President Bush’s year in review; Update: Budget director will review earmarks; On the GOP prez race…”You can’t be the president unless you have a firm set of principles to guide you;” “I believe we will keep the White House”
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President Bush will give a year-in-review press conference at 10am. Here’s my 10-second version:
The good: The surge, the S-CHIP vetoes.
The bad: Abdication on earmarks, submission to the global warming alarmists and enviro-meddlers, the Annapolis folly.
The ugly: Shameful shamnesty.
Add your own to the list.
On the upside, he didn’t have as bad a year as the do-nothing, White Flag Dems. Headline: “Democratic Congress Recesses With A Whimper.” Talk about an annus horribilis.
***
10:03am Eastern. Bush includes homeowner bailout measures among his proud accomplishments. Ugh. Bush laments the omnibus spending behemoth and wasted time. Bush criticizes earmarks, but…he’s going to approve them. Says he will appoint Budget Director Jim Nussle to review “options” to deal with the pork. Criticizes Dems’ tabling of FISA reform bill.
10:10am Eastern. First question is on the CIA tape destruction story. Will “reserve judgement” until inquiries and oversight hearings are complete.
Second question on Putin, Man on the Year designation and state of democracy in Russia. “I presume they put him there because he is a consequential leader.” He says prime minister rumors are speculation…”we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Third question on Democrats’ agenda failures. “I don’t view life as zero-sum.” Defends vetoes.
10:16am Eastern. He’s touting No Child Left Behind. Ugh.
Question about presidential race. What are important qualities? “You can’t be the president unless you have a firm set of principles to guide you.” “How do you intend to set up your Oval Office?”
Next: Brett Baier asks about the Afghanistan review. Reviews are “good governance.”
10:30am Eastern. Talks up his global warming strategy and the Big Greenie energy bill.
10:41am Eastern. Middle East: “Syria needs to stay out of Lebanon.”
Mike Allen repeatedly tries to get Bush to talk about the presidential race. “You’re trying to get me to be opiner-in-chief…I’m not going to do so…I believe we will keep the White House…”
10:50am Eastern. End.
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Categories: George W. Bush
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The Good: It’s him in office not the dwebe.
The Bad: for me Shamesty as well. major disappointment.
I like President Bush…. and I’m not apologizing for it.
Bush should resign.
And let Cheney be Prez for a year.
Oh, how absolutely awesome that would be.
Here is my year in review,I love Michelle Malkin.com I’m so glad I got In here Thank you Michelle for all you do and keep up the great work. And to all the bloggers and Michelle MERRY CHRISTMAS And a HAPPY NEW YEAR.!!!!
The Good: He told Congress when he was going to veto something, and then did it.
The Bad: Every time he visits this area and lands at our base, we are confined indoors, stay away from windows, and don’t peek out. It’s a hard blow for someone who has a TS clearance and 22 years military service.
The Ugly: Shamnesty.
P.S. I still think he’s overall a good man.
OK
The talking heads had predicted Bush would be a weakened, lame duck president who would have little ability and political capital left to stand up to the democratic majority in congress. While his policies have sometimes been a disappointment, he has been anything but a weakling.
This is a president who has waged the War on Terror with such steely resolve that he has been described as the terrorists’ worst nightmare. The democrats mistakenly believed that such a man would be cowed by the likes of Reid and Pelosi.
Particularly because of shamnesty, I am unable to give him a 100% approval rating, but I am proud of him, nonetheless.
I agree with #1, and #3. #2 I kind agree that it would be cool if Cheney were president but I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. He has disappointed me on many occasions but I’d like to see he go out as scheduled. No sense in giving the Left any cause for celebration as far as Bush is concerned. They be begging for him back after a month of Cheney.
The good:
-No terrorist attacks on our soil
-His judges that were appointed.
Butt-kisser
Bush review: Too liberal. Too much spending. Too much executive edict. Too little border protection. Too much patronizing of big business. Summary: Not impressed.
The good: Stole the election – thanks Chad (his alter ego)!
The bad: Didn’t take the carp the congress dealt us to the people and make it high profile (verbal line item veto – if you will).
The ugly: Shame-nasty
I figure if one year of President Cheney will make 2/3 of uberliberals head explodes, I’m all for it.
If you think they hate bush, just think what they’ll say about the guy who started the Reichstag fire. I mean, the White House fire. Burning secret CIA tapes.
On December 20th, 2007 at 9:54 am, DocattheAutopsy said:
Bush should resign.
And let Cheney be Prez for a year.
Oh, how absolutely awesome that would be.
I agree with the good, the bad, and the ugly in the above. However, if Bush reigned San Fran Nan would be next in line and then Robert “KKK” Bryd. That would be just plain ugly!
I voted for President Bush both times and would enthusiastically do so again, but I am disappointed in his recent decisions favoring the energy bill and Kyoto; the on-line Brit papers’ (the “Guardian” and “Independent”) did their little holier-than-thou VB (Victory over Bush) parade with editorials that labeled President Bush as the “toxic Texan,” and gloated how the world had united to defeat “Bush” and the Neanderthal Americans on Kyoto.
I know he is concerned about his legacy, and wants to disarm his critics on similar soc-environ issues before leaving office, but I wish he wouldn’t allow his desire for a distinguished record to curb his principles on key issues like Kyoto and the need for new energy sources.
After all, as it stands to day, his legacy far and away out-shines that of his self-serving-predecessor.
The good is his stance on the World War against Islamic Fascists, the veto of S-Chip delaying socialized medicine for now, and managing to keep the economy chugging through tax cuts.
The bad and ugly the Shamnesty bill (Grrrrrrr!), failure to fight back against the liberal lies, the signing of the Omnibus bill, the total waste of time at Annapolis (Screw the Arabs that worship only death, support God’s chosen people that worship life), the subprime loan bailout, and the signing of the new energy policy. It seems the most recent depressing results from his actions stick in the mind the most.
I do respect President Bush. He seems like a decent guy I just don’t agree with much of his domestic security policy. Overall I rate his peformance as poor for the standard one expects of a conservative.
I forgot to mention that the government has grown way TOO LARGE under Bush and that his intrusions in the surveillance world are truly frightening.
I too voted for him twice. I too think that, as a person, he’s a good man. And I too agree with him on Iraq.
I am really angry with him about his admins spending; increasing the size of the federal govt.; and his ABSOLUTELY SHAMEFUL position on AMNESTY!
The first election I thought I was voting for a conservative. I found out I was wrong about that. The second time around I voted for the “Lesser of two evils”.
Nonetheless, I wish him well in his retirement.
The soapbox troll strikes again.
I watched for a little while, into the first 7-8 questions. Bush said Holiday season twice that I heard, did he ever say “MERRY CHRISTMAS”?
.
He has kept us safe here on US soil.
Shamnesty still baffles me.
“He kept us safe on US soil?” How, bad syntax scaring away the evil doers?
George Bush and his ilk (Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, etc.)are the reason I left the Republican Party.
What good does it do to defend our country from terrorism and at the same time actively work to destroy the economy by signing on to the “Religion of Man Made Global Warming”?
What good does it do to defend our country from terrorism and at the same time actively work to keep our borders wide open and allow millions of criminals to run free in the country?
What good does it do to defend our country from terrorism and at the same time actively work expand all sorts of costly programs which will drive us into financial ruin?
What good does it do to defend our country from terrorism and at the same time actively accept huge budgets?
He is part of the problem, not the solution. We will not have a country to defend if this foolishness continues.
The good: sometimes, he has good ideas (e.g., WOT).
The bad: he seems incapable of actually carrying any of them to a conclusion (WOT).
The ugly: He is too willing to sell us out to his Mexican buddies and the open-borders loons, too willing to kiss up to the Islamofascists.
The incredibly ugly: Railroaded Ramos and Compean (via his great pal, Johnny Sutton) and refuses to man up and free them.
I’d vote for the resignation and replacement with Cheney, too. I voted for Jorge twice, and feel betrayed.
Yes, he’s better than the alternatives we had, but falls so far short of acceptable that it bothers the hell out of me.
meatpieandtatters, I think what you meant to say is “I hate Bush”.
Now go away, You leftist troll. The exit is on the RIGHT!
I can only image what a travesty our country would be right now if we had four years with the Goricle as president and then four years with Mr Teresa Heinz as president.
The good: He finally found a veto pen and the stones to use it, albeit against a Democrat congress.
The bad: Half-stepping the war.
The ugly: Shamnesty
The stupid: Coddling to the Global Warming crowd.
To Be Determined: His Supreme Court appointments.
From a conservative perspective, Bush is one of the worst presidents in American history.
He is a quarterback who knowingly turns over the ball on almost every play to hurt the team.
Redefining conservatism may be his lasting legacy and the ruin of the country because we have no party left to support.
QUESTION:
I heard W say something to the effect of “The ultimate weapon against terrorism… is Freedom.”
Can’t find anything from today’s press conference – so I googled it.
Turns out he’s said that a lot.
So anyways, even if it’s cliche… I’d say that was the good.
The bad? Well, he wasn’t hard enough on this Congress. Hope he makes some good recess appointments while they’re out.
I was glad to here him support nuclear power. Of course I’m a little biased, since I retired from a nuclear power plant after 30 years in operations and as an instructor. It’s nuts to ignore nuclear power. It will be used to a much greater extent IMO, the only question is how bad we have to need it before we get off our duffs and start building new plants. I think it’s called “crisis management.”
A bit of speculation: I wonder if in college Bush was one of those people that screwed around until the paper was nearly due, then at the last minute worked his tail off to produce a reasonably good paper…He seems to function best in adversity.
As for his mistakes in the war, more and more people seems to think that the success of the Surge built upon trends already existing. I’ll make a prediction: 25-50 years from now, when there is a lot more information available, some the passions have faded, and with the benefit of hindsight, Iraq will look no more mismanaged than any other war and Bush will come out looking pretty good. Thank about it – How many wars have we ever won that we didn’t get our nose bloodied in the first part, but persevered, learned from our mistakes, and applied those leassons to win? The Revolutionary War (Washington made some MAJOR mistakes early on), the War of the Barbary Pirates, the War of 1812, the Civil War (Union side, obviously), WWII, most of our conflicts with the Indians, Korea…Exceptions might be the Mexican-American War (I don’t know enough to comment there) and WWI (we got in very late. Nevertheless, we did have some early disasters, and learned from them, IIRC). Even in Vietnam we followed that pattern, we just didn’t persevere long enough.
Incidentally, the British also tend to lose the first battles, but win the war. Maybe it a cultural or government thing? Dunno…
Add to bad column.
soapbox troll – WHAAA?
The good: Chief Justice Roberts
The bad: Allowing patriots to be prosecuted…The Haditha Hoax,Border Guards in prison and not arresting propagandists for treason.
If I T F myself, do I get extra points?
I’m still Trying to Figure out how you got to be a troll in the first place.
Methinks Soap’s jab about stealing the election was Taken Far too literally.
Oh, and thanks from me, Chad!
Yeah, a full set of Constitutionally mandated principles.
Fulfilling one out three major mandates isn’t very firm.
Michelle, thanks for putting each update at the bottom!
Soap, how seriously can you take someone who thinks “taters” is spelled with three t’s?
OffTopic: I saw something on TV where they previewed the next segment by saying they were going to show “The good, the bad, and the Rosie,” and displayed a photo of Ms. O’Donnell when they said her first name! I groaned, but I enjoyed it.
SHoward,
Had to be it. I thought everyone here knew I had a sarcastic, caustic personality? Tough For me.
Must be the bridge my wife is building me!
So, while Paris burned….as they say, anyway. Did you all know that the Social Security taxable income level was raised from $90k in 2007 to $108k in 2008? That’s roughly a $1350+ tax increase. More than $100/month.
Anyone see that coming, or was it snuck through someplace? Or maybe I was dancing or sleeping or something besides paying attention.