Turns out that more than three years after leaving a bag full of flaming financial crisis on America’s doorstep, hitting the doorbell, and flying away by helicopter, the country hasn’t quite forgiven George W. Bush yet.
According to the poll, released Thursday morning, 43% of people questioned had a favorable opinion of Bush, with 54% saying they had an unfavorable view of the former president. Bush’s 43% favorable rating is the same as it was in 2010 in CNN polling, but is up from his mid-30’s favorable rating during 2009, his first year out of the White House.
“Don’t be surprised if the Obama campaign mentions the name of George W. Bush at every opportunity, and don’t be surprised if that strategy works,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “And the mention of Bush’s name appears to prompt at least a few people to take a more positive view of their current financial situation.”
Bush remains the only living ex-President under water on favorability ratings. More people like Jimmy Carter (54%), Poppy Bush (59%) and Bill Clinton (66%) these days, and with good reason: Carter’s at least doing productive things in his spare time, Bill is doing the rock star thing, and Poppy Bush is smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
I’d almost feel sorry for the little dipstick, but then I recall every awful year of his Presidency and remember that he really did screw the country royally on a whole host of fronts (domestic surveillance, Warren Terrah, blowing a hole in the budget, politicizing every single damn thing ever) all the time with that shit-eating “Who, me?” grin on his face.
So yeah, you remind people of the little carbuncle, people recall it was a hell of a lot worse than the current guy.
ed
Worst
President
Ever.
Baud
W. endorsed Romney because he knows that President Romney will make W.’s era seem like good times.
Culture of Truth
I guess this is the same 41% that want the supreme court to invalidate the entire health care reform law.
Steeplejack
Don’t forget that phone polls tend to tilt older and conservative–land lines vs. cell phones–so Bush’s rating is probably lower, in fact.
And, seconded, worst president ever.
EconWatcher
Yet the country is now evenly divided on whether the Iraq war was a good idea. We learned, but we didn’t learn much.
Chris
@EconWatcher:
Yeah, this. War fatigue passes quickly in this country.
Maude
@Steeplejack:
A nightmare on two feet.
Brachiator
This is the kind of dumbshit advice that typically comes from pundits and political strategists.
Yeah, Dubya was one of the most craptastic presidents evah, but there is no point, none, nada, zipperino for a sitting president to harp on the failures of the guy that served out his term years ago. And it certainly negates the whole point of the theme of going Forward.
And if you polled some of the goobers about whether they would still like some of those Bush tax cuts, I bet a healthy chunk of them would say, “You betcha!”
@Steeplejack:
Polls that cannot adjust for this are statistically worthless.
Patricia Kayden
Save your “almost feel sorry for” Shrub for the thousands of Iraqis who lost their lives for Operation Boom Shaka Shaka Boom. And those who were tortured under his administration.
His only redeeming quality is that he’s kept his mouth shut since leaving office.
Chris
@ed:
Certainly in living memory. I think you’d have to go back to Hoover for one who performed as awfully, and even he (maybe I’m wrong) strikes me as well meaning but out of his depth rather than the enormous asshole George W. Bush was.
J. Michael Neal
@Steeplejack: Polling outfits try to weight things when they have reason to believe that their sample is skewed. That may mean that they started with a larger sample of young potential respondents in order to ensure that the number that they reached approximated the proper proportion. As a general rule, you can’t just say, oh, their method is less likely to capture Person Type X and then assume that the results should be looked at assuming that there should have been more of them.
There are two things that can screw this up, but neither of them inherently point in any direction. The first is that the outfit could have a bad model for calculating the proper proportions of each demographic to ask. This would lead to a potential skewing of the results, but it is roughly as likely to end up oversampling young voters as under sampling them.
The other potential problem is whether the set of people who are harder to reach have systematically different views than those who are otherwise exactly like them in their demographics. Rather than asking whether these problems mean that young voters are undersampled, you need to ask whether young people with landlines have different opinions than young people without landlines. That question applies across the board. It applies equally to old people, or blah people, or women who have landlines vs. those who don’t.
Polling outfits are acutely aware of exactly the problem you note and the reputable ones try to come up with ways to account for it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: IANA historian, but my take has always been that as bad as Hoover’s policies may have been, even if they made a bad situation worse, he didn’t create that bad situation like Dumbya did. I think our national nonchalance about that war is an even bigger moral failing than the hysteria that got us into it.
@Patricia Kayden:
amen. It’s shocking to see that Donald Rumsfeld has the pathological arrogance to speak out about foreign policy, sickening that VSPs give him a respectful, non-challenging platform to do so.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Brachiator: There’s a certain demographic that the Republicans target to get to the polls by referring to Carter. For a while, there will be a certain demographic that the Democrats will be able to remind that the Republicans can’t govern worth shit by saying Bush. It’s a shorthand.
Elizabelle
Can’t find any CNN poll results save their recap of it.
Wonder if any questions on Cheney, and whether he broke 20% approval rating.
I am surprised GWBush’s rating is as high as 43%.
Why?
Because he was faithful to his wife?
Because he professes to be a compassionate Christian?
Roger Moore
@ed:
W still has a ways to go if he wants to catch James Buchanan for Worst. President. Ever.
Elizabelle
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
If we’re lucky, President Carter will be monitoring the November elections in Florida or Wisconsin or wherever.
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore:
I am not sure that James Buchanan was worse than Bush.
Not as many international repercussions (if I recall), and we’re sliding towards fascism as speedily as late 1850s US was heading for dissolution of the union.
I have never seen so much institutional fail as during the Bush administration, and not just in government.
It is and was pervasive.
TenguPhule
I look forward to the headline “George W Bush & Family Brutally Slaughtered by Iraqis” in the coming years. They say revenge is an art perfected in the Middle East.
peggy
@Chris:
Hoover was a humanitarian who saved starving children after WWI. Bush doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with him. Who did he ever save- starving pitchers?
Hill Dweller
@Brachiator: The Obama campaign won’t use Bush by name, but they will point out Willard’s policies are no different than the policies that got us into this mess.
flukebucket
I would think that the majority of that 43% are folks who like Bush not because of the job he performed but because he is a good ‘ol boy who loves the Lord.
Surely to God 43% do not actually like his performance while in office.
I agree that Obama should never mention Bush by name. I like it better when it is referred to as “the previous administration”. That makes it less personal.
Bush should have never, ever made it to the White House and if not for the Supreme Court he would not have made it there.
harlana
don’t feel sorry, not one bit. he and Cheney all but destroyed this country. they should be in prison.
danimal
@TenguPhule: Well, if that isn’t the type of comment that the RW blogs will poster all over their front pages, I don’t know what is.
I agree that the callous disregard for Iraqi lives is a huge moral failing of Bush and an under-examined (still) aspect of US foreign policy towards the Middle East, but actively anticipating the slaughter of a former POTUS is a bit too much.
Ash Can
@TenguPhule: Can you ever make a comment that isn’t over-the-top violent? Are you a GOP operative or something?
Ash Can
As for W, he’s doing the best thing he possibly can by keeping his head down and his mouth shut. At least he has the sense to manage that much.
Another Halocene Human
Poppy was a horrible president but he gets an overall positive from me on his post-presidency pronouncements.
He and his with his South American water rights scams and repressive oil sheik Saudi Arabian homies are still scum, though.
harlana
Nixon may have been a rat-bastard and all, but i remember him as at least appearing to have some humanity, some kind of self-awareness, on some level.
i remember, glad to see him go, watching Bush getting on AF1 for the last time. i was looking for something, i don’t know what exactly. and he just had this look on his face like “woohhee! i get to go on vacation now!”
Raven
@harlana:
“appearing to have some humanity”
really?
Chris
@flukebucket:
Tribalism. They may or may not like the job he did in office but feel a moral obligation to support Team GOP, a sentiment that probably grows stronger the longer Team Dems stays in power.
harlana
@Hill Dweller: yup, they’ve actually been doing that for quite some time
gnomedad
Angela Merkel looks like she could use a massage. Another Obama failure.
dr. bloor
Yeah, save your sympathy for someone who isn’t a Grade A sociopath. He’s not capable of appreciating it, anyways.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Hoover’s track record puts him down there but as mentioned, he didn’t have the mendacity and agenda to loot the Treasury the way the Cheney Administration did.
You really have to go back to winners like the above-mentioned Buchanan or the mostly amazing hacks of the antebellum period (Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce) to get the kind of craptactitude of the Bushies.
From wikipedia:
“A 2010 Siena poll of 238 Presidential scholars found that former president George W. Bush was ranked 39th out of 43, with poor ratings in handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence.”
Let’s never forget Nixon. Yeah, some of his policy achievements seem quaintly “progressive” by our standards of today but never forget that he would have been impeached and removed from office had he resigned. That speaks volumes for his presidency.
jrg
@Brachiator: Even if dubya isn’t mentioned by name, it’s probably not a bad idea to remind people of shit like color-coded terror alerts when the GOP accuses BHO of “politicizing” the killing of Bin Laden.
A significant number of people in this country are complete fucking morons. It shouldn’t hurt to remind them what the country was like from ~2003-2007.
Another Halocene Human
@harlana: Ah, good times. I was technically on the clock but wandered out into the break room to Watch. Him. Leave.
Until Bush & Cheney removed themselves I wasn’t quite sure they were actually going to go.
Ben Franklin
@dr. bloor:
He’s bathing in the afterglow of his sterling performance as Presidunce.
harlana
he could duck a shoe, though, man, i’m just sayin
TenguPhule
Yes, but its getting harder and harder.
I am tired. Sick and tired. Every damn day I have to see the shithole that has been made by the Rs grow darker and dirtier. The damage being done in both my own life and the lives of those around me eats into my soul, making it that much darker, that much more cynical.
I literally can’t see the other side as human anymore. Once this would have frightened me, but I just don’t care anymore.
I do not care.
Another Halocene Human
@jrg:
It’s easy to forget. Every time I get a real reminder (you know, enough detail to get my memory jogging), I get on my knees and thank Heaven for Barack Obama.
Emo progs can kiss my ass.
Warren Terra
Yeah, sure, blame it on me.
Another Halocene Human
@harlana: The mtn bike and Segway workouts paid off!
Another Halocene Human
@TenguPhule: Dude, sounds like a mood disorder. You need to step away from the computer/tv/fishwrap and get some fresh air.
harlana
@Another Halocene Human: and Cheney being wheeled out, as i recall. just bizarre and fitting at the same time. all that was missing was a white critter on his lap.
TK421
Why do so many more people view Clinton favorably than Bush? They are roughly equally responsible for our current woes. Thanks for repealing Glass-Steagle, Big Dog.
Another Halocene Human
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Hoover was a dupe who attempted to earnestly pursue failed policies. Bernanke used him as a template for What Not To Do.
Hoover’s name turned into a dirty word, but it was Harding (the crook) and Coolidge who set the country up. Especially Coolidge. He rode a bubble with the help of a useless Fed, then scuttled back to Massachusetts before it could blow up in everyone’s face. Heckuva job, Cally.
Another Halocene Human
@TK421: There’s first term Clinton and second term Clinton. But Clinton did a couple of really good things (that were not easy things) so on balance I’d rate him well above Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. Unlike some of our Dem heroes, he didn’t get us stuck in any foreign quagmires, either.
runt
I just learned how Game of Thrones explains everything about US politics. Hodor!
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I think the Obama campaign’s tack will probably be to point out that Romney is virtually Bush’s clone — same policies, same staff, same background — and ask if people really want to go back to the Bush years.
gbear
@flukebucket:
Even Romney uses the ‘the previous administration’ when he wants to talk about Bush. He doesn’t like to use his name.
Only the Facts
Nobody cares about Bush anymore.
With UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH Romney and the Super PACs can drown out any message from the Democrats. Even liberal MSNBC admitted that if you’re outspent 5-to-1 or more, you win the election.
Only the Facts
What’ I’d love to see:
A Super PAC funded anonymously by the Koch Brothers or ALEC, but with an ostensibly far-left message that tells liberals to vote Green. That’d be hilarious to watch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jrg:
Yup. That should be written in red on the bathroom mirrors of every Dem surrogate (instead of what’s there now: “You catch more flies and speaking gigs with honey than with vinegar!”).
I really think Romney has a sense of entitlement bigger than Dumbya’s and a self-regarding arrogance greater than even McCain’s, without the underlying insecurity of the former and the hot-headed impulsiveness of the latter.
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: Do you ever have anything useful to contribute here? Or is your life just one fucking pathetic revenge fantasy?
Emerald
Look, Bush the Smaller wasn’t even a legitimate president. The Supreme Court does not get to appoint presidents. Any fifth grader can tell you that you elect presidents by counting the votes. By that measure, Roberts and Alito are not legitimate SCOTUS justices either.
Reagan started the downward slide, and his “government-is-the-problem” philosophy still prevails. But it was the coup d’etat in 2000 by the Supreme Court that really destroyed the country. And they got away with it.
And they aren’t done with us yet. If Citizens United doesn’t drown democracy, be sure they’ll find something else that will finish the job.
(I’m feeling cynical today, brought on by the tobacco companies purchase of the defeat of CA prop 29.)
Brachiator
@Hill Dweller:
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
@jrg:
Bush, like Elvis, has left the building. And Mittens can easily brush off claims that he will govern just like Bush with the obvious retort, “I ain’t that guy.”
And sending messages to “a certain demographic” (of unspecified number) can turn off other voters, and waste time and money.
I understand all the arguments. I am just saying that I don’t think this stuff is effective.
Let’s see. You want to disparage some voters as morons, but them expect them to vote for Democrats, anyway. Or, you want to slap around people who you expect to vote for Mittens anyway. Either way, doesn’t seem like effective messaging.
Again, I understand the sentiments here, but I want to win an election, not settle scores.
Canuckistani Tom
Also, Hoover was one of the better pre-presidents. He did a lot of good in WWI and in the 1927 Mississippi flood.
@Warren Terra:
I thought your name referred to a piece of property with a lot of rabbit holes
Amir Khalid
@Only the Facts:
This does not say what you think it says.
Only the Facts
Outspend someone 5-to-1 or more and you win the election, every time.
lol
@runt:
You need to find the version that has the Al Gore as Ned Stark. “Successor to the previous leader, screwed out of the position, always going on about climate change”
Ash Can
@TenguPhule: I second Another Halocene Human @ #42. Turn off the computer/TV, put down the newspaper, walk away. Go outside and get some fresh air. Find a new hobby. It’s time to take a break from current events.
Amir Khalid
@Only the Facts:
Sure. Just ask Governor Whitman of California.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Halocene Human:
Must’ve been so difficult for Cheney, being all incapacitated in that wheelchair and all.
gbear
Romney in 1994: “I was not planning on signing up for the military.” “It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft.”
After having recieved 4 deferments.
Romney in 2007: “I was supportive of my country,” Romney said. “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
Lying scumbag.
Only the Facts
@Amir Khalid:
California isn’t a swing state. I’m talking about swing states and general elections.
Only the Facts
Er swing state elections and Presidential elections.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Not while he’s hiring Bush staffers, he can’t.
Another Halocene Human
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: He would have been impeached because briefly we had this little old notion called “rule of law”, sadly absent today (and likewise absent during the 19th cent.). Don’t mistake that for being the biggest crook.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I think this is the wrong tack, and I hope the Obama team don’t fall into this.
Mitt has his own record, which largely consists of being a shapeshifter, saying and doing all kinds of moderate stuff, but now disawowing everything and promising to be the Best Conservative Evah.
This is not Bush.
Mittens portrays himself as having strong Business-Fu.
This is not Bush.
Mittens is ignoring all the obstruction thrown at Obama and trying to sell the idea that Obama is weak and unwise when it comes to the economy. More to the point, Mitt is going to portray himself as the Man With the Plan and the Strong Hand to guide proven gift from God Real American conservative policy, which is not the same thing as just being another Bush.
If Obama keeps talking about Bush, Mittens can easily retort that Obama is trying to avoid the Mittness which is Romney.
Recently, in the wake of Wisconsin, there has been some talk about the 2003 California recall election. One thing I clearly recall is that after a point, Arnold stopped referring to Gray Davis as though he didn’t exist and had already been replaced, and instead focused on all the great shit he was going to do after he was elected.
It was dumb shit. But it worked.
And I already see Romney trying to sell a version of this. He exudes the same kind of empty confidence that Arnold used.
Obama is going to have to take Romney down, not waste time trying to go after a long gone Bush.
Also, too, if I were Team Romney and Obama talked about how Mitt is a retread of Bush, one easy, simple reply would be, “Well, if you thought Bush was so bad, why did you keep agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts? Even you seem to agree that Republican tax policy is good for the country.”
Obama was able to score points on McCain in part because Gramps stumbled and showed no sign that he had a real clue about the economy, and because he selected an obvious idiot to be his VP choice. I don’t see Romney as stumbling in the same way. But his caution and cowardice can, and should be used against him.
ETA: Yeah, Mitt is hiring former Bushies. He is gong to claim that he is so tough that he will know how to get the best out of them.
The average voter don’t know who these people are and don’t care, no more than they knew who all the former Clinton people were who Obama hired.
Mnemosyne
@Only the Facts:
California’s previous governor was a Republican, so obviously we’re not loath to vote for Republicans. So what’s your next excuse for why we don’t have Governor Whitman and Senator Fiorina even they both easily outspent their opponents?
harlana
The Horrible Lingering Horror of George W. Bush
– Charlie Pierce
Another Halocene Human
@harlana: True. I was flashing to Rocky Horror crossed with Inspector Gadget (the cartoon). Darth Cheney.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Huh? Am I the only one who remembers George W. Bush, Compassionate Conservative?
George W. Bush, first CEO president? Anyone? Bueller?
Again, that’s exactly the way that Bush sold himself in 2000 and 2004. So you think Romney is going to successfully differentiate himself from Bush by re-playing Bush’s greatest hits, only with Romney’s name replaced for Bush’s?
Whatever it is you’re smoking, I want some of it.
Hill Dweller
@Brachiator: Again, the Obama campaign doesn’t have to use Bush’s name. They can truthfully say Romney’s policies are the exact same policies that got us into this mess: tax cuts for the wealthy; overspending on defense; no Wall Street and environmental regulations; gutting medicare/medicaid; privatizing social security and public education.
gbear
@Mnemosyne: And also taking advice from Bush foreign policy advisors that even Joe Klien is describing as nutjobs.
Linda Featheringill
@TenguPhule:
Take care of yourself, dear. Don’t burn out. We’ll need you this fall.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Another Halocene Human:
Crap, forgot about Harding.
“Worst Presidents” discussions should really break down by century. In that regard, Dubya’s the worst thus far.
flukebucket
@harlana:
Followed the link and laughed out loud when I saw Bush with a baseball.
I cannot count the times wingnuts have reminded me that Obama can’t throw a baseball or bowl worth a damn.
And another reason I would not recommend using the name Bush is that wingnuts will then say that all Obama can do is blame Bush, blame Bush, blame Bush.
Blame the policies. And then stop continuing the policies!
fuckwit
Does anyone remember what the year 2000 was like? The peak of the dot-com bubble?
Shrub was a symptom of the deeply narcissistic, self-centered, greedy, ignorant, incurious, egotistical, ill-informed, arrogant, spoiled, and apathetic group of people who voted for him– twice. He was just like them.
That happened to have been an almost-majority of the electorate two times in a row– close enough for voter-suppression and a corrupt Court to install the fucker.
Then people woke up– very late, and very briefly.
The challenge is how to wake them up again. I don’t think anyone’s yet found an answer to that, and 2010 is great proof.
cintibud
Reminds me of a photo of Bush going around on Facebook with the caption:
I fucked you all!
But thanks for blaming the black guy.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Brachiator:
I agree with most of your comment… but I do think the “Mitt isn’t strong enough to control the crazies in his party, even if he wanted to” angle could be useful, if applied skillfully.
GWB, for all his flaws and mistakes, was at least capable of playing Firewall when needed. I’ve seen nothing in Mitt’s career to indicate he’d be even half as effective (and Grover Norquist does seem to agree with me).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Pravda:
In the last 30 years CA has had a Dem gov for 7 years and 2 of those 7 years it was Jerry Brown(75-83, 11-12). We may not be swingers with the Pres. but we elect Rethug govs.
Older_Wiser
People knew what Bush was about–too many didn’t care.
Just like this: http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2012/americans-prosperity-campaigns-without-leaving-paper-trail-wisco/#.T9DqrK5qyeU.twitter
Lying, cheating, and who knows what else is passing for “campaigning” these days. Doesn’t that blonde bimbo realize she’ll be stuck with 12 kids and no future if she continues to work for those assholes? Oh wait–she has to keep reproducing for the white race…
kay
@gbear:
Do people usually say that? That they are “representing their country” when a soldier in a war?
I myself have never heard a single actual veteran phrase it Iike that.
Romney seems to have sort of an exalted idea what his role in that war might have been.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne: Again, Mitt is not selling himself as the Compassionate Conservative. Mitt is steering clear of some religious stuff because he doesn’t want to scare some fundies with his weird Mormon cooties.
Bush had a real strength here as born again because the fundies could see Dubya as one of themselves.
This is a real difference.
Again, there is a difference between crowing about doing stuff to make yourself worth hundreds of millions of dollars and being a CEO president. And either way, this is a strength for both Bush and Romney in the eyes of some voters, not a weakness.
Not quite, but if you want to run with this argument, then it’s 2000 and 2004, and Obama is Gore and Kerry. Two losers (even allowing for a stolen election).
So, tell me again, how invoking Bush, who won two elections, helps Obama.
Preaching to the Democratic faithful ain’t the same thing as winning an election.
@Hill Dweller:
Actually, Romney hasn’t much said anything specific about his policy going forward.
Ah, and here’s the thing. It’s not just that Bush’s policies “got us into this mess.” These are ongoing Republican policies, not just Bush policies. Obama is not running against the ghost of Dubya. He is running against the current GOP leadership and their new standard bearer Mitt Romney. Obama is running against the Tea Party and a resurgent conservative movement.
It doesn’t help Obama to keep saying, “I’m here to talk about the past.” And although Romney might be an empty suit, you don’t defeat him just by trying to fill the suit with Dubya’s image.
The trick for the Obama political team will be to find a way to paint an image of the elusive, shapeshifting Romney, and then to demolish it. They will not get far simply trying to campaign aganst Bush, because Mitt will easily shrug that off and shout, “Hey, I’m over here. You didn’t lay a finger on me.”
It ain’t a horse race, it’s a boxing match, and Romney is setting up a nice bit of rope-a-dope.
I hope Obama doesn’t fall for it.
kay
@gbear:
Maybe he’s confusing The Vietnam War with The Olympics.
He would have taken home the gold, had he been over there, “representing” his country.
Hill Dweller
@Brachiator: This isn’t an either/or proposition. The Obama campaign is going after Romney on a couple of different fronts: Bain and his term as Governor.
After effectively hitting him for Bain, they are now running commercials showing the similarities between Romney’s current campaign and his campaign for governor. It is an effective strategy that exposes both his disastrous term as Governor, which Romney wants to avoid, and the absurdity of the businessmen make good Presidents/Governors claims.
Brachiator
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Yep. Obama has to demolish the image that Romney is trying to create, and to highlight his weaknesses and his inability to stand up to the extremists in his party.
@Mnemosyne: Also too, using California as an example again. In the last gubernatorial election, the Republican brain trust put forward an “outsider” with business experience. But Jerry Brown didn’t just say that Meg Whitman was Arnold 2.0. He and the California leadership figured out her particular weaknesses and demolished her by showing her to be a clumsy amateur whose facade of business experience masked total political incompetence.
Obama needs to do the same thing to Mitt.
gbear
@kay:
I don’t know if a soldier would say that, but he lost me after “longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam”. No one says that either.
TenguPhule
Turn off the computer/TV, put down the newspaper, walk away. Go outside and get some fresh air. Find a new hobby. It’s time to take a break from current events.
Ironically, the problem gets worse when I’m outside, its campaign season over here. I come here to get away from them.
rikyrah
how bad a President was George W Bush?
the country elected a Black Man as President.
Nobody will ever convince me that the two aren’t related, and I take absolutely nothing away from the wonderful candidate that was Senator Barack Obama.
but, I’ve been Black in America longer than 3 days…
and Black folks just don’t get opportunities when times are going good.
mclaren
Superb first line, Zandar!
And yeah, this is why Obama will probably win in November.
brantl
@danimal: Why feel bad about a war criminal getting killed? His family, sure (although Laura Bush killed a guy, in an auto accident that should have gotten her negligent homicide, if there was any justice, because she ran a stopsign while driving like a shithead). Because he’s OUR war-criminal in chief? Bullshite.
brantl
@TK421: The Congress did that, he just rubber-stamped it. That’s my big bitch with Clinton, he pretends to be this person pondering the complexities of life, and rubber-stamps pure whaledrek.
brantl
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Bush sucked in two centuries, a century starts in ’01 and ends in ’00.