Originally Posted by antarius
Honestly, you make some valid points but the reality is - a lot of things changed. ...
I wont sit here and say that he's done everything right, he hasn't. No one does everything right and President Bush is no John F. Kennedy or George Washington, and neither of THEM did everything right. But, Bush has done a pretty good job for this country given the circumstances he's been dealt. Oh, and on a personal level. I got a nice tax refund thanks to president bush. And no, I dont care if the super rich got a bigger refund than me, as far as I'm concerned, they deserve one - just because of all the people trying to scam their money out of them just because they have a lot of it.
Certainly, no president this side of FDR has been "perfect." Hell..Blessed with hindsight, I think Clinton's tightening of the military and intelligence budget, combined with poor responses to the Somalian Crisis and the attack on the USS Cole, set us up- in part- for an attack like 9.11. And I agree, we were blindsided by 9.11.01. It radically changed everything.
But in my heart, I cannot see how the invasion of Iraq could have come at a worse time. We still have men in Afghanistan, and that problem is far from resolved.
The billions spent in removing Hussein could have been fed into MediCare, Social Security investment funds, education, etc.
I'm not going to blame Bush for the job losses, what I chastize his administration for is
failure to act.... a pandemic failure to act on virtually all elements of the domestic agenda.
He has neglected serious problems at home that IMHO, were much more pressing than the removal of Hussein (as I mentioned in discussions prior to the Invasion).
Supply-side economic theory can't work when companies take the money and run. And that's exactly what's happening. It's the 1970's all over again. Corporations are simply taking the money and continuing to outsource their jobs overseas. Dell, State-Farm, Nike, Addidas, GM, Ford, General Mills, etc, etc. All are finding their labour elsewhere. And we are suffering as a result of this administration's failure to act.