Bronze-level articleGeorge W. Bush

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I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.
—George W. Bush[1]
January 20, 2009: we waited so long for this moment, we didn't know what to say.

George Walker Bush, aka. "Dubya" or "Shrub," was the 43rd President of the United States, who somehow managed to serve two terms, from 2001 to 2009. He is the son of 41st president George H. W. Bush, and is famous for having the largest number of people ever in history to protest against him.

He is famous for "opposing nation-building"[2] in his 2000 election campaign, then proceeding to take military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and commencing nation-building. He claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. No one has been able to find them (yet). He "caused the War on Terror."[3]

Contents

[edit] Election controversy

See the main article on this topic: 2000 U.S. Presidential Election

Bush was initially elected in 2000, running against then-Vice President Al Gore. The vote was very close, with the election hanging on a very few votes in Florida; due to this, the election eventually had to be resolved in the Supreme Court in the debacle known as Bush v. Gore.

Due to the circumstances surrounding the election, or the first several months of his presidency, some people (Michael Moore, for example[4]) maintained that Bush was not the "legitimate" president, and that it was stolen by Bush, his brother Jeb, the Governor of Florida at the time, and Florida's Secretary of State in charge of the recount, Katherine Harris. The People's Weekly World went so far as to enclose the word "President" in scare quotes when referring to him. Such chatter mostly ceased when 9/11 and its aftermath gave these detractors a ready, large supply of valid reasons (with some exceptions on the validity part) to criticize Bush, such as concerns over civil rights violations.

[edit] Presidency

An early assessment of Bush's legacy.
I'm getting more of a 'Nam vibe. You know, unwinnable wars, inescabable downward spiral, chaos in the streets. That sort of thing.
—Psychic Stephen T. Colbert on November 7, 2000[5]

Dubya's presidency was arguably one of the most infamous in history:

  • The economy struggled — while the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered the "numbers" lost in the post-dot com boom crash, the dollar dropped by a similar amount against the euro — meaning that in euros, the U.S. economy was stagnant for six years.
  • He ignored science on several every major issue, preferring to promote bizarre policies, such as abstinence-only sex education. (This even hampered what may objectively be his only positive legacy to the world, a spike in AIDS funding to Africa.[6])
  • Two potentially "useful" contributions, "No Child Left Behind" and the immigration reform thing, failed because of lack of funding and lack of support, respectively.
  • In fact, almost everything his administration touched turned to custard. The American Dream Downpayment Act 2003 was crafted as laudable attempt to create 5.5 million new homeowners by 2010. In reality, it encouraged private lenders to reduce their lending standards (like, for instance, not being too fussed about documentation of income and assets), thus triggering the boom in so-called "subprime" mortgages in the first decade of the 21st century.[7] The result was tens of millions of dollars of debt for people who couldn't be expected to repay them. This debt was taken to ratings agencies, "securitized" (they slapped "AAA" on them) and sold on to businesses, pensioners and even entire countries, also thanks to financial reforms pushed through by Reagan and Dubya's dad. This worked fine, so long as interest rates stayed low (so their debts didn't increase rapidly — something Alan Greenspan was happy to do), people kept their jobs (so what was left of their income stream remained) and real estate prices kept rising (so the long-term value of their property assets increased). As anyone living in America, or the developed world as a whole, will realise, none of these things happened.
  • Bush is also the creator of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, an office of the White House that focuses on tearing down the wall of separation of church and state through the use of so called faith-based initiatives, which include teaching school children that prayer will magically solve all of their problems, and spreading blatant propaganda.
  • All in all, his end-of term approval ratings were so low they fell down to numbers reminiscent of Richard Nixon after Watergate.
While misspending his youth, he managed to avoid military service by hiding in the National Guard, which he skipped out on early.

The Bush Administration also:

You know what, screw it. Go on his Wikipedia page and you won't make it past the first few paragraphs.

[edit] The Pet Goat

The Pet Goat is a children's story about a pet goat that eats everything around. It is owned by a little girl who protests when her parents want to get rid of it. In the end the goat beats a car robber, making it a hero. The moral of the story is that we must treat everybody else kindly because they will help us one day, even if we don't expect them to.[11]

Bush was reading this book with a group of youngsters at a photo-op school visit in Florida when he was informed of an aircraft hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11.[12] He was so engrossed by the prose of The Pet Goat that he kept right on reading with the kids for seven more minutes even after he was informed that a second plane had hit the towers. This is, without a doubt, proof of the enthralling nature of the goat, even to Dubya.[13] The Pet Goat was first brought up in Fahrenheit 9/11. (In all fairness, it's possible that he didn't want to frighten the children by alerting them to what was going on.)

[edit] Legacy

I think the lens of history is not changing. A lot of us used to say President Bush will look good and he'll be vindicated in the public eye. But realistically speaking, I don't see a lot of the people who write history all of a sudden changing their mind about George W. Bush.
—Former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleisher[14]

A president's "legacy" has become a short-term version of their historical place in the pantheon; short-term, in that actual sitting presidents worry about it.

The whole world now knows that Bush's legacy will be that under his watch (besides allowing being in office when an Al-Qaeda attack killed thousands of Americans, botching the response to Hurricane Katrina, etc.) what many consider to be the Second Great Depression started. Or, perhaps, the world's biggest "no eyes attached" bailout of the financial sector of the economy. Or maybe both? Either way, the first possibility simply sucks, and the second is socialism done really badly.

Dubya finished as the 36th president overall in an early 2009 poll of 65 historians conducted by C-SPAN.[15] He beat out luminary presidents such as Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore, and James Buchanan. The overall ranking was averaged from scores given in ten areas. Some examples:

  • 40th in economic management. He beat out the father of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, but couldn't quite get past the guy who died after only a month in office (William Henry Harrison). This is unfair to Hoover since he came into office seven months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, while Bush had nearly eight years before his disaster. Hoover simply bungled the management of the Depression, while Bush played an active role in triggering the Great Recession.
  • 41st in international relations. He's dead last here, unless you count his beating W.H. Harrison (see above).
  • 37th in administrative skills. So much for that MBA.

He is the first and perhaps only sitting President depicted in cinema wiping his ass.[16]

[edit] "Throw Your Shoe at Bush"

During Bush's surprise visit to Iraq on December 14, 2008, an heroic angry Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, hurled his size 10 shoes at him during a news conference, calling him a "dog."[17] Dubya somehow managed to dodge both shoes, but the incident has inspired myriad parodies.[18] The journalist was sentenced to three years in the slammer, later reduced to 1 year.[19]

[edit] Heads stuck in the sand

No, really: many of today's Republicans now deride a POTUS they unanimously supported (or even wanted to make "president for life") as a RINO, having sold out all "true conservative principles."[20][21] This is yet another fit of wingnut negationism post-recession, spanning from Herbert Hoover's supposed crypto-socialism to Saint Reagan's spectacular efforts at fiscal restraint.

[edit] Memoirs

In 2010, Bush published his memoirs, Decision Points, in which he defended using torture as an interrogation method (really pushing it there, are ya!) and described a bizarre moment when his mother showed him the fetus she'd miscarried. Also, of all the low points of his presidency, being called a racist by Kanye West was apparently the absolute worst, because it made him feel really sad inside.

However, in living up to his reputation that he'd never read a book in any depth, let alone written one, claims soon appeared stating that whole passages of his "memoir" were lifted wholesale from other books, especially those written by former aides.[22]

[edit] Torture

Since the release of this book, Amnesty International has been calling for his arrest every time he's left or attempted to leave the country, asserting it holds sufficient evidence that he had criminal knowledge of US torture. This caused him to cancel a trip to Geneva, Switzerland in February 2011; they repeated their demands on his trips to Canada in October 2011 and Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia in December 2011, but those countries were not so lucky.

Investigations of alleged (and admitted) war crimes unfortunately fail to start due to one crucial factor — it would be political suicide. Interestingly, the lack of evidence, or prima facie existence of a case to be answered for has not been cited as a reason against prosecution, leaving open a window if the US ever changes its mind on "only looking forwards, not backwards." In Malaysia, Bush and Tony Blair have been convicted in absentia partially on the basis of this book; however the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (which found the conviction) is not recognised by any official body as a legitimate court.

Perhaps in an ideal world someone would bring him and his buddies to The Hague before he pops his clogs, but since the US has not ratified the Rome Statute it is almost certain they will not consider any case against him.[23] We'll probably get some truth commission[wp] decades after the fact.

[edit] Irony, guilt or change-of-heart?

04/17/2014 - George W. Bush Debuts New Paintings of Dogs, Friends, Ghost of Iraqi Child That Follows Him Everywhere
The Onion

Living under the radar (compared to the constant scrutiny while in office), Bush and spouse have spent time in Africa opening and renovating medical clinics.[24]

He also spends time painting portraits of former White House dog Checkers Barney and other assorted crap.[25] The ones of himself in the shower are especially disturbing.

Mr. Bush is currently engaged in two part-time jobs, one as a paid speaker, and the other as scapegoat for the malfeasance of various elected officials.

[edit] See also

Icon fun.svg For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about George W. Bush.

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. The context is that Dubya finished an interview about shutting off a dam to save endangered fish. He didn't want to, surprise. After that, he oddly went back to the podium and said the quote, and ended on that note. Still makes little sense.
  2. Here, have a sound bite
  3. Bush's Ten Flip-Flops, CBS News
  4. Stupid White Men, Chapter 1.
  5. Indecision 2000
  6. In Global Battle on AIDS, Bush Creates Legacy, The New York Times
  7. Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (New York: Allan Lane, 2009), p.267.
  8. See Alberto Gonzales and Regent University.
  9. Judge Rules Bush Advisers Can’t Ignore Subpoenas, The New York Times
  10. Justice Says CIA Destroyed 92 Tapes, Wall Street Journal
  11. "This book had me rivited to my chair!"
  12. Video. Notice the words the children chant before Bush is informed of the attack. Freaky.
  13. Joke: "I hear there was a fire at the Bush library." "Really? What a tragedy." "Yeah, they lost both books. He hadn't even finished coloring one of them yet."
  14. Was George W. Bush the worst president ever?, The Week
  15. List of presidential rankings, NBC News
  16. Reviews of Oliver Stone's W.
  17. Stop insulting dogs, dammit.
  18. See the Wikipedia article on List of shoe throwing incidents.
  19. Lawyer: Iraqi shoe-thrower to be released early, NBC News
  20. Here, here, and here.
  21. "Neo Culpa", David Rose, Vanity Fair. November 5, 2006 (VF's probably regretting this.)
  22. George Bush accused of borrowing from other books in his memoirs, The Guardian
  23. The ICC has considered cases against signatories that have not ratified the Statute in the past (eg. Sudan), however, these were guilty of outright genocide. They also didn't have an army of killer drones and a demonstrated propensity for illegal invasions.
  24. George and Laura Bush open clinic in Africa, Politico
  25. Fittingly, it appears that they were also mostly copied off of the Google.
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