Frank Rich: Bush's presidency is being forgotten by the public already, even though he is still here

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:



America needed a titan in the White House, not a narcissist
George Bush's presidency is being forgotten by the public already, even though he is still here

Frank Rich
The Observer, Sunday 11 January 2009


We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians. So here, too, George W Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for President 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He's the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.

The last NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Bush's presidency found that 79 per cent of Americans will not miss him after he leaves the White House. He is being forgotten already, even if he's not yet gone. You start to pity him until you remember how vast the wreckage is. It stretches from the Middle East to Wall Street to Main Street and even into the heavens, which have been a safe haven for toxins under his passive stewardship. The discrepancy between the grandeur of the failure and the stature of the man is a puzzlement. We are still trying to compute it.

The one indisputable talent of his White House was its ability to create and sell propaganda both to the public and the press. Now that bag of tricks is empty as well. Bush's first and last photo-ops in Iraq could serve as bookends to his entire tenure. On Thanksgiving weekend 2003, even as the Iraqi insurgency was spiralling, his secret trip to the war zone was a PR slam-dunk. The photo of the beaming commander-in-chief bearing a supersized decorative turkey for the troops was designed to make every front page and newscast in the country and it did. Five years later, in what was intended as a farewell victory lap to show off Iraq's improved post-surge security, Bush was reduced to ducking shoes.

He tried to spin the ruckus as another victory for his administration's programme of democracy promotion. "That's what people do in a free society," he said. He had made the same claim three years ago after the Palestinian elections, championed by his "freedom agenda" (and almost $500m of American aid), led to a landslide victory for Hamas. "There is something healthy about a system that does that," Bush observed at the time, as he congratulated Palestinian voters for rejecting "the old guard". .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/11/george-bush-us-foreign-policy

[Demeter]

1. The Only Oscar Bush Could Qualify For Is an Oscar Wilde Comedy

The Importance of Being Dishonest

[opihimoimoi]

2. He deserves a ride to Dallas with an old GreyHound Bus....in the back nx to the toilet...

He deserves to be looked into for the crimes committed and/or good acts omitted.

ie...where was the good act of helping NOLA earlier than FRIDAY....those poor peeps were straded since that MONDAY....try 4 days without fucking toilet paper/water/food

Where were the good acts so easily set in motion by a caring President? Nada, zilch, zero, puka,

[OffWithTheirHeads]

10. I'd prefer that he take a nice ride through Dallas in a convertable

Hopefully passing some grassy knolls.

[opihimoimoi]

11. 746578 tons of shoes would swamp his friggen car.....I love that guy in Baghdad

[trusty elf]

13. I hope the shoe guy is okay. Has anyone heard anything recently?

[opihimoimoi]

14. LOL

[BrklynLiberal]

16. Fantastic image. That is an excellent question. Where is the shoe guy?

Love the horseshoe in there...

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I could see it as a form of justice if Bush is totally forgotten by history...

if he became one of those presidents whose name you never remember when naming the presidents of the US. BUT as much as I might wish
him the ignominy of being totally forgotten about, I cannot really hope that he is forgotten. I think he should go down in history as being remembered, the way Hitler and Amin and all the other disgusting, evil despots of the world are remembered. His should be a name that is never uttered without being followed by spitting on the floor. Anonymity is too good for Bush. His name should be used in the same context, and for the same representation of all that is evil and destructive as names like Torquemada and Caligula.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Actually, I hope history doesn't forget him.

Americans can never again allow a incompetent sociopath to acquire the Presidency. The only way we can prevent it is to make sure that Bush's "accomplishments" never get forgotten. If we allow that to happen, he'll have his army of image makers revising the historical record. Lucky for us, we live in the digital age. He'll be preserved for the ages...not locked up in books where historians can apply their interpretations of the man. No, unfortunately for GW Bush, he'll be well documented in digital film, so every American generation can study his record and his spoken word...he is doomed to wear the titled of "Worst President Ever" - and there's nothing he, the Bush family, his library, or legions of sycophantic revisionists can do about it.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Worst President Ever is the title that prez shit-for-brains deserves...

[drmeow]

8. This image should be

at the start of any passage in any history that ever discusses Bush:



The only way truer words could ever have been written would be if the caption said, "BUSH: THE WORST DISASTER TO HIT THE U.S."

[BrklynLiberal]

15. That should be the picture in all the history books..

[drmeow]

18. Books, websites, pamphlets, dissertations

You name it, if it mentions Shrub (or anything about this administration or anything about the last 8 years) it should be required by law to have that picture!

[anitar1]

9. Thank You Brklyn. I like what you suggested.

He should be classed with all of the evil ones. Many of us have been affected by his evil, and we will suffer for a very long time to come, as will our children.

[Doctor_J]

5. This was in the NYT a week ago

[FrenchieCat]

7. I ain't forgetting shit!

If we forget, we are bound to repeat it......

[Miss Authoritiva]

12. Why the puzzlement?

The discrepancy between the grandeur of the failure and the stature of the man is a puzzlement.

I think Rich is being intentionally obtuse here. Bush was able to wreck so much because Congress was the bestest co-dependent enabler evah! and because American voters gave Bush not just one but two full terms to trash the place. It's not like Bush did all the damage by himself armed only with a Texas chainsaw.

[dccrossman]

17. Arrogance with no self-awareness

That has to be the most succinct description of Bush. Found in the linked article.

Definitely sums up both him and his administration.

:kick: