I’ve refrained from commenting on Paul McCartney’s self-beclowning in the East Room at the White House, Wednesday night, because, frankly I was so disappointed that the more conservative half (or so I thought) of the brilliant Lennon/McCartney songwriting team turned out to be, well…not so conservative. I probably should have known that, but I rarely pay attention to show biz news.
He apparently spent much of the night engaging in an embarrassing, (and now out of vogue), leg tingling, obsequious manner:
McCartney literally gushed over President Obama throughout his East Room concert. “Getting this prize would just be good enough, but getting it from this president…” McCartney said letting his praise trail off as if there were vast volumes left unsaid.
And to add insult to injury, his thoughtless, cheap shot at President Bush could not be further off the mark:
“After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is,” McCartney quipped.
As Mark Hemingway pointed out at the Washington Examiner:
…it would also be good to have White House guests who knew that the former president’s wife has masters degree in library science and worked as a librarian. There’s even a grant program at the Institute of Museum and Library Services called the “Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program” which awards grants of up to $1 million. Here’s the bio from George W. Bush’s archived presidential webpage — “Laura Bush: Librarian and Teacher.”
We get it. You think the former President is dumb. But Bush and his wife in particular have done a lot to support literacy and libraries. The joke would be in poor taste on any occasion, but it’s made worse by revealing McCartney’s own ignorance.
An unamused John Boehner made the following statement :
“Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House,” Boehner told HUMAN EVENTS. “I hope he’ll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama.”
What was he even thinking? Why would he so carelessly tarnish his own legacy? Doesn’t he realize that large numbers of Americans are reeling in disgust by his behavior?
Frankly, I don’t care if he apologizes or not. He has revealed to the world what a small, foolish man he is.
I was once a huge fan…but now, to quote Mr. Darcy: My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.
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Nice Deb 
Another “Limousine Liberal”. Paul, tell me again how much money did you make off the United States of America? I would guess that Jugears must have said to you….”don’t you think you’ve made enough money?” I wonder if Russia was giving you some kind of musical award, would you make a comment about one of their past leaders? No, because you lack balls. What a disgusting bag of left leaning feces.
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And they call Republicans the “party of the rich”.
Nothing but apes pretending they’re better than the monkeys.
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Let it be…let it be….let it be….let it be….there will be an answer, let it be
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When the revolution comes, can we go after celebrities first?
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I am certain that Barry and Michelle were probably BIG Wings fans in their teen years too, all the hip progressive kids were. Sir Paul not only offended half of his fan base, Obama and Michelle are probably laughing at him behind his back. Whatever. Not everyone is cool enough to give the Queen an Ipod. Big environmentalist like Paul could have at least offered to help pay for some of the cleanup in the Gulf for his best bud, Barry.
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I has a huge Beatles fan, back when the group was resurrected during the post-break-up Beatlemania days. My favorite Beatle was always McCartney…I liked to think of him as “the sensible one” – The Beatle who refused to do psychedelic drugs with the Maharishi Mashesh Yogi in India when the rest of the Beatles were.
I always loved his mellower music with the Wings, too.
I’m so bummed that he turned out to be just another garden variety limousine liberal moonbat.
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And why would anyone care about your good opinion? Bush, in addition to being a complete failure as a president, was and is conspicuously unintelligent. You don’t seem terribly intelligent yourself, so you may not have figured as much out; but McCartney deserves nothing but praise for insisting on this indisputable fact.
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and aaron baker, u think obama is smart, what a joke he’s a kenyan robot who reads off a teleprompter, remove the tele and u have a simpleton who can’t speak,, at least bush has a harvard degree, let’s see odumbo’s degree’s ,, o yeah u can’t, he won’t let anyone see his straight c average
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o dumbo,
your internet handle says it all.
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And why would anyone care about your good opinion?
They shouldn’t. But multiply my opinion by thousands and the unfortunate fact is McCartney has done irreparable damage to his reputation and legacy.
Bush, in addition to being a complete failure as a president, was and is conspicuously unintelligent.
That is a conspicuously unintelligent argument to make against someone who graduated from Harvard and Yale, and flew hundreds of hours in an F-102 Delta Dagger.
It cruises at 845 mph.
There were some minor aerodynamic problems with the F-102. For example, at certain power settings and angles of attack – like, say, take-off – the jet compressor would stall and the aircraft would roll inverted. It is no picnic, skill-wise, to fly a modern F-16 with advanced avionics and fly-by-wire flight control systems. The workload on the F-102 was far higher. The F-16 has an accident rate of 4.14 occurrences per 100,000 flight hours. The F-102’s accident rate was more than three times that: 13.69 per 100,000 hours. 875 F-102A interceptors were built; 259 – almost 30% – were lost to accidents or enemy action while serving in Vietnam.
http://docweasel.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/eject-eject-eject-is-a-great-blog/
You can’t be an idiot and fly one of those things.
And his Presidency wasn’t a complete failure. As people are starting to figure out, now…he did a competent job leading the country through tough times, and with a profligate spending Dem majority Congress (including Obama) starting in ’06.
McCartney deserves nothing but praise for insisting on this indisputable fact.
Um…That Bush didn’t know what a library was? I think I pointed out the particular folly of that in my post, but besides that – Bush was/is a voracious reader. When’s the last time you saw a book in Obama’s hands? – Besides Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals?
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Hey Paul…half….that’s half of this country might have not cared for what you said…so being someone who’s livelyhood is public adoration you have revealed your own stupidity…alienate your fans…the people who pay for your millionare lifestyle…moron…has been…composer oif silly love songs…what a geriatric fag you have become.
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Aaron,
Deb has to be smart. Could a dumb woman come up with such an awesome word as “Self-beclowning”?
Seriously though, you really need to thicken your skin. I can’t believe that such a minor jab gets under your skin this much. While you may admire Bush, the fact is that he was widely despised by the overwhelming majority of both this country and the planet. And while some insiders claim that he was very smart and switched on in meetings, that side of him never really made it through to the public (even if it is true). People like that get made fun of.
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It’s always amusing to see liberals like old Aaron attempt to demonstrate their super intelligence by throwing around terms like conspicuously unintelligent as if that proves a point.
Enlighten us, Aaron, what examples do you have of Bush’s unintelligence? Better yet, tell us of few examples that demonstrate Obama’s deep intelligence and foresight.
He has either completely misread what is going on in the middle east or he is complicit with our enemies. He is taking a bad economy and driving it into the abyss. He lied, bullied and bribed his way into ramming through a health care boondoggle that the vast majority hate and only now are cheerleaders like the NYT admitting what us dummies knew all along, it will simultaneously bust the budget and reduce the quality of care. His handling of the oil spill would have him roasted on a spit if the msm wasn’t acting as his PR wing but even that is starting to show signs of strain. All this in less than 1 1/2 years. Two and half more years of liberal intelligence to go, I hope we can survive the fallout of his brilliance.
Obama is the most unqualified clown to ever hold the office and every day Bush is looking better by comparison. Hell, Carter is looking better.
You just go on living in your liberal fantasy world convinced of your superiority. The rest of us will just point at you and laugh.
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Hey Aaron, how’s the unemployment rate doing? How’s Obabama style healthcare doing in Canada and England today? How’s the federal response to the biggest eco disaster this country has ever faced? How’s Ovomit’s rear taste today? Put your roach down, move out of your parents basement, and try getting a job…
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Given that this is the man who was so clever that he married HEATHER MILLS without getting a pre-nup and in spite of his children’s objections, I don’t put ANY credence in his opinions about ANYTHING! His deceased wife Linda appears to have been the smart one.
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Used to look up to McCartney as a preteen & teenager. But what a petty, small, and stupid man he turned out to be in this moment of truth.
George W. is no dummy. Texan charm can be a powerful secret weapon for a very sharp mind. Big mistake to judge that kind of exterior, but have seen that charm employed many times in business executives and professionals.
*Going to enjoy watching in the coming years who walks away the classy guy and winner.*
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Good lord people – it is so funny how you all jump to the conclusion that PM was referring to Dubya when he did not mention anyone by name. Was there something about Dubya that makes YOU think he doesn’t know what a library is? A bit insecure are you all? Much projection of your own prejudices, in fact? Untwist your knickers and relax, people. Of course, I suppose that if you are the type who spent much of the last administration engaging in “embarrassing, leg tingling, obsequious adulation” of Dubya, that could explain your oerreaction to this non-event.
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Oh, you have. got. to. be. kidding. me. Now we’re pretending that it wasn’t perfectly clear who McCartney was referring to?
After 8 years of listening to libs accuse Bush of being simultaneously stupid and evil for every single thing he did or didn’t do, we’re somehow projecting now that a lefty musician drops an obvious turd like that during an all lib gathering in DC?
You can’t possibly believe your own drivel.
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Good lord people – it is so funny how you all jump to the conclusion that PM was referring to Dubya when he did not mention anyone by name.
Ha! You’re either a liar or an ignoramus. McCartney said: “After the last 8 years, it’s good to have a President…” How many other Presidents were there over the past two terms? Only one man could possibly fit McCartney’s statement. You do remember who was President prior to Obama, don’t you?
I suppose that if you are the type who spent much of the last administration engaging in “embarrassing, leg tingling, obsequious adulation” of Dubya, that could explain your oerreaction to this non-event.
Since your supposition is completely unfounded, I suppose we can ignore it.
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Stop supposing so much, BS.
While many of us did in fact support many of the policies Bush put in place, we also vehemently disagreed with others. Unlike the blind adoration of the Yes We Can generation, our treatment of Bush was extremely measured and balanced.
As to whether or not McCartney was referring to Bush, it is beyond dispute. You would have to be dumb beyond belief or extremely gullible, pretty much the M.O. of an Obama supporter, not to be able to understand his allusion.
>>And in fact, after the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is
Here’s something you don’t do, you do not go to the White House as an invited guest and attempt to belittle a US President. This goes double for a foreigner and triple for one who was there to receive an honor from the US. An honor that is given not on behalf of Obama but of all Americans. It is the height of boorishness and demonstration of the lack of class and intelligence not of the person under attack but of the attacker. I wouldn’t find it funny no matter which US President was being insulted, even Carter or Obama.
Bring something to the table that demonstrates some ability to understand the English language in all it’s subtle and not so subtle forms and proper decorum before trotting out your mindless snark. You’re out of your league here.
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I miss the moron swarms.
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A libtard site, ‘alicublog’ linked to me, in case you’re wondering where they’re coming from.
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“Here’s something you don’t do, you do not go to the White House as an invited guest and attempt to belittle a US President. This goes double for a foreigner and triple for one who was there to receive an honor from the US. An honor that is given not on behalf of Obama but of all Americans. It is the height of boorishness and demonstration of the lack of class and intelligence not of the person under attack but of the attacker. I wouldn’t find it funny no matter which US President was being insulted, even Carter or Obama.”
OK – I agree with this.
and I guess I missed the part about “after the last 8 years …”
My bad .
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I’m impressed. Well done, BS.
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While you may admire Bush, the fact is that he was widely despised by the overwhelming majority of both this country and the planet. And while some insiders claim that he was very smart and switched on in meetings, that side of him never really made it through to the public (even if it is true). People like that get made fun of.
Bush was far from being my favorite President. He liked unrestrained spending a bit too much for my liking, and like too many in the Fever Swamp on the Potomac, he was way too cavalier about the festering wound that is our southern border. Having said that, I do miss him. He understood that he was elected to lead this nation and not the world because he understood that the world’s interests were not the same as our interests. That’s why we actually moved against threats to world security like Saddam Hussein, when many of our European “allies” were too conflicted by their participation in the klepocratic “Oil for Food” farce. I also miss him because he and the people he surrounded himself with were unafraid to call islamic terrorism what it is, and confront it based on calling it what it is. Finally, I miss him because in little ways and big, he demonstrated far more class then the petulent and childish liliputian intellect occupying the Oval Office right now, who more than a year after winning the job he asked the American Public for is still blaming his failures and lack of clear leadership on his predecessor.
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Taxman was George’s tune….
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what examples do you have of Bush’s unintelligence?
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on –shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
“Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?”
“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”
“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”
“I think I was unprepared for war.”
“I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.”
“I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah.”
“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
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George Bush, with all his faults (spending/amnesty) loved his country. George Bush loved his/our country……Obama….has disdain for his/our country. He is different from any other president, including Jimmy Peanut Carter. This man is different. He is frightening. He is not interested in our (United States) interests, his interests are with Obama. Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama and Obama.
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Twisted-Colour
You wasted a good part of your evening searching for quotes that mean absolutely nothing. Bush was and is a horrible public speaker. Nobody denies this, least of all him. It was probably the thing that hurt him most as President because he often was inept at explaining complex problems and his reasons for taking the action he did to solve them. It made him easy fodder for a press that was predisposed to hate him given their liberal bent and it allowed people like you to feel justified in jumping on the “Bush is dumb” bandwagon.
But that doesn’t mean he was unintelligent. The two concepts, public speaking and intelligence, have nothing to do with each other. Joe Biden never shuts the hell up and he is quite possibly the dumbest individual to ever hold the Vice Presidency. I’m not talking slow, I’m talking weapons grade imbecillic. I have things in my stool that could whip Joe in a debate. And yet, for all the idiotic things that come out of Biden’s mouth every day, the press is largely silent.
We were told for most of the first few years of the Clinton presidency that he was the smartest president ever. It only took a fat little intern to put the lie to that one. Clinton was a master of public speaking and many, you I have no doubt included, thought he was just awesome. In hindsight, his domestic and foreign policies led us smack dab into 9/11 and the economic mess we are in today. He gutted the military, intelligence and turned Fannie and Freddie into patronage machines that built a bomb in our economy that even that dummy Bush warned the country about continually. But a Democratic controlled Congress called anyone who pointed out the obvious a racist and the bomb went off.
Obama, for all his show business and very well practiced turn behind a teleprompter, sounds as dumb as Bush every time it’s turned off. “Let me eat my waffles”, “Let’s spread the wealth around” … It’s no wonder his staff never let’s him speak without a speech.
Here’s something liberals just don’t understand about conservatives. Conservatives unemotionally follow basic truths about truth, finance, honor and responsibility. We do this without concern about color, religion or gender. We hold our own accountable when they stray but we don’t get caught up in whether they are rock stars or not. But we will never support a fraud like Obama who’s view are anathema to everything we support just because he can prettily read the words someone else wrote on a teleprompter. Never.
And your attempts to prove that Bush is dumb because he spoke, often inelegantly, from his heart prove only that you have no idea what intelligence means.
Try again.
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Did Paul make any remarks about Obama’s love of hamburgers?….ouch!
How about Obama’s failure to mention the massive ‘animal cruelty’ situation to President Hu, when in China?
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When’s the last time you saw a book in Obama’s hands? – Besides Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals?
Deb! DEB! (*raising hand and bouncing up and down in my seat*) Um, I like saw Obama carrying a book, no, well, a magazine, anyway, like, GQ, with, like, his picture on the cover. Does that count?
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Twisted-Colour You wasted a good part of your evening searching for quotes that mean absolutely nothing.
Au contraire, liberals don’t define intelligence as something related to thought – they define it as something related to looking thoughtful. The facade is all-important.
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I can’t believe that such a minor jab gets under your skin this much.
Don’t be too dumbfounded – it was just a post. One among many for the day. It’s news because of McCartney, not because another cheap jab was directed at Bush.
While you may admire Bush, the fact is that he was widely despised by the overwhelming majority of both this country and the planet.
Yes, we use that as an intelligence test for his critics. If they mindlessly repeat the same canards, they flunk. If they actually do a little research and dig down to the truth, they become conservatives.
And while some insiders claim that he was very smart and switched on in meetings, that side of him never really made it through to the public (even if it is true). People like that get made fun of.
This goes back to my last comment. Liberals revel in superficiality.
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There’s almost always a difference between an artist’s works (either great or pretty good) and the man. Even though he is a Sir (and not the kind that wears their rank on their collar), it turns out he’s just another obsessed liberal.
The music will go on long after he’s gone.
Aaron Baker “Bush, in addition to being a complete failure as a president, was and is conspicuously unintelligent.”
Evidently there’s still a lot of the Kool-aid left. “Conspicuously unintelligent” people don’t graduate from Yale – even if their parents are Important.
And he got better grades than Al Gore (who dropped out of divinity school). And he could give a coherent speech without a Teleprompter – something your guy is totally incapable of. And he served in the military -something your guy would never consider.
“Conspicuously unintelligent” people don’t get to fly F-102s.
Go outside and stand beside McCartney, Moore, Zinn, Chomsky, Fonda, Streisand, Sean Penn, … You’ll be a lot more comfortable with their company than ours.
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Hmm,
he went to Yale and Harvard, and we all know that no one gets into either on the basis of inherited privilege. And Al Gore had a similar academic resume–so what exactly?
When he wasn’t AWOL, he was able to fly a complex aircraft without crashing it. I’d grant that takes some aptitude–but you can’t be an idiot and fly one?–is that something I’m just supposed to take on faith? Also that idiots don’t graduate from Yale? I’ve met some who have.
Is that the best anyone can come up with here?
As evidence of conspicuous unintelligence, and just off the top of my head, I nominate:
appointing unqualified patronage hacks to run essential agencies like FEMA;
getting us into an entirely unnecessary war (while simultaneously neglecting the war we were already involved in);
turning a surplus into a massive deficit;
cutting taxes during wartime (one of the causes of the massive deficit);
trying to privatize Social Security (because, of course, nothing says peace of mind like the stock market!);
giving the jihadists a recruitment boost with jewels like “bring it on!” and Sure I waterboarded him.
And while we’re at it, I’d like to take issue with this:
“Here’s something you don’t do, you do not go to the White House as an invited guest and attempt to belittle a US President. This goes double for a foreigner and triple for one who was there to receive an honor from the US. An honor that is given not on behalf of Obama but of all Americans . . . .”
Why don’t you dare belittle a US president? And why is not doing so especially incumbent on foreigners? He’s an elected official, not a freaking king–and the White House isn’t a palace. It’ll be a sad day for our country if we can’t openly express contempt for the people we elect–they’ll be rulers then, not public servants. As for foreigners: they have to live with (and sometimes die by) the decisions that the sole superpower makes. So in my view they have every right to call us on it if we pick a loser. And as for the honor being given on behalf of all Americans–well, that must include the many Americans who, like me, hate and despise ol’ Dubya and all his works–especially for the thousands of needless deaths he’s caused. We don’t mind one weak joke at the bastard’s expense; it’s far, far less than what he deserves.
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he went to Yale and Harvard, and we all know that no one gets into either on the basis of inherited privilege. And Al Gore had a similar academic resume–so what exactly?
…and he had a higher GPA than Kerry. Wonder how he compares to the current President? Oh that’s right – we don’t know because he won’t release his records.
turning a surplus into a massive deficit;
See? There it is again – a lib failing the IQ test by bleating the same long-debunked talking points. This is one of the stupidest of liberal talking points, so naturally it’s one of the most popular. But to use it without embarrassment requires a complete lack of intellectual curiosity and no recollection of the events of the time.
So here goes: why did the brief Clinton surpluses exist, how sustainable were they, and why did they disappear so quickly?
appointing unqualified patronage hacks to run essential agencies like FEMA;
Actually, I agree that Bush was terrible at staffing, always choosing fidelity over competence. That doesn’t have anything to do with IQ, of course, but it is true that Bush was not good at hiring. Of course, Obama has had his own set of problems, which are arguably worse than Bush’s.
getting us into an entirely unnecessary war (while simultaneously neglecting the war we were already involved in);
Depends on what you mean by “unnecessary.” The Iraqis, for instance, certainly didn’t reinstate Hussein once he was found. Something about the new situation must have appealed to them…
And you, like so many libs, have forgotten that “the war we were already involved in” was being run by NATO, and we gave NATO everything they asked for. We also had independent troops looking for Al Qaeda, but NATO was running the whole shebang.
cutting taxes during wartime (one of the causes of the massive deficit);
Hmmm. Why would he cut taxes? Just to increase the deficit? Hmmm. That’s a puzzler, all right. Wait a minute – wasn’t there a recession around then? Yeah, recession, that’s it. And wasn’t he trying to get us out of the recession without trillion $/yr deficits. Yeah, and it worked, too.
trying to privatize Social Security (because, of course, nothing says peace of mind like the stock market!);
Nothing says peace of mind like being in control of your own finances. And since Social Security is turning into the disaster Bush predicted even faster than expected (making the Dems look like fools. Again), the stock market is sounding better and better.
giving the jihadists a recruitment boost with jewels like “bring it on!” and Sure I waterboarded him.
The objections to those statements have always been outstanding examples of the obtuseness of the liberal set. Bush was trying to create an image of irresistible power and unassailable might, so as to discourage the entire jihadi movement. But the libs’ whining undermined it all, leaving an image of impotence and lack of resolve. Good job!!
Why don’t you dare belittle a US president? Blah, blah, blah.
You are an idiot. And apparently a mannerless one.
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Good work, geoff. It’ll probably fall on deaf ears – the deafness of one who will not hear.
I have a great quote, one that just might fit in here.
“No professional liberal is intellectually honest. That’s a real indictment – but true as the Ten Commandments.”
That was Harry S Truman, back in 1948, just before the election. Truman was a Democrat. (The quote is in the context of trying to pick a Vice-President running mate.)
Truman was shoved into the Presidency by FDR’s death. He dug in and did what was necessary. He didn’t do a lot of golfing, didn’t take a lot of vacations back to Kansas.
And he made one of the two most significant decisions of the 20th century (maybe even of the modern Age). He decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan. The other fateful decision was Eisenhower’s, when he had to decide on the right day for the D-Day invasion. If the weather went against the Allies, we would probably have lost. He made the decision not too long before the fact.
Both decisions turned out to be correct.
Our clueless interlocutor probably isn’t listening any more, but:
“Why don’t you dare belittle a US president?”
Because there is such a thing as common decency. Something that seems to be, like common sense, in short supply. Those who still have it are civilized.
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Of course, Obama has had his own set of problems, which are
arguablyprofoundly worse than Bush’s.FIFY.
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He had a better GPA than Kerry; he did better than Gore. So what? So far from refuting my point, you provide additional evidence that mediocre students with rich, politically connected parents get into Yale and Harvard.
The Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002, 2003, with an extension of some of them in 2006– all passed apparently to deal with a recession that ended in November, 2001. I doubt it.
And what’s your evidence that even the 2001 cuts ended the 2001 recession? Just one cite to a reputable economist will do (in other words, not Donald Luskin).
These tax cuts were combined in the same period (2001-2006) with a 45 per cent increase in federal spending, according to the leftists at the Cato Institute.
I reiterate: George W. Bush is an idiot.
“And since Social Security is turning into the disaster Bush predicted even faster than expected . . . .” Again, what’s your evidence for this (so far as I can tell) fact-free fearmongering?
“the war we were already involved in” was being run by NATO . . . .” And NATO is a law unto itself, completely unresponsive to the combat needs of the United States?
And Bush would have created an image of irrestistable power and unassailable might, if not for for those whining libs. First you blame NATO, then liberals–does the buck ever stop with the grinning little troll from Texas?
“Depends on what you mean by “unnecessary.” The Iraqis, for instance, certainly didn’t reinstate Hussein once he was found. Something about the new situation must have appealed to them” Now here’s a detour from simple dimness to outright depravity. The most conservative estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of our invasion–the Iraq Body Count–now stands at 96,663-105,408. To quote the folks who’ve compiled these figures: “The count encompasses non-combatants killed by military or paramilitary action and the breakdown in civil security following the invasion.” It’s also, as is widely recognized, too low, since it uses only “[d]ata . . . drawn from cross-checked media reports, hospital, morgue, NGO and official figures.” Add to that about 2.8 million internally displaced Iraqis (http://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/iraq), and you have a demographic disaster attributable to us, IN A COUNTRY THAT POSED NO THREAT TO US. We have done more harm to these people than even Saddam Hussein did. Does that make your chest swell with pride?
So, my response to you and your friend with his whining about common decency: common decency regards Bush (and his apologists) not just with ridicule, but disgust and shame. If you can’t manage to feel that disgust or shame, you’re not worth another minute of my time.
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He had a better GPA than Kerry; he did better than Gore. So what? So far from refuting my point, you provide additional evidence that mediocre students with rich, politically connected parents get into Yale and Harvard.
Now you’re making no sense at all. We do require that you make at least a little sense if you’re going to comment here. An advantage in admissions doesn’t translate to a higher GPA. You don’t seem to have had a problem with the intelligence of 2 out of the last 3 Presidential candidates that the Democratic party put forth. But faced with the evidence that Bush performed as well or better academically, you retreat to blithering about admissions. Completely irrelevant.
The Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002, 2003, with an extension of some of them in 2006– all passed apparently to deal with a recession that ended in November, 2001. I doubt it.
The formal definition of recession had little to do with the health of the economy during that period. Let’s refer to Wikipedia for a quick summary:
Why did they want to perpetuate the tax cuts in 2006? Because they liked the effect they had on the economy, and because the deficits were getting smaller each year, with surpluses projected by 2012.
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Again, what’s your evidence for this (so far as I can tell) fact-free fearmongering?>
Here’s some. Go get the rest yourself.
First you blame NATO, then liberals–does the buck ever stop with the grinning little troll from Texas?
First you somehow jumble up Afghanistan with jihadi recruitment – does it never occur to you to organize your thoughts and arguments? But, to answer your question, only a dishonest commenter like yourself could even make that statement when I’d already agreed with one criticism of Bush (the hiring). As you can see by my last comment, I also agree with criticisms of his budget. If you’d like a third, I’ll add that his domestic security policies have been burdensome and ineffective, and that his reformation of the intelligence agencies was superficial.
IN A COUNTRY THAT POSED NO THREAT TO US.
Well, I’ll admit that my earlier statement, while completely true, was a blithe dismissal of the whole “unnecessary war” pinheadity. I’m not going to get into a huge Iraq War discussion here (except to note that the 2.8 million displaced persons includes 1 million who were displaced before the invasion, so you might want to be a little less deceptive when using that stat) – it’s been beaten to death and we’ll get nowhere with it now.
Let’s just focus on your claim: Bush was stupid because he invaded Iraq. Then let’s go back and look at who voted in favor of the invasion: large majorities in the House and Senate. If you’re going to claim that they were all stupid, then we’ll have to redefine the word. And don’t even start in with the old “Bush lied” nonsense.
If you can’t manage to feel that disgust or shame, you’re not worth another minute of my time.
Well, you haven’t been worth the minutes I’ve spent thus far, so I’m not particularly concerned with your “disgust or shame” criteria. What a waste of time. All you’ve done is blither talking points you don’t even understand. And that do nothing to support your point about Bush’s intelligence.
The fact is, every instance you cited was supported by a number of political leaders and policy makers. Just because you disagree, does not make Bush “stupid.”
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Just like the Beatles said, “there will be an answer, let it be, let it be.”
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What I find interesting is that this whole ‘Bush is stupid’ rant ignores that Obama is pretty much continuing with all of his policies, or expanding them, with regard to Iraq and Afganistan (sorry for posting no links, but look up Victor Davis Hanson’s posts on the subject). Why would a “brilliant” man continue or expand the policies of a fool?
Where’s the repeal of the patriot act? Where’s the elimination of drone bombings? Why don’t we talk about Guantanamo anymore? Where is the brilliance of Obama is his staff on these things? Where is the brilliance on actually fixing Social Security or Medicare, so they don’t go bankrupt? I have yet to see a conclusive demonstration the Obama is brilliant, nor even a good speaker really, especially if he doesn’t have the text in front of him.
I’m not a huge fan of either President, but I know who I’d vote for between them.
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