It's true what he said: we misunderestimated him.
George Bush came into his presidency with a huge wave of goodwill. Not from me, but from the others. An amazing number of people who should have known better thought of him as a charming guy whose intellectual limitations would somehow be as benign as Ronald Reagan's, whose promise of a fairly passive presidency would be as survivable as Dwight Eisenhower's. So he couldn't seem to get a sentence out straight, so what? And as for his religious rigidity, that was simply his way of dealing with an alcohol problem without the sloppy conventions of AA.
He was misunderestimated in every way. It was hard to imagine that this feckless leader could do so much damage. But even as the worst emerged, he was given the benefit of the doubt because of the ongoing mysteries of his administration -- mysteries that have remained unsolved in spite of the skills of hundreds of gifted journalists who have attempted to uncover them:
The exit appearances that Bush has made in recent weeks will be something future presidents will refer to as often as Lincoln's Second Inaugural, although for different reasons. Here's what he said:
This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis. This is what he will crawl off to Texas with, hoping that it will fool a publisher into giving him a substantial book advance and contributors into giving him money for a library full of pilfered papers.
On Monday, we will have to get used to a different thing entirely, a president who's in the loop, who reads history, who speaks decent English. He will rob of us of something -- of the burning anger that has sustained us the last eight years, and that will take some adjusting to. But we're up for it; after all these years in the dark, we're ready for a little overestimation. Which is, unlike misunderestimation, an actual word. But come to think of it, misunderestimation ought to be a word. I certainly know what it means.
P.S. Thanks for the great HuffPo presentation at the 92nd st. Y. It was a great pannel. I am glad I came.
Precisely! Let the graduate dissertations begin!
I think it will take me a while to get over him, but hopefully this new administration will help me cool down back into the mellow person I used to be 8 years ago.
But anyone who dispassionately and honestly "estimated" him based on the available information could have predicted what kind of president he would be.
He was a spoiled rich kid who had stuff handed to him growing up. During his "military" career he ran and hid. During his college days, he partied. As an adult, he was a drunkard. He eventually exchanged his alcoholism for some sort of religious perversion.
Given that, what was the chance that as president he would be another Washington, Lincoln, FDR or even Reagan.? Or even another George H. W. Bush?
I will never understand why the Democrats failed to make campaign issues out of the way Bush and his cronies rearrnaged the law so as to allow them to buy up land for pennies on the dollar. And, for gawdssakes, the courts made them pay the landowners back. Why was this not an issue?
He says he hasn't time to prosecute those who violated the Constitution. Nonsense! He should appoint Patrick Fitzgerald (who shunned affiliation with any political party) attorney general, fund him generously and and order him to investigate all violations of the Constitution and the laws of the country, including election violations. (The GOP accused the Democratic party of election fraud. Let's have an honest investigation to see whether ACORN is stealing elections and also whether the GOPs stole the 2000 and 2004 presidencies).
Give Pat backing and leave him alone; let the chips fall where they may. That shouldn't take much of Obama's time.
By failing to prosecute high officials, he only continues a precedence such that the next sociopath can continue the criminality without fear of shame and prosecution. Their crookedness will be repeated until perpetrators are held accountable and punished for their crimes.
who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as head of state or
responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.
Google 1950 Nuremberg tribunal to see laws violated.