What is the single worst act Bush has committed in office?

[Darranar]

He's done lots and lots of bad things, but which was the worst?

I think his worst act, and the worst act of Clinton, was the ignorance of the problems of globalization. The horrible things he's done to the economy, including the tax cuts, come second. the attack on Afganistan is the third worst, and the attack on Iraq is the fourth.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. being selected!

[meegbear]

2. Allowing himself to be sworn into office ...

when he didn't win the election

[Darranar]

3. But officially, his swearing in came before he was in office...

so that doesn't count, IMO. This applies to post #1 as well.

[Democrats unite]

5. Ok since there is a play on words here...

Staying in office after being selected!

[Tennessee Gal]

4. All of his horrible acts are tied to .................

the one I consider the most dangerous, which is his penchant for secrecy. He will do anything, and I mean anything, to maintain power and control.

[DemoTex]

33. The "blackout" started the day Bu$h/Cheney were sworn in.

But life in the dark hones the other senses. The stench of the corruption is now overpowering. Surely, at some point in the near future, the lap-dog press will turn on the putrid carrion of the Bu$h regime. Bu$h's downfall is there for the press to find and report. Follow the money? No: follow their noses. Pulitzer and Nobel prizes await those who do it. They just need to remember Willie Stark's number one political observation in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men: "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something."

[Minstrel Boy]

6. 9/11, the font of all horrors

The attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq have been hideous, as has the erosion of constitutional rights and implimentation of an aggressive unilateralism, but worse, because from it everything springs, was the attack on America. And whether one believe's 9/11 occured on account of incompetence, LIHOP or MIHOP, it's his fault.

[mopaul]

10. ditto

.

[PaDUer]

7. Taking the house

he didn't win--he doesn't have a conscience and is FREELOADING at our expense!

[Demobrat]

8. This may sound minor, and in the grand scheme of

things it is. But to me the worst thing he ever did was on September 14, 2001, when he referred to the WTC rubble as 'the construction site". The guy might as well have been cutting a ribbon for a new shopping center. Everything else he's done has been orchestrated by somebody else. He revealed his true feelings all by himself.

[liberalmuse]

9. Gee, that's a tough one...

I think his manipulative manevuering in Florida was the worst because it has set the tone for this entire administration and I believe it crippled our democracy so badly that it may never recover. Everything he's done has been so grossly heinous that I wouldn't know where to start. The environmental rape, pre-emptive obliteration of a third-world country for no good reason, ignoring the many warnings pre-911, raping The Constitution, setting his hound Ashcroft loose to f&ck our civil liberties every which way, alienating most of this world's nations, killing the economy and stripping jobs, letting his friends/family loot the public treasury, etc, etc, etc.

[bocadem]

11. All of the environmental atrocities...

And the lying... right to our faces.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Voiding all those international treaties

and starting up the nuclear weapons programs. The first made the world mad at us (and they will probably cheer when we go down), and the second threatens to send the entire planet to nuclear oblivion.

When I was protesting in March, a kid rode by taunting us. At one point, he said Bush was the Second Coming of Christ. I think he had it partly right-but I'd put "anti-" in front of Christ.

[Warren Stuart]

13. Failing to defend the country from attack

Despite numerous warnings and then sitting in a classroom for half an hour while his "advisors" figured out the best way to spin this tragedy for his benefit.

[FlaGranny]

14. Well, first thought I had when seeing your subject line

was, taking the oath of office, but he wasn't actually IN office when he did that. It's very hard to come up with only one thing. I can't do it.

[Swede]

15. You'd have to do a faux pas of the day

[Fleshdancer]

16. Decisions decisions....

After thinking long and hard about it, I would have to choose the abuse of 9/11 because it just won't stop.

* praising the heros of 9/11, then cut off their funding a year later.
* waiting way too long to create the commission responsible for invistigating 9/11.
* attempting to hire Kissinger to head the commission.
* attempt to buy off the victims in order to keep them from suing those responsible for 9/11. (not exactly a frivilous lawsuit)
* start wars with countries not involved in 9/11 in the name of 9/11.
* maintain friendships and downright ignore the danger of Saudi Arabia whom had a very large role in 9/11.
* that horrid trifecta statement.
* refusing to declassify parts of the 9/11 investigation findings because it relates to his oil buddy Saudi Arabia.
* the location and timing of the gop convention = using 9/11 for political gain.
* approaching all foreign policy with a "you're with us or against us" type mentality.

I know there's a lot here I'm missing. I just can't write anymore...I feel dirty now and need a long shower.

[maggrwaggr]

20. I agree with this one

exploiting 9/11 for his benefit is about as low as you can sink.

Ignoring the warnings of 9/11 and letting it happen was pure incompetence.

Exploiting it is just plain evil.

[Imalittleteapot]

17. Being there

and not being there

[Zuni]

18. In my opinion

his 'diplomacy' which has all but destroyed decades of multilateral engagement and isolated us from not just much of the world but our key allies.
He has made the world a much tougher place if you are an American.

[lindashaw]

25. The criteria to judge by...

has to be: Which things can be undone once he is out of office? Many of his stupidities can be undone. We can even fix the economy, given enough time. But he has cost us our friends and the goodwill of the world. I'm not sure if that can ever be regained. Even if it is "repaired," it will never go back to what it once was. It's very sad.

[Zuni]

19. these new free trade agreements

are pretty bad.
I am still mad at Clinton/Gore for NAFTA, but Bush is actually looking at expanding that travesty aside from the new free trade agreements with Singapore and Chile.
He really is a 'free traitor'.

[Malva Zebrina]

21. Slaughtered and murdered five to ten thousand innocent Iraqi women,

children, babies , disabled and old men.

Did it all with lies to his own people

He murdered innocent people--took this nation into an unjust war, and the killing and murder still goes on.

That to me is the most egregious, unforgiveable thing an evil person like him can do--it is criminal-worse than Hannibal Lector could ever imagine-he is a criminal and needs to be prosecuted in a court for these crimes.

He is salivating and chomping at the bit continually to kill someone--assassinate anyone he says deserves it--all of it and him reeks of dark evil

[maggrwaggr]

22. every death in Iraq is a crime for which he should be charged

He should be up on about 10,000 counts of manslaugther.

From the time the first bomb was dropped, George Bush has been a war criminal

[samsingh]

23. destroying American democrasy

stealing the 2000 election.

BTW - great question - that's how Repugs have been guiding conversion for decades. State negativity as fact.

[tameszu]

24. Clinton had an idea about the problems of globalization

He just didn't always have the spine to stand up to a Republican congress to do more about. I'd say Clinton's worst act was his failure to effectively intervene in Somalia, or to do anything at all about Rwanda. Then comes either the Defense of Marriage Act or his Welfare Reform.

But we should really be more worried about Dubya! There's so much to choose from. I would say the worst thing he's done is repeatedly and blatantly lying to the American people. His pre-emption doctrine is scary as all get-out. Tearing up Kyoto, the U.S.' commitment to the ICC treaty, and his attacks on the UN: very scary. His attacks on evironmental standards: ridiculous.

BTW, let's get the idea of legitimacy straight here and distinguish between justified and unjustified military operations, otherwise we won't be able to talk about this stuff properly. There is no way the attack on Afghanistan can be more evil than the Iraq invasion. All of the world's democratic countries agree that attacking Afghanistan was a justified exercise of force in self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Even The Nation thinks invading Afghanistan was justified; they just don't think it was done in a just manner (bombing and proxies instead of using our own ground forces). Neither feels anything of the sort regarding Iraq, which is almost certainly a violation of international law.

[Darranar]

31. Afghanistan and Iraq...

both wars were immoral. If someone asked me which of the two countries were more chaotic and unstable, Afghanistan would get my pick-even now, almost two years after the war.

We could have sent special forces into Afghanistan and destroyed terrorist bases with them and aid from airplanes and helicopters. In the process, we would have kept order while at the same time destroyed the terrorist threat. There was NO JUSTIFICATION for removing the Taliban-it wasn't that bad of a government. Saddam was far worse and far more brutal, and his removal is, IMO, the only justifcation I can think of for attacking Iraq.

[jumptheshadow]

26. This guy is a horror show

How can a person pick just one thing that he's done when there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of horrific acts and policies to choose from?

One of the worst, I think, is his betrayal of so many dedicated folks who are over in Iraq. Bush was given responsibility for their lives and he squandered it with his rash, egocentric decisions, his pettiness and his penchant for personalizing global events. Add in Halliburton and the Bush administration's stance in favor of cutting veteran benefits and you have one very sickening situation.

[Generic Other]

27. Pre-emptive Strike Doctrine

The worst American president in history.

[leftofthedial]

28. the 9-11 covert op

followed closely by the patriot act


although illegally seizing power was the root of all his evil.

[LEFTofLEFT]

29. Which pile of shit stinks the most -

They will destroy us all if we do not stop them.

Fight the rightwing monsters like the future is at stake.

IT IS !!!

[indepat]

30. Holistically failing to uphold his oath of office to protect and defend

and preserve the Constitution of the United States?

[slackmaster]

32. Let's add butchering the English language to the list

Death and destruction notwithstanding, GWB will be rememberd for his quirky, simplistic language and mispronounciation of the word "nuclear".

[monarch]

34. Tell me one good thing he's done

I think that should be our slogan.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. Showing up for work at a job that isn't his.

All the rest flows from that.

[tokenlib]

36. Opening up his mouth!

His policies are so rotten, despicable, selfish, evil, and detestable--it is really a choice I cannot make.

[susu369]

37. Maybe not the single worst act—but a lewd act, nonetheless

delaying and finally overruling the Presidential Records Act.

Bush could not wait to sign Executive Order 13233 - one of the biggest red flags to forewarn us of the secrecy of this cabal.

Outrageous. However, how often does one hear about it? Let's move on.

[arcane1]

38. LIHOP

n/t