« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Letting Go Of A President

By: Dave Poff (haystack) (Diary)  |  July 21st, 2008 at 08:17 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The looming departure from Pennsylvania Avenue for George and Laura Bush finally affords me the opportunity for a little closure. I mean, I stood by him through so many travails that I came to learn what “my President” really felt like.

The first Farm Bill…”but he’s my President.” Post 9/11 Airline bailout…”but he’s my President.” Harriet Miers, No Child Left Behind, Dubai Ports World, Social Security non-reform, prescription drug entitlements, ahem…cough…”immigration reform” cough, and the second Farm bill…”but, he’s my President” continued playing from my jukebox of political theme songs. I could go on-but the point is embedded somewhere deeply in my forehead. The veto pen that was on order for 6 years, only to show up when it didn’t even matter anymore…throughout ALL these abandonments I was right there behind him…because there was always the war on terror. At least George Bush stood as a man of principle on that issue. After all, the future of “freedom” and “liberty” sat squarely on GWB’s shoulders…and in him we could trust.

Until he decided to take Iraq off the table for Johnny Mac in the ’08 Presidentials, that is.

I mean, it was bad enough that he chose to stand down in the face of international pressure vis a vis the DPRK and their status on the short list of the so-called “axis of evil” but really now, do we REALLY need to capitulate to that nutjob Ahmadinejad TOO?

From where I sit, whatever the Bush Administration “thinks” they’re doing to help McCain beat the Messiah…they need to just stop thinking…nothing short of a coronation is already underway-why do we need to take National Security OUT of McCain’s pockets and fill Obama’s with a bunch of chump change called “hope and change” and “yes we can” nonsense?

Look-Barack Obama is already riding Nancy Pelosi’s coattails about the GWOT being in Afghanistan…regardless the truth of that point…and his latest photo-op boondoggle in Afghanistan has only served to put him high on that pedestal of “Court Jester” the Democrats seem so desperate to achieve. Our sitting President really needs to just shut up now, and wait out his term-all he’s accomplishing now is to guarantee a McCain defeat, and ensure the Messiah takes his throne of pacifist/socialist drudgery that we’ll spend the next 30 years trying to un-do.

Stop, George…just STOP. Please come home…I’ll help you cut back the live oaks…leave politics to the grown ups now, m’kay?

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • mbecker908

    I never want to see or hear GWB, or about GWB, in a political context again.

    Never.

  • pilgrim

    There will be many who are going to blame Pres. George W. Bush for everything bad that happens under the sun. The phrase that was coined for this condition is BDS. It saddens me if you have become afflicted Haystack.

    Pres. Bush has never been a movement conservative. A lot of the things you find fault with him regarding illegals and signing bills I also find fault. But here is the deal we have a CINC who has accomplished successes with 2 out of 3 mortal enemies, Saddam Hussein and Kim Il Jong. One is dead and the other isn’t as strong as he once was. The 3rd mortal enemy is Iran.

    I probably can offer up a 4th headache for the US-Ds controlling Congress. Until he leaves office I hope he will pwn these Ds on domestic oil drilling just like he has pwned them on financing the war effort for nearly 2 years.

    Sorry buddy, I will not succumb to BDS. Too many things are too important for that to happen.

  • Dan_McLaughlin

    But I have nothing left to defend the man. He has called on us too many times to defend him when he wouldn’t be bothered to do so himself.

    Bush’s father failed to spend the political capital he had, when he had it. Bush has spent the goodwill we had for him – some for good, some for ill, but there is none left to spend. He belongs to history now; I have nothing more to give him.

    • Neil_Stevens

      When Donald Rumsfeld resigned, I felt like it was just over.

      And well, given his foreign policy since that day, he seems to agree.

      • haystack

        GWB is taking away, little by little, the scant few things that distinguish the NEXT GOP POTUS wannabe… from the Messiah.

        This isn’t a BDS piece…this is a “George? PLEASE stop trying to help…” piece.

        C’mon now-don’t misinterpret this one. We NEED Bush to HELP McC, not take away all his chances at beating the nutjob doing kissy face with all we stand against.

        • Jaded

          either…he is still my President….I did not put in almost 8 years of blood, sweat and tears….and oh ANGER to give up on him at the end….history will define the man and it ought not be up to conservatives to fall in with netroots with 6 months left….he was and he is a “compassionate” conservative READ liberal conservative….he NEVER lied about that.

          • IJB

            But since walking away from foreign policy after Rumsfeld & Bolton, he’s done scant little on the domestic side either. (Threatening to veto a couple of Dem budget bills doesn’t really cut it.)

            Way more than Reagan after ’86, Bush really seems to have ‘checked out’ here in the last couple of years (and 3 innings).

            Some day soon, someone will have to write a book on these last couple of years of Bush 43, and explain why exactly it came to pass that they sat around and did nothing (surge excepted).

          • pilgrim

            I understand where you are coming from. Recently Obama and Bush are closer in perception with Maliki than John McCain is. I get it, I still think that John McCain needs to help John McCain. Pres. Bush is not going to win this contest between McCain and Obama for McCain.

            I’m not saying that I know what John McCain needs to do. All I am saying is that I do not blame Pres. Bush for any political campaign decisions the McCain camp makes. Perhaps you think it is naive of me, but I think that Pres. Bush is not doing what he thinks the McCain camp needs. Pres. Bush is doing what he thinks the country needs.

          • gamecock

            I am on Sabbatical, but when I get back, I will find the needle and sew the Stack back to Hay.

            Meanwhile, heed the wisdom of the persistently cussed and non-jaded, pilgrim and jaded, respectively.

          • haystack

            McC and his campaign can’t control the sitting POTUS abandoning 7 years of NatSec policy.

            Where we used to say “until we win”, now we’re ready to say “timetable for withdrawal” … ‘scuse me-time “horizon”…

            Bush owns that, and McCain has no control over this shift in policy.

          • speciallist

            n/t

          • pilgrim

            It really is all up to John McCain how he decides to proceed. It looks like he already is distancing himself from the Bush administration decision of getting photoed in front of a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. He’ll probably continue to distance himself from decisions by Pres. Bush, and I have absolutely no problems with his campaign’s decisions. What I do have a problem with is letting go of a President 6 months before he leaves the office.

            I pray for Pres. Bush. I wish you would do likewise.

  • streetwise

    Afghanistan liberated, Iraq liberated, the successful “Hail Mary” pass of the surge in the face of intense domestic opposition, and an Iraqi government that is taking on its subversive elements successfully.

    It’s quite a record, not a perfect record, but no one ever has a perfect record.

    • haystack

      All you say is true, streetwise. I didn’t say he was a horrible President. In fact I stated several times where I stood by him even when I disagreed because of how he’s handled the GWOT.

      Now, he’s abandining all he has stood for vis a vis the Axis of evil, Iraq, etc etc.

      It doesn’t help the GOP cause to go left on NatSec at a time when there is trouble amongst varied factions WITHIN the GOP about figuring out just where the bloody hell McC DIFFERS from Obama.

      Receding the stance of strength and diligence in the face of hand wringing ambivalence at the UN JUST when we need to show McCain’s right to continue to stand firm and show how WRONG Obama is to capitulate…GWB is NOT helping.

      • haystack

        I just give up being his sockpuppet…

        • streetwise

          On domestic policy, Bush governed as he ran. Blame the voters to whom he had to appeal.

          The success of the surge has altered the dynamic of when to draw down in Iraq. No thanks to Obama, a point that McCain will make very well.

          As for Iran, we do not have the slightest idea of what’s going on behind the scenes. The diplomacy may be a feint, or an effort to prove that we really, REALLY tried. Israel may act soon, and I’m not even sure they will wait until the election is over.

          Look, I get very frustrated with GWB’s passivity and inarticulateness, too. So I look forward to a change in style with McCain. But we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we bad-mouth Bush too much. The record is, on the whole, a good one. He has been a good crisis manager. As for the crises, blame the times.

          • haystack

  • Marcus_Traianus

    I share your pain brother, but stock up on the Lotrel because whoever we get over the next 4-8 years will have you wishing GWB was riding a Palomino back to DC; especially if we get the guy who thinks you can milk a bull.

    I can see it now; you and mbecker pining for days gone past. The carefree, salad days of GWB when you were free to chose your own health care, tax rates were under 50% of your income and Global Warming was a garage/cover band from Plano.

    • haystack

      he had his run. He lived up to the notion that his alternative(s) were far less appealing.

      I forgive his transgressions into the liberal world of Domestic policy. I’m just done with him now. The more he delves into the world of taking issues off McC’s table, the better Obama’s chances continue to be. He needs to just administrate…and start packing his stuff for the Pennske trip to Crawford…he’s not helping.

      I just wish he would HELP the GOP contender, rather than giving the McC doubtfuls reason to believe sitting home, or voting Barr will actually serve any real beneficial purpose.

  • Harold_Vaughn

    It appears to me that the recent moves are designed to pave the way for the next president (who ever that will be) to have multiple options on the table. I don’t think you can fault the guy for doing this. I think He should be applauded for putting the country’s future ahead of his party’s politics. This has always been his greatest strength!