My take away: What an absolutely fine, f'd up mess George Bush left this country.

[Writer]

I'm starting to think that there's no way out of this mess. No totalistic response (all conservative/all liberal) is politically viable. Pragmatic solutions also aren't politically viable, not only to the most active members of the electorate (that being the extreme left and right), but also aren't "sexy" enough to discuss on the air, especially on commercial media, who (using the drastic generality I despise) seem to focus on covering politics but not governance.

And when the dust settles, and Obama is out of a job because liberals and conservatives alike hate his guts, all I can do is reflect back to the one person who made this entire mess possible...

... and that's this douchebag.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Absolutely right.

[grasswire]

2. he didn't act alone

He was just the most recent outbreak of BFEE disease.

[ShortnFiery]

3. It's OBAMA's MESS and OCCUPATION now! ... he's not helping Main Street. eom

[NYC_SKP]

13. LOL.

You can repeat that bullshit all you want, but it's not going to make it true.

This fucked up mess we're in started years and decades ago, with outsourcing and NAFTA and then fake wars and terror.

So the hell with that teabagging meme about it being Obama's mess and occupation.

It's his to clean up, that's as far as it goes.

Grab a fucking broom.

[ShortnFiery]

16. He is carrying on with BushCo's American Crusade 2001+. Tell me?

In what area of foreign affairs is President Obama truly DIFFERENT than BushCo in PRACTICE?

[MrsCorleone]

40. You still don't get it, do you?

It's not as if Obama alone can take down the multinationals' stranglehold on this country. After the SC court's ruling last week, his job & ours just got infinitely more difficult.

By undercutting him, you undercut you and me. Obama repeated ad nauseam that this was going to be a long & ugly battle and that he could not do sh*t without our help. Did you ever bother to listen? Instead of giving him any backing, all I see is bitching & moaning because Obama didn't wave some giant magical wand and make all the big bad stuff go away. Unreal!

[greenbird]

43. Oh good Lord.

[Armstead]

18. Bush was the straw that broke the back

[TheKentuckian]

34. The problem is that he has elected to create and expand messes

Expanded in Afpak well beyond what he committed to and should have pulled the hell out.

Turns over health care reform to conservatives, pharma, and big insurance to create not reform but doubled down on a failed system and then further set up a mandate into the predatory criminal cartel. Appears to be a set up to privatize Medicare and Medicaid all according to the plan of the corporatist Emanuel brought in by his brother as a subject matter policy adviser.

Plans to privatize public primary education via the so called charter school.

Heavily Wall Street centric and as much as possible laissez fare fiscal policy.

Continues unconstitutional wiretapping programs.

Refuses to seriously tackle needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades.

Reliance on the magic of tax cuts.

I'm just flat out not seeing a change in trajectory other than perhaps for the worse, further failing into the false trap of Reaganomics and neoliberal public policy. The only "clean ups" I really detect are a reduction in bellicose tone on the world stage and acknowledging some of the major issues. Admitting you have a problem is a start but following that up with canary in the coal mine style or even counter productive solutions ain't gonna cut it.

Obama cannot complain about the mess or the lack of help if he mostly commits to cleaning it up using many of the exact methods and philosophies that created it.

The President for all his talk of change is showing to be more of an agent of the status quo than anything approaching a revolutionary. He has signaled that the age of Reagan continues and that he is unwilling or unable to make a clean break with a generation of failed ideas but rather he intends to weave them into the fabric of the Democratic party and killing the New Deal.

[dionysus]

26. CRUISE MISSLESL!!!!!1!!! LATTE IN MY FACE!!1!!! PRIVATE SCHOOL!!1

:crazy:

[verges]

41. Now is the result of what has been. nt

[emilyg]

42. +10

[givemebackmycountry]

4. That stupid Monkey never was at fault, he only did what he was told.

Look to the SCOTUS and the people they serve (and it ain't us) who made sure he got there in the first place.

However, I really hate that little prick.

[Sultana]

19. Dude, don't insult (real) monkeys like that O(._.)O

To refer to Bush plz use *.

:D

[HughBeaumont]

33. His puppetmasters in the MIC and Corporations were the guilty parties.

That moran just aided and abetted their theft.

Calling Bewsh fully responsible is giving him FAR too much credit.

[katandmoon]

5. Obama is following way too closely in that douchebag's footsteps. And giving that douchebag a total

pass for starting an illegal war and trashing the Constitution.

So if Bush was a disgrace, what does that make Obama?

[arcadian]

6. You're responsible for it too.

[Chulanowa]

7. Bush? Who's bush?

You mean Obama hasn't been the president foreverandeverandever, and that some of this stuff, or even most of it or -heavens to betsy - THE VAST MAJORITY of problems might have been on the plate before he was even around?

Pish-posh!

[rhett o rick]

8. As long as people think that, we are in trouble. bush* was a puppet of CorpAmerica.

bush* isnt responsible. And it's important to differentiate because those that were responsible are still involved with the decision making.

Those that think with bush* gone, are troubles are over are slowing down our recovery. CorpAmerica has it's claws deep into the DLC, Rahm and the President. Big Pharma, need i say more?

[Gregorian]

9. Bush laid a TRAP for the succeeding administration.

This was planned.

We paid for Bush's scheme. Generations to come will pay. And the country may not survive his rampage.

[SPedigrees]

12. So True. It's all in the PNAC manifesto. nt

[Cosmocat]

22. YEP ... It sound so machevelian ...

(sp) ...

BUT, it is a win/win with these arseholes ...

They fruck things up so horribly, they get to point at the fruits of THEIR labor as PROOF that government is Fd up, and run on it again ...

What is just so god darned tragic is that MSM carrying their water ...

It has been a year, and the Rs have totally absolved themselves of ANY of it, and put it ALL on BO, and the media ... Lets htem do it ...

I will absolutely DIE the next time some MSMer says to some R beating the drum, "hey, you douchebags took 6 years to create this mess, why don't you just STFU and craw under a rock for 6 years and see if the other team can clean it up ..."

[Pirate Smile]

10. I remember everyone saying "why would anyone want this job" because the mess Bush left is so

huge that digging out from it was going to be practically impossible. He left a situation where all options suck. President Obama said repeatedly that his options are generally between bad and worse. Yet people somehow imagined he would make it all better really quick.

The stock market crashed in '29. FDR didn't become President until March of 1933. The recession technically started in December 2007 but this was only acknowledged a year later in December 2008 after Obama had been elected but not inaugurated yet. The bottom fell out of financial system September 15, 2008. The largest job cuts began in January 2009. Bush didn't have to deal with the worst of the problem because he handed an economy headed straight off a cliff to Obama. Obama managed to stop another Great Depression which left us with a severe recession instead. Does he get credit? Very little.

I sometimes imagine what would have happened if FDR had to deal with a media and press like we have today during the Great Depression and World War II. The press hid the fact that he couldn't walk. There were tons of screw ups but things were treated so differently.

I think it's sad how quickly people turned on the President when he already had an opposition who never, even in a time of great crisis, tried to work honestly toward the best interests of the Country. Their own political self interest was more important. He has so many enemies between Faux, talk radio and the entire RW industry. Now people on the left are eager to join with them. It's sick.

[abq e streeter]

11. 60 million ( give or take) fine upstanding citizens who voted for him had a little to do with it too

[NYC_SKP]

14. Kick and big Rec, writer.

:patriot:

:kick:

[TomCADem]

15. The Odd Thing Is Both Liberals and Conservatives Romanticize Him

Conservatives conveniently forget 9/11, Katrina and other breakdowns that left thousands of Americans dead. Some so-called liberals loosely suggest that President Obama is no different, ignoring the fact that President Obama's policies are the most progressive spending plan we have had in the past few decades.

[depakid]

25. Considering the past few decades, center right- with the occasional bone looks "progressive" to some

[TomCADem]

35. The Goal Is The Help The American People, Not Get Brownie Points For Being Most "Liberal"

The Paul Krugman v. Jane Hamscher divide on health care reform illustrates that progressives and liberals disagree on issues like health care reform. The problem is that some folks try to delegitimize those who disagree with them by calling them "center-right." I personally interpret true "liberalism" as focusing on effectiveness. Implement the policy, focus on effectiveness and wide ranging benefits, than worry about the idealogical label later.

[depakid]

36. Well, from an objective standpoint, the policies aren't doing that very effectively, are they?

Other than that- I agree with your interpretation (though I would posit the term progressivism for liberal- as historically it ascribes to that definition). Hence the term "political science" which hearkens from that era.

[jotsy]

17. It gets harder and harder to contain my disdain

for this over aged adolescent who smashed a toy he'd rather not seen returned to its rightful owner. The undoing of a century's civil progress is what lies in the wake of his brand of leadership. I remember him being out and about pushing his social security scam and the smirk on his face as he spoke to a crowd he thought riveted.

"They hate us for our freedoms," he said.

I felt like he thought he was the only one who knew he was talking about himself and his silver spoon stuck up the ass buddies. His existence, vile as it is, serves as proof to every high school dropout that ever was or will be that they too can squander every opportunity they touch and still get to be master of the universe.

Can we sue for the return of his salary? It hurts to know we paid him over $3,000,000.00 for what he did to us. For what all his friends are still doing to us. For what our supreme court just gave them more power to keep doing to us. Dirty ravenous rat bastards.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Bush fucked us good,

and it appeared that the teabagger may have enjoyed getting fucked.

Now there's a new guy in town,
and all fingers are pointed at him.

one.fucking.lousy.ass.year was all that he was given.
That is so unfair till it ain't even funny.

FDR with his large ass majority got wayyyy more time!

We are the fakes. We really don't want to see the truth,
we just pretend to understand, but as soon as it gets difficult,
we are out of there, blaming him along with the Bushbots.
We are basically no better than they are. We are all monumentally weak.

[avaistheone1]

21. Given Bush is a douche bag, but why is Obama following so closely in his steps?

[uponit7771]

30. ANOTHER RW talking point posted on DU, Obama promise meter says you're wrong

[jasmeel]

23. Thank u! This shit is so fucked and people don't even know

where to start w fixing it. McCain would have had no luck either with the exception that the Democratic congress may have worked with him more than the repubs are working w Obama.

[RoadRage]

24. You're exactly Right..

Which is why i'm sick to death of DU. The impossible expectation people have here is sickening. Obama inherits the most turbulent economy in over 70 years.. and has had exactly ONE FUCKING YEAR to fix it, and people are crying and throwing their crayons because their pet project hasn't been fixed yet.

I've come to the realization that:

1. I'm an independant.. I don't want to be associated with the far left
2. Those on the far left are just as crazy as those on the Far Right
3. Many Democrats are just as dumb as Republicans.. they have the same "All or Nothing" approach where if they don't get everything they want, right away.. well they just won't vote, and turn into the opposition.

Your post clearly shows the difference between an Obama & Bush presidency.. but many here can't even see that. They will see it though... when they pull their collective heads out of their asses as Palin or one of her Republican clones gets elected in 2012. Then we'll have an out pouring of "OMG - How did we let this happen again... I mean, Obama wasn't THAT Bad".

[TheKentuckian]

37. You're being simplistic in your view of the left. The left has always compromised

your problem is at anytime they stand up at any time in the process. You expect capitulation and abandonment of ideals and values. You also ignore that when people see their beliefs flushed down the toilet and the status quo not only continuing but reinforced that dissatisfaction is to be expected.

My problem is that the cleaning up of the mess isn't on a trajectory to ever be completed and those that created it are being coddled in obscene ways while those they caused to suffer are still on the short end of the stick.

Most of all Obama refuses to make a clean break with Reaganomics which means there is no change of enduring substance, our path remains the same.

We don't need a 6th and 7th Reagan term at all and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm nuts for wanting to be as far as humanly possible from the failed philosophies that have brought us here.

Sorry, but what one has as core beliefs will limit their ability to bend and after a generation of failed and corrupt ideology there is little sense in much compromise with the devil because such won't lead us out of this dark valley. Especially, when the devil says nothing but no and the demons in our midst want to line corporate coffers rather than providing for the people.

What compromises do you want to see? What are your lines in the sand, that say past this point I can go no further? When you give up things do you not expect reciprocal exchanges from the other side?

When you see what you want go by the wayside with no expectation of getting back, don't you have a problem? What policies do you believe in? Do you feel you have a general ideology?

[RoadRage]

39. Your ideals & mine aren't the same

First, I realize that if the stars were to align and I was able to vote in the political candidate who agreed on every single of the issues I held dear, that the likelihood is that still most of what I & that elected candidate wanted wouldn't change.

The majority of what happens politically in this country is decided by a Senate, a Congress & a SCOTUS that I have very little control over. Frankly - Obama & I agree on most policies. I like the idea of a public option for health care - and he pushed for it until he realized that if he pushed any further he'd lose the whole thing. Turns out that might happen anyway. But, I don't blame him for something that takes an entire congress & senate to pass.

I don't see Obama as a 7th Reagan term.. or a 3rd Bush term.. but I see it's fun to throw that around on this forum. If that truly was the case, Sotomeyor wouldn't be sitting on the SCOTUS - another (6th) Right Wing justice would be. And we'd be well on our way to over-turning Roe v. Wade (something I think I hold in high regard). If we had another Republican President, I think we'd be seeing something like an amendment to the constitution to make marriage be soley between a man & a woman. Pathetic in my mind.

I don't think we would have seen a 3/4 trillion stimulus.. and we won't see the advantage of that for a few more years. Healthcare wouldn't have been touched.. at least now we've got a chance to try and fix it and send something through.

I see the glass half full.. and I'm not depending on the Government to fix everything for me. It hasn't yet.. it's not going to in the future, and I don't stake my happiness on it, because i'd be in for a hell of a lot of dissapointment.

[Cass]

27. This is precisely why imo republicans didn't want to win the last election.

The selection of the airhead Sarah Palin as VP nominee was a monumental giveaway that they were not seriously wanting to win.

They knew the extent of the mess Bush and his congressional enablers left, they knew the excrement was going to hit the fan in a major way and they certainly didn't want to be sitting the WH when it happened. They wanted to be on the sidelines doing exactly what they are doing now - criticisizing, obstructing and obfuscating so that the whole mess would eventually appear to be entirely an Obama and the dem congress creation that they could run against in the midterms and again in 2012.

[HughBeaumont]

32. Something tells me the American voter is going to be just stupid enough to fall for it. Again.

It's absolutely amazing and astounding.

Yeah, that's the cure to what ails us . . . put the party who CAUSED this shittery BACK in power, so they can proceed to pick up where they left off and destroy ALL of our rights and the economy completely.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. So maybe 'turn the page and look away' was a stupid choice?

[uponit7771]

29. AMEN!! K&R

[dave29]

31. Reading DU I am left with the impression that you don't realize what you have

til it's gone

[salguine]

38. Dwelling over "Bush's mess" is holding less and less water with each passing month. It's

not his mess anymore. He's been gone for a year. And President Obama seems hell-bent on continuing the worst of his policies, including relying on the same people, in too many cases, who fucked up everything to begin with. Nothing Bush did was so bad that Obama doesn't seem to be making it worse instead of fixing it...he's relying entirely too much on...Oh, fuck it. I'm as tired of pointing this out as the cheerleaders are of hearing it.

[merkins]

44. security blanket..

that excuse is past the expiration date now