So, recently my wife and I were having a discussion, and she asked me:

"So, what has Bush done right?"

Now that his presidency is nearly over, I thought I'd pass along this question to you guys. I'm rather curious - can you guys list what Bush has done right, or well?

Africa
Invasion of Afganistan
The Surge
Firing Rumsfeld


Thats all I can think of.

Africa aids
Response to the Tsunami
initial response to 9/11

John Roberts has been good so far.

Invasion of Afganistan
The Surge
Firing Rumsfeld


Firing Rumsfeld meant hiring him first, I might count that if it had happened years earlier; the surge was "successful" pretty much completely by accident due to events in Iraq surrounding the large-scale rejection of Al Qaeda by various tribal leaders and a shift towards bribing active paramilitary groups into playing nice; the invasion of Afghanistan was just as horribly mishandled as Iraq, we're there for an oil pipeline.

I'm wracking my brain and I'm sure there has to be something of substance, but I can't think of it. Every agency of government has been beheaded and looted, most of them will take years to return to function.

I guess the address he gave after the Columbia was lost was ok?

If any of you say No Child Left Behind not only will i hunt you down and beat you with the test scores of every child that was left behind I will pee in your jelly bean jar!

No Child Left Behind.

Hold him down and *I'll* pee on him too, SC, I deal with the cognitive carnage from 'No Child Gets Ahead' every day here as well...

If Obama increases the funding to states for implementing NCLB and makes a minor change or two, we'll have a better idea of the true legacy of NCLB. As it stands right now, it's clearly broken, but not necessarily a failure.

Hold him down and *I'll* pee on him too, SC, I deal with the cognitive carnage from 'No Child Gets Ahead' every day here as well...

Of course I'm 100% serious about that, seeing as how I supported the candidate that wanted to do away with the Department of Education.

Killing lots and lots of muslims....

Killing lots and lots of muslims....

I had an omelette this morning with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese it was delicious.

Killing lots and lots of muslims....

wow lol... at least your man enough to speak your mind.

I had an omelette this morning with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese it was delicious.

I wish I could make omelettes and not screw them up. Whenever I try to flip them it just goes all to hell and then it looks like mush in the pan. I need "lessons" I guess.



I commend Bush for how he was able to rally the country with his speeches on and after 9/11. I even cried a few times during his speeches and I wanted to lace up my boots and dig out the BDUs but beyond a few things like Africa and Afghanistan not really much else sticks out for me.

I wish I could make omelettes and not screw them up. Whenever I try to flip them it just goes all to hell and then it looks like mush in the pan. I need "lessons" I guess.



I commend Bush for how he was able to rally the country with his speeches on and after 9/11. I even cried a few times during his speeches and I wanted to lace up my boots and dig out the BDUs but beyond a few things like Africa and Afghanistan not really much else sticks out for me.


The key is a really good non-stick pan I think.

As far as the Afghan - 9/11 - Iraq thing, I'm one of those crazy former marines who wears USMC issue boots every day...until it all ends. I do have to say the new tan Danners rock as far as comfort, much better than the old black ones.


Killing lots and lots of muslims....

So says the pussy who lacks the balls to even enlist.

The key is a really good non-stick pan I think

AYE! one with high angle sides and use alot of butter or cooking oil.

The real secret is in developing a good clockwise/counterclockwise swirl motion. once ya got her moving good all it takes is a gentle flick of the wrist and BAM! it'll fold nicely for ya. gonna take some practise but once you get it your golden.

Same goes for a perfect overeasy. just needs a tad bit more on the flick.

I made a nice spinach-bacon-onion quiche for lunch today, and had a nice Reisling with it.

As for Bush, his policies regarding Africa were the only saving grace I can think of, at the moment.



And on a side note, anyone know what 'Brownie' is doing these days?

Fild.. you need lots and lots of oil to make it work right. And you gotta flick your wrist just right.


As for the omlette I dunno, try a better non-stick pan.

NCLB, like many other initiatives, was based on lies. Supposedly research backed, it was later demonstrated that the research did not back it. Joined with being grossly underfunded as well as a flawed method of understanding how education worked, it will go down as a black mark on his name. Started by him or not, Bush's pushing of NCLB was a phenomenal mistake.

What did he do right? He didn't nuke anyone! He hasn't instated martial law. He didn't start a 3rd war? (yet?)

He was a pretty strong Isreali advocate and ally.

That was a good move imo.

Wasn't ole Teddy Kennedy a co-author of the NCLB bill?

I find I agree with San, the Dept of Education is one of the ones that needs abolishing long before the Education system can be honestly looked at overhauling.

Pretty sure he was, yes.

Okay , so far as we're clear the NLCB was a bi-partisan mistake and not Bush's alone. Unless we can now, with consent, label all bills signed by a sitting President as his party's mistake alone?

Please, expound....

This thread isnt about what he did wrong (with or without help), there's plenty of threads on that. I'm curious as to what people think he did right.

Africa - can this be elaborated on? I'm not sure what he did "right" in Africa that you guys are referring to.

AIDS in Africa - I'd disagree with this. Putting an abstinence-only-program restriction on American aid has not helped.

Roberts - debateable, but nothing yet to show that it was "wrong", so I guess that can imply that it was "right".

Israeli ally - I see this more as a continuation of what many previous administrations have done. I guess you can say he did that "right" by not screwing it up.

Surge/Rumsfeld - Malse covered this one pretty well. Plus, it required the phenominal mistake of invading Iraq and the hiring of Rumsfeld to bring it about.

Afghanistan - While it started "right", he seems to have messed it up to where we're now losing, and cant do a "right" surge anymore due to overextending our military elsewhere.

Response to the Tsunami - I guess... typical humanitarian stuff though. But I'll go with it being something "right".

Initial response to 9/11 - What did he do right here? Made some good speeches I guess, and then pushed through the Patriot Act. This one is debateable.


Thanks for the (mostly) great response though guys. I wasnt sure how this thread would develop, and it's been interesting reading for the most part, apart from the flagrant troll.

It's interesting to me that there doesnt seem to be anything that anyone's posted that you can say "yeah, he did a good job there on that one".

Well there we zero terrorist attacks on our Soil..... he did do that.

Well there we zero terrorist attacks on our Soil..... he did do that.

From all evidence, nobody seriously tried. It's impossible to prove a negative like that, but barring any large-scale arrests with convictions for terrorism waved in the air, I think it's a safe assumption that there was never anything that got to the "active prevention" stage. They were so desperate for it they had FBI agents inciting non-violent groups to plan things.

What ever? Maybe the didnt try because they couldn't get to that stage. Regardless there were none.

Okay , so far as we're clear the NLCB was a bi-partisan mistake and not Bush's alone. Unless we can now, with consent, label all bills signed by a sitting President as his party's mistake alone?

Please, expound....It was not authored by him - it was largely bi-partisan - but it was pushed by Bush and his appointments to sec. of education. Under 8 years of his administration the act was not funded properly, and little was done to actually improve education from a federal level short of increased pressure on testing and the joke that is the "highly qualified teacher." I was simply expanding on previous comments in the thread.

This nation has the resources and the research to vastly improve education, but not until people who understand how education works are actually in office. From what I've read, Obama as well fails to grasp this, although I liked his approach to education considerably more than McCain's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act

Ummm Teacher...

If Wiki , along with a few other sources, is/are to be believed Sen Kennedy was indeed a coauthor of said bill.

As for understanding the issue, I don't think you can get a Educator in that position as it'll require 12 months a year and all the teachers I talk to , exgf and her entire family are educators, bitch if they have to put in time during their summer off.....okay okay joking ;P...kinda

I'm not arguing he was an author at all. As far as educators overseeing it, I'm not talking about active teachers. But it does seem absurd to have someone giving orders to people under them who has never done that job. Say, someone telling doctors how to do their jobs, who has never been to med school, or a building inspector who has never worked in construction... Most field require that administration has experience in the field - above the position of principal that is not typically the case in education. Many of the flawed aspects of NCLB deal with a lack of understanding regarding how public education actually works, and how children actually learn. But NCLB is typically passed and supported by non-educators at the federal level.

There are some great aspects to the NCLB legislation, which I fully support.

And teachers are whiny, no argument here.

I'm not arguing he was an author at all. As far as educators overseeing it, I'm not talking about active teachers. But it does seem absurd to have someone giving orders to people under them who has never done that job. Say, someone telling doctors how to do their jobs, who has never been to med school, or a building inspector who has never worked in construction... Most field require that administration has experience in the field - above the position of principal that is not typically the case in education. Many of the flawed aspects of NCLB deal with a lack of understanding regarding how public education actually works, and how children actually learn. But NCLB is typically passed and supported by non-educators at the federal level.

There are some great aspects to the NCLB legislation, which I fully support.

And teachers are whiny, no argument here.

For the record I think NCLB was incorrectly implemented...grossly perhaps.

That being said I think there needs to be put in place a system where the teachers are judged by their product. Not the current document mind you but something. For too dern long many of my own teachers, and some of my son's were just phoning it in day by day.

The rest of the working world is judged on their quality output why shouldn't the teachers when their product is the most important of all...

Well there we zero terrorist attacks on our Soil..... he did do that.
Maybe I'm missing something from this statement... but didnt the largest, deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in American history happen while he was president?

Completely, totally agree.

With regard to the Africa question, he greatly expanded the financial aid going there.

Maybe I'm missing something from this statement... but didnt the largest, deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in American history happen while he was president?


Why yes...yes it did. I have to comment on this as it is really a retarded argument with no basis as to how or why to say that Bush and his policies have prevented a terrorist attack on the US.

I know alot of people will say "well it was Clintons fault", ignoring the fact that the Bush administration ignored the facts, but then I guess that using that argument it could be equally argued that Bush Sr. was responsible for the '93 attack on the WTC.

What ever? Maybe the didnt try because they couldn't get to that stage. Regardless there were none.

So would you give credit for their being no volcanic eruption or invasions from Cuba either?

I knew you were going to say something like that Malse.

I guess I was coming from the direction of since the "war on terror" started.

Well if you knew people were going to call bullshit why not address it? In any event, the problem with assuming that unknown preventative measures did anything is because the overall frequency of terrorist attacks or even natural disasters is so incredibly low that you essentially can not provide correlation, much less causation without directed evidence. You could just as easily say that terrorism is proportional to global warming.

Do you think the TSA is making us safer? If so, why?

I've often said that Bush was a medicore President placed into extraordinary circumstances.

Had 9/11 not happened on his watch, he likely wouldn't have been more than a footnote in the history books.

Regardless, as to what he has done good in his administration:

Continued to foster a good relationship with the UK.

Fostered good relations with Israel.

The Surge (a bit late, but better than never).

And he did rally America after 9/11.

Take the "Surge" off of the table, it's nothing more than once again sloganizing something. You do all realize that it is common knowledge among those in command that the surge is not the reason for the "slowdown" in attacks in Iraq...you all do know that I hope.

Take the "Surge" off of the table, it's nothing more than once again sloganizing something. You do all realize that it is common knowledge among those in command that the surge is not the reason for the "slowdown" in attacks in Iraq...you all do know that I hope.

Okay that's not quite accurate. It's common knowledge the Surge was part of the equation for the slowdown in attacks. I realize it's quite gosh to downplay anything America does until Bush is out of office but really c'mon now.

More boots on the ground was helpful, maybe not as helpful as getting the milita's to buy ( or be bought) into cooperating but it was still a factor.

Okay that's not quite accurate. It's common knowledge the Surge was part of the equation for the slowdown in attacks. I realize it's quite gosh to downplay anything America does until Bush is out of office but really c'mon now.

More boots on the ground was helpful, maybe not as helpful as getting the milita's to buy ( or be bought) into cooperating but it was still a factor.


No really, it had so much more to do with SF Counter-Insurgency Ops.

And actually, that could be a Bush done right thing.

Turning the war back over to the people who actually have to fight it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080919074830.htm

And actually, that could be a Bush done right thing.

Turning the war back over to the people who actually have to fight it.

Ahhh I was counting them as more boots on the ground = Surge ...

Guess they were outside that accounting so I stand corrected on that aspect.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080919074830.htm


Probably a better measure than anything! Truly a common sense look at reality.