 2006, and surely he could have prodded them to work harder if necessary, right?

Still others claim that we may have simply hit a wall in our politics - the country is so finely divided along partisan lines that it is too scary to tackle big issues, because any misstep might cause things to tilt in one direction or the other politically - and neither party wants to be on the losing edge of such a tilt. That would be unfortunate, since it implies that we have elected a large group of cowards.

Probably it is a combination of all those things and more.

Why do you think Bush has had such trouble getting things accomplished during his time in office? How do you feel about this, whether or not you support him?
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Old 01-11-2008, 04:40 PM
 
229 posts, read 169,128 times
Reputation: 47
He was born stupid and learned how to be evil later.
That is the only lesson he ever learned.
Here is a typical pampered rich boy who lived it up at Yale, had a
homosexual relationship with Victor Ashe which he can't live down.
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Old 01-11-2008, 04:42 PM
 
3 posts, read 42,991 times
Reputation: 12
Because he's a corrupt fool from a rich and connected family. It's that simple.
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Old 01-11-2008, 04:55 PM
 
365 posts, read 696,783 times
Reputation: 69
Quote:
Originally Posted by yakijy View Post
He was born stupid and learned how to be evil later.
That is the only lesson he ever learned.
Here is a typical pampered rich boy who lived it up at Yale, had a
homosexual relationship with Victor Ashe which he can't live down.
I love your posts ... I tried to rate you again but it said I had to spread some more reputation around before I rated you again, lol...
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Old 01-11-2008, 05:03 PM
 
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,271 posts, read 53,985,563 times
Reputation: 40551
I think he had far too many preconceived notions of what a President should do long before he took office and was unwilling/unable to adapt to a constantly changing (inter)national situation.
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Old 01-11-2008, 06:57 PM
 
8,289 posts, read 13,507,325 times
Reputation: 5018
it's his "my way or the highway" mentality that has alienated him not only from the public but even amongst his own party in Congress. In school he would be deemed a knucklehead.
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Old 01-11-2008, 07:52 PM
 
Location: #
9,598 posts, read 16,492,716 times
Reputation: 6323
Eh, Bush isn't stupid. But without his connections, he's a mediocre student at Texas Tech destined for middle-management.
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Old 01-11-2008, 08:01 PM
 
1,573 posts, read 4,049,238 times
Reputation: 527
Bush's presidency has been intensely partisan, whereas Bush Sr. and Clinton's were not. Alot of stuff Bush has done, has been done for no other reason than to snub progressives and Democrats and conversely reward his buddies (the "have mores" and religious nuts), not to do the right thing for everybody.
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Old 01-11-2008, 08:14 PM
 
4,410 posts, read 6,117,825 times
Reputation: 2908
Because Bush never set out to do anything. He had no goals as President. He did what he was told to do by people far more evil than he is.

After he leaves office, he will never stop to realize how much of an opportunity he wasted. Like the Hudsucker Proxy, he'll be too stupid to figure out that he's being used until it's too late, if at all. Unfortunately, our corporatocracy can only install people that will pose no threat to their puppet strings. Bush 2 was a perfect example, believing in his own hype and not ever becoming conscious of the consequences of his actions.
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Old 01-11-2008, 08:28 PM
 
Location: Arizona
5,408 posts, read 7,769,602 times
Reputation: 1198
Well... he has recently predicted he will help bring about peace in the middle east by the end of his term.

ROTFLMAO.
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