Friday, February 12, 2010

How will history judge Obama, Bush?

It seems like it's been a lifetime since the painstakingly long Bush years marked by endless strife and negativity. What tiring and infuriating times those were. From a conservative point of view, it was hard seeing a self proclaimed conservative overspend with such little regard. (Oh how little we knew!) And the constant barrage of negative attacks on our Commander in Chief by the left, and spearheaded by the media, was enough to stuff cotton balls in one's ears, permanently.

George W. Bush, from roughly 2002 to 2008, and beyond, was the universal scapegoat for everything wrong in America. According to the limp dick Obama administration, he still is at fault.

September 11th, Iraq, Katrina, NSA wiretapping, Guantanamo warterboarding, the housing crisis. You name it, the left pounced and gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "beating a dead horse". Sure, the Bush administration was by no means perfect. In fact, they did a lot of things conservatives abhor. But let's look at the bigger picture. How would you describe the George W. Bush presidency in one sentence? Well I'd think it would go something along the lines of this:

America was attacked and President Bush retaliated.

And trust me, 50 years from now that is how history will look back upon the 8 year Bush presidency. Katrina, Gitmo, NSA wiretapping, my broken nail. No one cares about this nitpicky liberal bullcrap spouted for years by the left against Bush. It is irrelevant. The low approval ratings? Nonsense. Harry Truman had an average approval rating of just 45%, with an all time low of just 22%. And how do we view him today? The man who had the balls to drop the A-bomb and end America's involvement in World War II. In 2060, assuming America still exists, a child will open a history textbook and read about the great President Bush who responded to the 9/11 attacks by going on the offensive and kicking ass overseas. The man who was relentless in his effort to protect and defend America. The genuine president who was adored by the service men and women he commanded in a time of war.

Now let's take a quick look at Barack Obama. We are only a year into his presidency so it is near impossible to make any kind of educated judgement. But so far, it does not look good. I'm going to be as unbiased as possible here. My hatred for Obama has no part in this assessment. We can forge a general recap as follows:
  • Failure to follow through on touted health care reform
  • Massive increases in government spending
  • Formation of a national resistance movement called Tea Parties
  • Escalation of US involvement in Afghanistan
Later this year, conservatives will steamroll liberal candidates in the midterm elections, erasing the Democrat supermajority and turning Obama into a lame duck for the rest of his 4 year tenure. Obama will always be viewed as the man who promised everything, did nothing, and reinvigorated the American right. If that very same child opened his textbook 50 years from now and read up on our 44th president he would read about the hugely successful campaign Obama ran in 2008. He would read about the wonderful rhetoric and the sheer inspiration he brought forth. He would read about the "hip", "cool" president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for, um...nothing. He would read about the failure to pass healthcare reform and the passage of the stimulus package. He would read about the Tea Parties who opposed him and the massive GOP victory in 2010. He would read about a man who ran a campaign of great expectations and did not live up to them. Hopefully, he would read about a permanent US victory in Afghanistan. 

It's too early to tell yet with Obama. But one thing's for sure. He is not living up to the expectations he put on himself. And he's running out of time.


1 comment:

Fredd said...

I think you nailed it as to what future history books will reflect on this guy, Carnak (or should I say Car-Hack).

Reality always bites liberals in the butt in the long run, as anyone can dream pie in the sky utopian visions of how life should be, but putting those utopian visions to work in the real world never pans out, and never will.

Why is it that liberals like Obama, as smart as he supposedly is, can't figure this out?

Gitmo is his clue as to how the world works: he vowed to close it, but pragmatism has smacked him in the face, and he has changed positions (without ever uttering so much as a single syllable as to how wrong he was about the situation).