The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

On Bush Nostalgia

Posted on | February 9, 2010 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

Bob Belvedere explores the nuances and variations on theme of missing George W. Bush.
I think that:

  • Bush was the proper fellow at the time, in terms of foreign policy.
  • Bush was yet another Progressive tool in domestic policy terms.
  • Bush was submarined in a big way by the media. This engenders:
    1. A reservoir of respect for his willingness to stand there and deliver amidst systematic, deliberate unfairness that was tantamount to a propaganda war,
    2. A heaping helping of schadenfreude for the Left, who, having denigrated a President for two terms running, can’t seem to figure out why debasing the occupant of the office has residual affects on the next occupant.

But who cares about any of these names? As Governor Palin noted at theTea Party Convention, and was quoted on Trifecta, it’s the principles, not the personalities.

Until we regain the principle that public debt is undesirable, and systemically work to regain financial and economic freedom from debt, it’s the old Arab proverb about the dogs barking and the caravan moving on.

Q. Where is that caravan bound?
A. Egypt.

Q. What will we do when we arrive?
A. Join a pyramid construction crew for Pharaoh.

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

18 Responses to “On Bush Nostalgia”

  1. Ran / Si Vis Pacem
    February 10th, 2010 @ 4:23 am

    Smitty,
    I am almost with you on the foreign policy view – but two staggering administration errors keep me from agreeing.

    First was our failure to stomp on Saddam and then get the Hell out of there with a solemn promise to return if they were to revert to previous archetype. We had no genuine interest in maintaining a “surgical” strategy when a surge was required – and eventually effective. Rummy and Bush wasted a lot of lives and treasure. Leave a few bases, sure, but that daily cop routine sucked.

    Secondly: Iran, NK and Condi. I dug Doctor Rice, but she was not who we needed. We needed her at the UN and Bolton kicking foreign ass – someone Iran’s Mahdists would genuinely feel uncomfortable around. We dithered eight frickin’ years as Iran set-out to built nukes. Ditto NK.

    Yeah, I’m not so warm ‘n fuzzy on Bush’s foreign policy. Let me add the Ramos and Compean SNAFU to foreign policy failure as well…

  2. Ran / Si Vis Pacem
    February 9th, 2010 @ 11:23 pm

    Smitty,
    I am almost with you on the foreign policy view – but two staggering administration errors keep me from agreeing.

    First was our failure to stomp on Saddam and then get the Hell out of there with a solemn promise to return if they were to revert to previous archetype. We had no genuine interest in maintaining a “surgical” strategy when a surge was required – and eventually effective. Rummy and Bush wasted a lot of lives and treasure. Leave a few bases, sure, but that daily cop routine sucked.

    Secondly: Iran, NK and Condi. I dug Doctor Rice, but she was not who we needed. We needed her at the UN and Bolton kicking foreign ass – someone Iran’s Mahdists would genuinely feel uncomfortable around. We dithered eight frickin’ years as Iran set-out to built nukes. Ditto NK.

    Yeah, I’m not so warm ‘n fuzzy on Bush’s foreign policy. Let me add the Ramos and Compean SNAFU to foreign policy failure as well…

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  5. young4eyes
    February 10th, 2010 @ 6:08 am

    All you need to know about this meme is that you folks would still take Bush over Obama any day, which pretty much reduces all of your differences with BO to something like pro-wrestling fanaticism: no substantive gripes, just personal preferences.
    “Bush was submarined in a big way by the media”
    This is my favorite misinterpretation.
    Whoever had “won” the presidency in 2000 under the circumstances of the Florida debacle would have faced fierce opposition from day one. Florida was a disastrous turn of events.
    Nevertheless!–after 9-11 Bush had the nation in the palm of his hands. Revisit your history for a moment and you will remember that he had a whole nation behind him.
    And then the idiot had to go and invade Iraq, and that’s when the curtains fell. And his response to Katrina didn’t help. The idea that the Left was out to get him is sheer fantasy. It wasn’t the media, it was that the trickery no longer worked and people eventually got it.The idea that the opposition to the Bush presidency was media based is shortsighted and tinged with just a tad of that wishful thinking you guys resort to way too often.

    “systematic, deliberate unfairness that was tantamount to a propaganda war”…A little projection here perhaps? unfair to question what many( besides the fools who thought we were attacked by Saddam) thought to be a terrible decision? And in the end, the “traitors” turned out to be correct.
    “A heaping helping of schadenfreude for the Left…”
    Ah, finally an admission that the Tea Party/Conservative antipathy towards BO is nothing more than the pettiness you usually reserve for high school girls. Thanks dudes! Don’t you feel better now?
    “can’t seem to figure out why debasing the occupant of the office has residual affects on the next occupant.”
    So where do we go from here? A perpetual debasement of whoever is in office?
    When do you guys grow up?
    If you can’t be adult enough to recognize what is true dissatisfaction and petty partisanship, then I am afraid you will never get the country you think you are fighting for.
    So sad…
    ( oh, and really? quoting Palin in the context of her statement regarding principles vs. personalities? This lady needs to write her principles on her hand to remember what they are!!!)

  6. young4eyes
    February 10th, 2010 @ 1:08 am

    All you need to know about this meme is that you folks would still take Bush over Obama any day, which pretty much reduces all of your differences with BO to something like pro-wrestling fanaticism: no substantive gripes, just personal preferences.
    “Bush was submarined in a big way by the media”
    This is my favorite misinterpretation.
    Whoever had “won” the presidency in 2000 under the circumstances of the Florida debacle would have faced fierce opposition from day one. Florida was a disastrous turn of events.
    Nevertheless!–after 9-11 Bush had the nation in the palm of his hands. Revisit your history for a moment and you will remember that he had a whole nation behind him.
    And then the idiot had to go and invade Iraq, and that’s when the curtains fell. And his response to Katrina didn’t help. The idea that the Left was out to get him is sheer fantasy. It wasn’t the media, it was that the trickery no longer worked and people eventually got it.The idea that the opposition to the Bush presidency was media based is shortsighted and tinged with just a tad of that wishful thinking you guys resort to way too often.

    “systematic, deliberate unfairness that was tantamount to a propaganda war”…A little projection here perhaps? unfair to question what many( besides the fools who thought we were attacked by Saddam) thought to be a terrible decision? And in the end, the “traitors” turned out to be correct.
    “A heaping helping of schadenfreude for the Left…”
    Ah, finally an admission that the Tea Party/Conservative antipathy towards BO is nothing more than the pettiness you usually reserve for high school girls. Thanks dudes! Don’t you feel better now?
    “can’t seem to figure out why debasing the occupant of the office has residual affects on the next occupant.”
    So where do we go from here? A perpetual debasement of whoever is in office?
    When do you guys grow up?
    If you can’t be adult enough to recognize what is true dissatisfaction and petty partisanship, then I am afraid you will never get the country you think you are fighting for.
    So sad…
    ( oh, and really? quoting Palin in the context of her statement regarding principles vs. personalities? This lady needs to write her principles on her hand to remember what they are!!!)

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  8. wombat-socho
    February 10th, 2010 @ 7:46 am

    Y4E: If you can’t tell the difference between an experienced two-term large state governor who actually reached out to and worked with his political opponents and the empty suit we have now, I feel sorry for you. It speaks to deficiencies that no amount of blog commenting will ever cure.

  9. wombat-socho
    February 10th, 2010 @ 2:46 am

    Y4E: If you can’t tell the difference between an experienced two-term large state governor who actually reached out to and worked with his political opponents and the empty suit we have now, I feel sorry for you. It speaks to deficiencies that no amount of blog commenting will ever cure.

  10. Reaganite Republican
    February 10th, 2010 @ 8:16 am

    Great post Smitty- sums it right up for me.

    I loved the defense posture of the Bush administration- the spending, not so much… but things can always get worse… A LOT worse.

    And George W Bush is also a good guy… and a truly moral man by Judeo-Christian norms. Sure easier to like and support a leader like that through a couple mistakes than to fall in-line behind a habitually-dishonest Bolshevik hustler like we’ve got now.

  11. Reaganite Republican
    February 10th, 2010 @ 3:16 am

    Great post Smitty- sums it right up for me.

    I loved the defense posture of the Bush administration- the spending, not so much… but things can always get worse… A LOT worse.

    And George W Bush is also a good guy… and a truly moral man by Judeo-Christian norms. Sure easier to like and support a leader like that through a couple mistakes than to fall in-line behind a habitually-dishonest Bolshevik hustler like we’ve got now.

  12. guest
    February 10th, 2010 @ 12:42 pm

    The amount of manufactured lies told in order to get Obama elected is directly proportional to the amount manufactured lies told in order to destroy a Commander-in-Chief Bush during a time of war.

    What I find fascinating is that 18-29 year old voter bloc who, for the first time in their life, decided to show up and vote yet with that first vote managed to be the first generation to vote themselves into slavery.

    Silly Serfdom is for kids.

  13. guest
    February 10th, 2010 @ 7:42 am

    The amount of manufactured lies told in order to get Obama elected is directly proportional to the amount manufactured lies told in order to destroy a Commander-in-Chief Bush during a time of war.

    What I find fascinating is that 18-29 year old voter bloc who, for the first time in their life, decided to show up and vote yet with that first vote managed to be the first generation to vote themselves into slavery.

    Silly Serfdom is for kids.

  14. young4eyes
    February 10th, 2010 @ 1:50 pm

    wombat-
    ” an experienced two-term large state governor who actually reached out to and worked with his political opponents ”
    Hilarious! Bush showed us all that your so-called “executive experience” amounts to a hill of beans when it comes to making sound decisions. But the best is the idea that Bush reached out to political opponents–you seem to forget that we were then still living in a era where Congressional obstructionism just wasn’t something you would not do( not to mention the Repugs Congressional majority). The idea that Bush was bipartisan is missing the point that bipartisanship goes both ways, and you had plenty of Dems, right or wrong, who were willing to work with the Pres. Go back and do your research.
    “I loved the defense posture of the Bush administration”
    Exactly, it was all posturing! Hey,if you are going to start a war, make sure that you know what you are doing. Chest thumping and bravado just isn’t enough these days.
    And as far as the billboard saying ” Me miss yet?”
    Why don’t you ask the millions that voted for BO and rejected McCain/Palin.
    Sarah asks how “hopey/changey is working out for us? Just great. The nation wakes up everyday thanking some divinity that we don’t have to deal with another 4 years of Bush policy.
    Nice try,fellers….

  15. young4eyes
    February 10th, 2010 @ 8:50 am

    wombat-
    ” an experienced two-term large state governor who actually reached out to and worked with his political opponents ”
    Hilarious! Bush showed us all that your so-called “executive experience” amounts to a hill of beans when it comes to making sound decisions. But the best is the idea that Bush reached out to political opponents–you seem to forget that we were then still living in a era where Congressional obstructionism just wasn’t something you would not do( not to mention the Repugs Congressional majority). The idea that Bush was bipartisan is missing the point that bipartisanship goes both ways, and you had plenty of Dems, right or wrong, who were willing to work with the Pres. Go back and do your research.
    “I loved the defense posture of the Bush administration”
    Exactly, it was all posturing! Hey,if you are going to start a war, make sure that you know what you are doing. Chest thumping and bravado just isn’t enough these days.
    And as far as the billboard saying ” Me miss yet?”
    Why don’t you ask the millions that voted for BO and rejected McCain/Palin.
    Sarah asks how “hopey/changey is working out for us? Just great. The nation wakes up everyday thanking some divinity that we don’t have to deal with another 4 years of Bush policy.
    Nice try,fellers….

  16. guest
    February 10th, 2010 @ 2:33 pm

    Take pity on poor young4eyes, the enslaved Blue Smurf is in shock upon learning the Greek Column who can save and create the oceans has turned out to be paper-mached Hollywood fakery.

  17. guest
    February 10th, 2010 @ 9:33 am

    Take pity on poor young4eyes, the enslaved Blue Smurf is in shock upon learning the Greek Column who can save and create the oceans has turned out to be paper-mached Hollywood fakery.

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