With the opening of George W. Bush’s presidential library this week, I’ve been forced to remember the man and all he did, starting with punting his first election to the Supreme Court in order to win. Things just kept going downhill from there: His Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 responses, the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, a budget surplus converted to a monstrous deficit. The list seems endless, even just mentioning the “high points” that come to mind. My son thinks I’m some kind of sick for feeling so strongly, so enraged, whenever W. is mentioned, and I’ve no doubt that if I slapped on a BP cuff, I’d get an elevated reading. When it was announced his library was opening, my first thought was “What if they opened a presidential library and nobody came?” Heh, heh, heh. Yep, the man continues to bring out the very worst in me. It’s been painful this week just seeing his picture again.
Anyway, pursuant to his grand opening (I picture something more like a Walmart than a library), there’s a good article over on the Daily Kos that asks What If Bush Had Done Nothing? Interesting new way to look at it. Anybody can discuss all the inept things the man did that will forever be his legacy (doesn’t matter how hard his library tries to rewrite history; the facts speak for themselves). But what if he’d done nothing? Absolutely nothing. What if he’d just kicked back with his frat brothers and partied away the entire eight years? It’s heartbreaking to think how much better things would be if he had never lifted a finger.
It is my understanding that W’s interactive library presents the visitor with a summary of the facts he had at the time he made each of his big decisions, and that for the Iraq War it notes “incorrect” intelligence on WMD’s. Then the robotic library asks the visitor, “What would you have done?” Thus he neatly dumps all the blame on the CIA and ignores that he and Cheney made no public secret of what they thought the reports would say before they got them. It doesn’t take much signaling to make sycophants out of bureaucrats, something all good political leaders know. How embarrassing, and what a shameful evasion. yuk.
Just confirms what I’ve always thought about the man. I wonder if he’s ever owned up to anything in his life or if he’s always ducked responsibility — starting with his Air National Guard service — and let someone else take the fall.
That is a fantastic cartoon, PT.
I had picked up another one before I found this one. And this one fit my topic so well, I jumped on it.
Oh I just LOVE that image PT!!! 😀
🙂
“It’s heartbreaking to think how much better things would be if he had never lifted a finger.”
Heartbreaking. And ulcer-inducing.
I was thinking nausea, but ulcers will work.