It Ought To Be A Word
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:
- Who exactly was running the country these last eight years?
- What did the President know, if anything, and when did he know it, if ever?
- Was he capable in any way of even one sleepless night, much less the ongoing insomnia that any sentient person would suffer after so many wrong decisions and pointless deaths?
- Did he mispronounce the word "nuclear" 1) on purpose, in order to make himself seem folksy 2) because he actually thought he was pronouncing it correctly or 3) just to piss us off?
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:
- We did the best we could under the circumstances.
- It's not easy being President.
- It wasn't completely my fault.
- Everyone makes mistakes.
- I kept America safe, except for this one time.
- After that one time I worked really really hard almost every day and had to read a lot of stuff about foreign countries.
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.
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As a Texan I can say this....Bu
I tried to warn everyone about him...hell I saw the damage he did to us as governor..
Why in the Sam Hill people would elect him twice is beyond me.......
It's very doubtful that he actually won the first time. He was ultimately appointed by the SCOTUS. The fact that he was elected twice was and is astounding to me, too. IF he won fair and square, it's our national shame.
What an ignorant thing to say about Mississippi and Alabama.
Feckless? Bush was all feck, no cattle.
Al Franken pointed out that "misunderestimated" is exactly what happened to Bush - underestimated, but but for the wrong reasons.
By deliberately using the word misunderestimate (again) he is telling us that the use of the word was contrived from the beginning to create an impression that he was somewhat incompetent. By using this word again he is telling us that we've been had and he fooled us after all.
To all that vilify Bush: Once he's gone and back in Texas, you'll still be holding on to him like a life raft as a convenient explanation for anything that's gone wrong or goes wrong under Obama. "Oh, that's all Bush's fault". When you spend 8 years demonizing someone, you WON'T be able to let him go. The hatred will only fester.
"Hate" is a new republican mantra.
He and his cohorts should be held accountable for any criminal activities perpetrated under his crooked administration. Hate has nothing to do with it.
I did not even begin to hate him until the Downing Street Memo was published, and I vigilantly pursued every plausible explanation, from fraud to misunderstanding by the British, and similarly for the news that the nuclear aluminum tubes were not nuclear nor similar to such, and for the story spun from whole cloth, of Atta meeting with high members of Iraqi Intelligence, etc.
Bush is not vilified irrationally. He is vilified intellectually and Constitutionally and morally.
He is defended evilly. As soon as he's behind bars where he belongs, I'll let the subject go.
The Downing Street Memo would have ended any Democrat's Presidency. Its a good thing we have a biased right wing media, huh?
It doesn't have to fester. It's here, now. Obama could play in a sandbox for four years and not do so much damage. He's working NOW--not clearin' brush, destroying syntax and starting stupid wars. All any sane person wants is this country back to where it was before the disaster that was Bush. Funny--now all the republicans want us to do is forget about Bush. Don't prosecute, don't question, pretend it was all Clinton's fault and now Obama's.
Oh like the Republican hatred of Clinton?
Like you lot did with Clinton these passed 8 years? Still doing in fact. It's clear the last thing any right winger will accept when their plans go bad is blame. There's lots to fault Bush for but the real accountability must come from every former and current BushCo enabler. You were wrong. Devastatingly wrong. Admit it. Learn from it. Accept it.
Yeah the best/worst loony comment i read was from some one who was saying "bill appointed hillary to fix our health care 16 years ago and look where it is now". some folks just continue to believe earth is flat. There is not much you can do to help them.
Ms. Ephron fails to mention the greatest harm Bushco® has done America, and her failure to note it is a perfect example of a great Republican public relations triumph... The past eight years has so distorted our ideas of responsible governance and acceptable public behavior that intelligent, informed, articulate people actually refer to Ronald Reagan as "benign." This is true only in the sense that a violent, overcrowded Federal prison might be considered "benign" when compared to Auschwitz.
I can imagine a moment where, flames licking about my thighs as I struggle against the stake, I might feel wistful for the days when the Inquisition was content merely to gouge out my eyes, but I'd still prefer that bystanders find both equally despicable.
Nostalgia for the lesser of two evils is a compass with no fixed pole, and as such, a very dangerous way to navigate into the future.
Excellent point. Reagan advanced the idiotic War On Drugs (TM), incarcerating people for non-violent but socially stigmatized pursuit of happiness and paving the way for subsequent "War On [Tactic], (TM)" garbage that has made careers for Karl Rove, Dana Perino, Tony Snow, George Walker Bush, global non-warming liars, homophobes, theocrats, and various other corporate / military imperialists who comprise ~1/1000th of the populace, and received tax cuts from the Cheney / Bush junta, in de facto tribute. If you haven't already read Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' you have obviously observed and noticed its thesis in action, so I recommend it to you.
I for one, couldn't care less about those dyed in the wool Republican idiots who continue to defend who is, in my opinion, one of, if not the worst President in United States History. Despite their clueless statements, the American people sure showed them in a resounding way in February just what THEY thought as a whole as well as presented a ckear indictment of the Republican Party and it's philosophy and ideology. Shame is, they've never listened and probably won't this time. Personally, I'm glad that George W. Bush is young....b
Not so fast....Pa
If there's a point in this screed, it is lost on most due to the intellectually elite tone of the article. HuffPo liberals need to read more Camille Paglia. The elites simply don't get that while they are looking down their noses at people who don't speak like they are at a debutante ball on the East Coast, a majority of the country would just like for them to say something that didn't come off as superior. Maybe then your audiences wouldn't be made up of nothing but a homogeneous crowd of other intellectual elitists. Just keep stroking each other, that way the rest of us don't have to deal with you.
Has it really come to this?
A few fairly mild and coherent paragraphs by Nora Ephron is characterized as an "elitist..
Jumpin' Johasaphat! How pathetic!
And by the way, try reading Molly Ivin's classic piece on Camille Paglia, it's easy to find.
Or was Molly also too elitist?
Yeah, that's the problem in the country. Not the financial meltdown brought about by Randbot who believe a fictional novel leads the way to economic prosperity; not ostrich-like thinking about teens and sex; not lack of health care and health seeking by a system that rewards the middlemen for NOT paying for health care; not lack of enforcement due to job cuts in regulatory agencies. Nope. None of that. The real problem in the country?..
too much good grammar.
Yep.
Good call.
When you say "homogenous crowd of intellectual elitists" do you mean the 83 percent of the country that feels exactly the same way the author does?
what gibberish is that ,,,did u read all that ? now go back to Rush for daily feed ...
Have I posted lately about how much I love your stuff?
Remember the Uncle Leo defense from Sienfeld. " If they catch me stealing I just say I am an old and confused man. " Bush is not a genius but he is no dummy. When the dust settles he will have accomplished great partisan feats. How much more unchecked power did he exercise than any before? How much useful political skeletons does the GOP have from the wiretaps? How much money has been diverted to his friends and supporters over the years. Uncle Leo. He even, like in pool, has left Obama with a hard to make shot and if Obama fails the GOP will blame obama and get the cue back for more theft.
Just eight years absolutely wasted! Leaving a huge, tremendous mess for some one else to fix.
Wasted two terms of the President, as well as, Laura Bush, too. She had the World soap box and did nothing with it. Go back to your mulit-million $$$$ life style in Dallas--read your books, write your stories, and give us all a break, please. Cannot wait to see you all get on your last plane ride out of Washington--poor taxpayer are hit again. Sure will miss the grand services, the chefs, the planes, the Camp David visits, the limosines, the White House, etc. Who will kiss my ring now????
Just because Laura Bush isnt in the spotlight doesnt mean she isn't doing great things as First Lady. Maybe you should actually read up on what she has done.
Clearly she doesnt care about receiving credit for what she does and those are the best kinds of poeple.
Uhh, ok genius, what exactly has Laura Bush accomplished? You might want to back your statements up with some sort of fact. Because from where I sit, she's done nada.
He will miss all the grand services, etc. if he didn't receive any of the $350 billion of the bailout money.
What are the odds?
Beside death and destruction what accomplishments??
missed one
the subtle redefinition of patriotism, faith, and freedom- into to something wholly different and terrifying.
Oh, you mean JINGOISM! Yeah, Bush and his posse were good for that.
We have a new Man in the whitehouse and we can start the healing process...
How long did it take Germany to heal after Adolf Hitler?...
What damage George has done is indeed longlastin
We Can Overcome!!!!!
I could never understand, nor do I want to, how talented and intelligent people would want to be Press Secretaries for such people. I can not fathom how they are able to go before the public and the world and knowingly lie through their teeth, to try to explain and justify whatever their boss has done or said.
If I did their job, I'd have to grow a full beard and never shave again because I couldn't look at my own reflection without retching in disgust and self-loathing.
Have you seen Dana Perino lately? Obviously all that lying does something to your soul.
It was not so much a president inflicting damage as a vacuum where a president was supposed to be.
I see where you're going, here, but he certainly inflicted a lot of damage, too!
I have to disagree. If you replaced a president with say, a ham sandwich.. well, a ham sandwich wouldn't have lied us into war. It would have had the same response to the economic crisis and katrina though.
Wrong. Pure inaction would have been way better than what Bush has done.
You weren't paying attention. Bush, Cheney, Rove, and their backers were dynamic, creative, and malicious in the damage they've done to America and our system of government. They built a lot of infrastructure that'll be hard to tear down quickly even if Obama does want to do it - activist right-wing Federal judge appointments that let the government get away with any exercise of power, warrantless wiretapping and illegal spying on citizens and legal procedures to let them get away with it, the whole Patriot Act mess, widespread data collection, shredding documentation on the abuses they haven't been caught at yet, oh, and also those little messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and the quarter of the world that now hates America and won't stop instantly just because our president's middle name is Hussein. And all the people he had killed in the Middle East are still dead.
billsteward said it: "And all the people he had killed in the Middle East are still dead"
That's the singular most painful thing about Bush's legacy. Most of the other screw-ups are reparable, but your heart has to go out to the families of the thousands of people who have died for absolutely no justifiable reason!
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