I’m sorry, but did one of the guests say that the Bush administration will prove to be the worst 8 years in American history?!! How did no one challenge that?! The Civil War? The Great Depression?!

But I agree with the first poster–thanks for leaving Jack Beatty off of this program. The man is entitled to his opinion, of course, but I really can do without hearing him read off some pre-prepared statement where he tries to say for the 50,000th time using thirty-dollar words and a quote from an ancient Greek historian that “Bush was bad.”

The Republicans and the right wing ideology that they embrace, has failed this country. The Bush years are proof that these people are not fit to run a post office let alone the US government.

All the talk on Bush preventing another terrorist attack is absurd, there is no proof that Bush has done anything in this regard.

What about the 4000 + military personnel who have lost their lives? What of the tens of thousands of returning vets who have huge medical problems?

What about the 100,000 or more Iraq’s who have lost their lives?

It’s very interesting how supporters of Bush point to this as his legacy of what is a failed presidency.

Glad to see the back of this arrogant SOB.

From NPR listeners, he gets too much blame for Katrina, not enough credit for preventing terrorist attacks and way too many uninformed theories on his motivation.

The danger from this is we can lose sight of the target as we demonize the other side. Louisiana and New Orleans governments are at least as much to blame as the federal government, yet, we never hear about them anymore (and the mayor is still there).

One sided comments from the left bug me at least as much as someone like Shawn Hannity.

Another view is that the Constitution is a living document subject to interpretation and one that changes with the times. Bush would appear to have ample defense as a result.

Congress has found no violation of the Constitution. In addition, Congressional leadership would have difficulty suggesting that they didn’t know what was going on when they were being briefed. Where is the criminal intent you allege? The Justice Department has already said that they signed off on many of the legal issues under consideration.

Before you all go off consider this-I am not a Republican or even a strong right winger, just an American who looks at both sides before rendering an opinion. However I didn’t drink the Kool Aid during the CLinton years. Talk about someone who should have been impeached, successfully that is. There is no dispute that he lied under oath let alone to all of the people in America. He didnt’ balance the budget the Republican COngress did that and had to force Clinton to sign it.

I do believe that abortion is wrong but I don’t believe we should legislate this question. Education is the answer to many if not all of our social and economic ills.

I also believe in a safety net to catch Americans that come on hard times. I was a recipient a couple of years ago and felt no guilt about receiving assistance the government. I paid for that.

I believe Dems and Reps are both patriotic, their methods and beliefs differ and not that differently in some cases.

The economic crisis we’re in simply wasn’t created by either party but was contributed to by both parties.

Many things that occurred during Bush’s Presidency were unprecedented and therefore unforseeable. That means everyone, including CLinton, Herbert Bush, Reagan and Carter get a pass, at least to a degree.

Lastly, an earlier comment that Bush deserves no credit for there being no further attacks on US soil because there is no proof that there would have been another attack is not just ridiculous but assinine.

All partisans on both sides need to support this president and pray, that’s right pray that he succeeds. His quick retreat to the middle will give him more of a chance.

I have a well reasoned distrust of government. In general and based on my direct experience, I find government functionaries to be arrogant, stubborn, non-creative, unhappy, and yet they carry themselves with an air of entitlement. These people work for you and me, but you wouldn’t know it. Frankly, I live life trying to avoid any non-essential interaction with the government. Why should I think differently of an elected official than the crabby lady at the DMV?

I recognize the DMV has to exist, but I’m not sure I want them to be my health care provider.

This comment from Jack sums it up on one level.
It is sad, so very sad that we as a nation have come to this. Our nation is a very conservative country and this is reflected in this past election. It is a shame that people still think that buy pulling up their boot straps that it will all be alright. It wont, and the mean spirited streak that flows through the Republican party will always be there. I don’t like the Democrat’s much either, but this mean it’s all about me and government should get off my back attitude has proven time and time again to be the worse for our country as a whole. The question is what kind of community do we want to live in?

It’s a basic flaw in logic for them to make an assertion like this without providing supporting evidence. For example, specifics regarding a foiled attack based on info garnered from (for example) illegal wire-tapping. Specifics, not “we can’t say because we’ll compromise our methods”. Taking an argument like that on faith is what led us into the war in the first place. Without evidence, one could make a similar claim that there were no attacks because of things Paris Hilton said about the issue. Means nothing. We as a people have to be more intellectually curious and demand more justification than making a simple observation that there were no attacks.

Also, keep in mind that our enemies have killed and mamed far more Americans since 9-11 because of Bush’s policies, most of these fallen having been targetted in Iraq where Bush put them unnecessarily. In fact he and many in his administration likened the war in Iraq as the battle removed to foreign soil.

On the general topic…

We reaped what we sowed. IOW, we elected AND re-elected this guy. The truth is, he was in WAY over his head. At best, he might have made a fair mayor of some small city in rural Texas somewhere. Others ran Texas when he was govenor (as Rove promised him they would) and then again when he was president (a.k.a “Cheney”). No, we are ultimately to blame for this disaster because we choose our leaders more for their position on issues like school prayer than for their judgement, temperence and competence. We pick our leaders more for how much like us they are, how “likeable” they are, as opposed to how well they can do the job. Would you pick a surgeon using criteria like that?

History does have a way of dulling strong opinions against a president. Nixon regained much of his elder statesman stature just before his death and was portrayed as a rather sympathetic, though dark, character in the recent Frost-Nixon movie. Ford’s reputation also seemed to rise as time went on. Carter’s good works have almost led the nation to forget the disaster of his single-term presidency. Reagan is worshipped by Republicans as all the candidates last year sought to be seen as his re-incarnation. Clinton is still mostly a womanizer joke line for Leno, and his fallout with African Americans this last election cycle hurt; but he has plenty of time turn things around. All presidents seem to benefit from the media putting their targets on the new guy in the chair.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/news/entry/1078/

The nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity lists “more than 125 systematic failures across the breadth of the federal government” under Bush’s tenure, cross-indexed by agency, individual, and financial impact. Whether it concerns the fateful mistakes made by L. Paul Bremer III to disband the Iraqi military and outlaw the Ba’ath party, which overnight needlessly created an entire class of disgruntled insurgents; or the many egregious errors made in regard to Hurricane Katrina; the politicization of the Justice Department; the way torture became the law of the land (with shadowy figures like David Addington providing justification by standing the normal meanings of words on their head); or the unprecedented evisceration of the will of Congress by infamous “signing statements,” the Bush “legacy” is one of monumental failure and malice. Those readers inclined to give Bush a pass or who fervently believe that he has kept us safe from another attack and is otherwise an effective president should read what the Center has to say. So should people like Charles Fried, the conservative legal scholar who wrote a piece in last weekend’s New York Times and who was on “Talk of the Nation” today, arguing against prosecution of Bush and his cronies. The malfeasance and outright lawbreaking revealed by the Center is utterly contemptible and would surely have provided the text of several articles of impeachment, had the Congress and the public the will to restore some semblance of integrity to our broken system of government.

Bush’s frequent refrain that an impersonal “history” will vindicate him provides a convenient way for him to avoid taking any responsibility for his many failures. We do not need to wait for some amorphous future history. A slew of investigative reporting, as evidenced by the work of the Center and numerous books over the past eight years, provides ample evidence for justifiably condemning this presidency as the worst in our nation’s history, and for demanding that Bush et al. be held accountable now, not decades from now, when our great-grandchildren will still be dealing with the repercussions.