Posted 8/21/2008

G.W. BUSH: WORST PRESIDENT EVER?

Liberals would probably agree wholeheartedly.

But what would Republican hero and former President Ronald Reagan say?

Suppose the old warrior paraphrased his famous campaign question and asked: "Are you better off now than you were seven years ago (when George Bush came to office)?"

Well, I don't know about you personally, but we can take an inventory of the U.S. itself. Is the country better off since Bush?

At the time Bush took office, there was a raging debate called, "Should the USA be policeman to the world?"

You don't hear anything like that now.

Not since President Bush proved that America couldn't even be policeman to Baghdad.

The consequences of that failure have hurt the USA far beyond the cost in blood and treasure.

With that stupid war, the United States cashed in its image of power around the world. In 2000, the USA was to the world what Tennessee was to women's basketball. (And still is because they have Pat Summitt and not George Bush.) In 2000, the world did not love us. Much of it envied us. Some of it hated us.

But the entire world respected us.

With his leadership in the Gulf War, President George Bush (the father) created an enormous amount of world respect, which was well-preserved by President Bill Clinton. But in one fell swoop, George Bush (the son) destroyed all that.

Barack Obama has called the Iraq adventure "a stupid war." He is not only right, he probably has not grasped just how stupid Iraq was.

Instead of respecting us, the world now disrespects us at every turn.

Russia uses troops in South Ossieta against Georgia, our ally. This is Premier Putin thumbing his nose at us. He sends bombers to overfly our base in Guam. He announces a growing relationship with Venezuela and Cuba. He threatens Europe with missiles if they allow the USA to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez insults America and President Bush everywhere in the world he travels. He has threatened war with Columbia, a U.S. ally. He has struck an oil-for-arms deal with Russia. He has created an anti-USA movement in South America that now includes three other countries.

From his deathbed, Cuba's Fidel Castro threatens to abrogate the peace deal he signed with the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis. He offered the Russians a refueling base for their bombers, potentially activating a new cold war.

Our NATO allies have fought our foreign policy efforts and refused to participate in the Iraq War. Their contributions to the Afghan War have been sparing at best. (German soldiers are not allowed to go into dangerous areas.) Until the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French leadership insulted us almost as much as Chavez did. During the Iraq War, Germany virtually allied itself with Russia in every policy conflict with the USA.

Despite our enormous trade with China, which has rescued hundreds of millions from poverty, Beijing treats us rather cavalierly, sinking the Doha trade agreement, refusing to adjust the level of the Yuan properly, and bumping noses with our Pacific Fleet. One of their generals even bragged to the press that China could now send rockets against California.

The Arabs are now scrambling to do business with China as American power wanes in the Middle East. When President Bush went to the Saudis begging for more oil production, he was politely refused.

All over the world, the U.S. is looking weaker and weaker. And as our respect level declines, old long-held hatreds are surfacing. All to our harm.

Is George Bush the worst President in history?

Any man who could transform the USA from Paul Bunyan into Rodney Dangerfield is certainly a prime candidate for the tarnished medal.

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