The problem is that Bush isn't at all what people thought they were voting for. The "Compassionate Conservative" label was the epitome of sound-bite marketing, for openers. Show me any even moderately compassionate initiative Bush championed, and on review you'll find it was driven by pressure from outside, not his own leadership. And the notion you'd vote for him because you'd like to have a beer with him? Nevermind that he doesn't drink anymore: Who really thought they'd like to have a beer with him?
Answer: people who'd like to have a beer with anybody.
Republicans = small government?
When you look at his term of office it seems likely that he was, in essence, a figurehead.
Sadly I see President Bush primarily as a puppet of the likes of Cheney & Rumsfeld, who realized Rove had hold of a guy that could be made electable at the national level. There is little on the record to suggest Bush has been a savvy leader with a vision for the betterment of this country.No, instead the GOP had the drop on the dems in marketing, two cycles in a row. Effective smear attacks from surrogates while their guy appeared to remain above the fray. A dose of fear, a carefully acquired Texas drawl for an Ivy Leaguer from a privileged family... It was brilliant.
Unfortunately, it was brilliance applied to electing a self-interested cabal fronted by a puppet. Bush has presided over some of the most disastrous policies in modern U.S. history - the economy is hanging by a thread as we pour our precious lives and resources into an investment in big oil noguls becoming even richer. And how are the folks atop those companies faring, while the rest of the country deals with unemployment and recession? Oh, right: Their best quarter EVER.
Another irony, of course, is that Rumsfeld has been consigned to the back room somewhere, while Cheney continues as arguably the most powerful Vice President the US has ever seen. Some say the only reason the various calls for impeachment of George W. Bush are not pursued more stridently in congress is the realization that it would lead, at least briefly, to Cheney ascending to sole control of the Oval Office.
Follow the money:
One has to hope that the sense and sensibility of the citizens - and voters - of the USA will help turn the U.S. back from the old-school politics to embrace respect for both the average people as well as the political opposition. There are signs such candor and civility is valued over the increasingly transparent, self-serving "mis-speaking" that has become all too commonplace. We must hold elected officials to a higher standard. It is short-sighted and shallow to tolerate duplicitous, politically expedient apologies after the fact as "expected behavior" though the mainstream media continues to look the other way. We must ask who profits from each decision, be it invading then rebuilding Iraq or stockpiling Tamiflu at taxpayers expense.The alternative is to continue our slide from prominence toward a second class status on the stage of world affairs. That's not the legacy I want to leave for my offspring - what about you?
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