The Presidency of George W. Bush
From 2001 to 2009, George Walker Bush was the leader of the Free World. During that time, his administration saw a terrorist attack, two wars, AIDS relief in Africa, one of the worst natural disasters in history, and the global financial crisis.
During his first term, Bush leaned more heavily on hawks and neoconservatives. Advisors like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, and Donald Rumsfeld pushed an aggressive, ideology-driven foreign policy in the Middle East.
By his second term, Bush pivoted to a more pragmatic and moderate advisors, such as Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, Hank Paulson, and General David Petraeus. They were not the fire breathing neoconservatives with chips on their shoulder about the Middle East, but rather diplomatic and balanced on the national stage.
Now with the reelection of Donald Trump and the Trump Regime in full effect, people are nostalgic for this administration. Why?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 74 | July 9, 2025 3:22 PM
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Colin, do you know what time it is?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 1 | July 3, 2025 9:28 PM
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He was one fine man back in his prime. His presidency was a disaster, but he seems like a nice guy. And his friendship with Michelle Obama makes him even more likeable.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 3, 2025 9:31 PM
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Bush v. Gore is one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of all time. Not because of the ruling, but that the Court did not give a clear or cohesive rule on how presidential election counting should work.
The opinion is basically a part 5-4, part 7-2, and part is a plurality.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 3, 2025 9:31 PM
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PBS Frontline: Rumsfeld's War (2004)
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 4 | July 3, 2025 9:33 PM
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There would be no Trump administration were it not for the Bush administration.
The 2000 stolen election was in retrospect the turning point of our country.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 3, 2025 9:33 PM
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R7 I think George W. Bush will be a transitional figure in American politics. His idea of "Compassionate Conservative" is no where near the views of Newt Gingrich, who clearly led the path for the Tea Party, and later the MAGA movement.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 3, 2025 9:35 PM
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Fuck that goddam fucking retarded chimp.
He's a fucking war criminal and a fucking moron.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 3, 2025 9:36 PM
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I respect him for two things:
(1) How he conducted himself during the presidential transition and made his entire family available so the Obama's would feel at ease; and
(2) That he retired quietly and avoids publicly commenting on his successors.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 3, 2025 9:38 PM
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Bush was intimidated by Colin Powell
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 3, 2025 9:39 PM
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I mostly remember everyone driving Excursions and Expeditions and other giant SUVs, all with Bush Cheney bumper stickers. For years and endless years.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 3, 2025 10:01 PM
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It WAS the Presidency of George W. Bush!
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 3, 2025 10:27 PM
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I remember when Bush was elected and thinking I didn't have a President anymore. Today I would gladly trade!
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 3, 2025 10:28 PM
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While I wish we heard more from him, he is a man without a party.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 15 | July 3, 2025 10:44 PM
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Are we sure that this wasn't actually the Dick Cheney presidency? Anyone else remember when Jr was walking around with that shiner on his eye? One can only wonder. Incidentally, Cheney really, REALLY scares me!
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 4, 2025 4:57 PM
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Bush was an ignorant bible thumping simpleton.
THREAD CLOSED
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 4, 2025 5:29 PM
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Nice man. Honest, not corrupt. Smart… but just not smart enough for that job. His bad call on WMDs was an error that changed this country for the bad in a way that is hard to overstate. He had a whole load of positions I didn’t agree with, but that didn’t make him a war criminal. And he did a lot of good on Africa. Good that tragically was imploded in just two weeks by an administration that elevates W to sainthood by comparison.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 4, 2025 5:49 PM
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No one is nostalgic for that. OP is smoking crack.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 4, 2025 6:01 PM
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R18 is full of shit. Bush Jr should be sitting in a jail cell.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 4, 2025 6:01 PM
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This was the administration that demanded that a brain dead woman be kept alive and ran on anti-gay marriage. Fuck off.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 4, 2025 6:02 PM
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Smart??? The guy was a drunk until he was 40, never held a job until he ran for TX gov in his 40s. Lived off daddy's money. Was drafted to run for pres because he was a "good campaigner." Completely useless jackass.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 4, 2025 6:03 PM
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King of the gentleman’s C.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 4, 2025 6:34 PM
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R2 is a dumb reason for liking a leader of the free world. Except for Vietnam (and manipulation by his CIA and war machine) I thought LBJ was a hell of a good President.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 6, 2025 9:16 PM
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I agree about LBJ, but that IS a big exception. And I don't think that LBJ had any illusions about that war & whether it could be "won." He didn't want to be tarred with handing over SE Asia to the communists.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 6, 2025 9:33 PM
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True that^^. But he accomplished a hell of a lot that Kennedys campaigned for and we hoped would be done.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 6, 2025 10:15 PM
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Actually, he was corrupt to his gills. He’d only only hung around his dad’s and his friends wealthy Skull and Bones elite. I’m afraid he was like Reagan. Easily influenced and directly led like a donkey and carrot.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 6, 2025 10:38 PM
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Remember when he made fun of people asking why he wasn’t looking for bin Laden? The guy should be sitting in a jail cell.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 6, 2025 10:41 PM
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He was worse than Trump.
Yes. Much worse. Katrina. Iraq. And then the economy imploded while he was…. what? Ranching?
Worst President since …. honestly, maybe the worst ever.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 6, 2025 11:00 PM
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"... The deep state is the bureaucracy. It is not a global organization. Comey was protecting Hillary and the FBI was against Trump, which are both examples of the deep state. I have said before, up until 1999, I was actually asked to meet with people who wanted to run for president. They were told I was there to brief them on the real world economy but I was to also assess their mental capacity to handle the complexity. Then I was asked to go meet with George Bush Jr. and was told, “This is different, he is really stupid!” I was totally shocked. Everything up to that point in time was all about whether I thought they could handle a crisis. When I asked why they’d make someone stupid president, I was told he had the “name” and it suddenly shifted to just winning."
- economic forecaster Martin Armstrong
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 35 | July 6, 2025 11:01 PM
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That was barely English, much less anything coherent.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 6, 2025 11:09 PM
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[quote] He was worse than Trump.
We can - & have - survive[d] bad presidents. But under Trump we're in a constitutional failure stage. I don't know how we come back from this.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 6, 2025 11:29 PM
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Trump is not Katrina + Iraq + Total Economic Armageddon.
That’s Bush.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 6, 2025 11:32 PM
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Not to be in the position of defending Bush, but Katrina was really a combined failure of local, state & federal government responding to an unprecedented storm.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 6, 2025 11:46 PM
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We thought Brownie was bad, ha!
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 6, 2025 11:47 PM
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All i know is some village is missing its idiot
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 7, 2025 12:22 AM
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R10 See I view that as cowardly... he left in the middle east in chaos, his policies triggered the global financial crisis, and then on leaving office he's like "oh I don't want to talk about politics anymore, come and look at my paintings". Of course "retiring quietly" is convenient when he left the country and the world in a mess. The image of america was hugely damaged thanks to him.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 7, 2025 1:00 AM
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[quote] he left in the middle east in chaos
The Middle East was already in chaos. See 9/11. OBL was then seen as a hero in wide swaths of that part of the world.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 7, 2025 1:07 AM
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[quote]He was really a moderate
Perfect example of the effect of the overton window. He was and always will be the fascist harbinger of Trumpism. Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney. Roger Stone led the Brooks Brothers riot for chrissakes. All of them led us to here, along with Lee Atwater, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon er al.
The revisionism of so-called moderates is fucking REVOLTING.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 7, 2025 1:07 AM
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The Middle East was in chaos because W. ignored the threat posed by Al Qaeda in multiple warnings.
Log Cabin Republicans can fuck off and die.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 7, 2025 1:08 AM
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[quote] George Walker Bush was the leader of the Free World
Is any American President considered "the leader of the Free World" outside the US? I am American but have always loathed that term, it so condescending to the rest of the world.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 7, 2025 1:11 AM
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He stole the fucking election!
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 7, 2025 1:13 AM
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He only benefitted billionaires.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 7, 2025 1:24 AM
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Difference between Bush and Trump:
Bush turned a blind eye to those who were fucking the government up
Trump gloats and brags about how he is fucking the government up
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 7, 2025 1:26 AM
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Do you know who else hated Bush? The current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 7, 2025 1:41 AM
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And his parents despised the current occupant especially the deliciously cunty Babs.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 7, 2025 1:46 AM
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"The decision of one man, to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of the Ukraine. Iraq too. Anyway ... I'm 75."
- George W. Bush (in a 2022 address to the George W. Bush Institute)
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 7, 2025 3:10 AM
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Look up “Stockholm Syndrome,” OP.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 7, 2025 3:22 AM
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Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert
Who was this whore and why was he in the Bush White House?
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 7, 2025 3:56 AM
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Whatever else he was shrub was dumb.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 7, 2025 8:44 AM
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[quote]the George W. Bush Institute
It's enough to make a maggot gag.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 7, 2025 8:50 AM
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He tried to enshrine a gay marriage ban into the U.S. constitution. Through two terms he used gay people as a boogeyman to shore up sagging poll numbers and raise money from wealthy conservative donors who oppose our rights and existence. A generation was raised listening to him demonize gay people for political points.
Within 20 years he's celebrated on MAGALounge like it never happened. "hE wAs ReAlLy A mOdERaTe derp."
Un-fucking-real. The worst timeline.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 7, 2025 11:44 AM
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NitWit Jr was a simpleton
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 7, 2025 11:52 AM
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I spent 8 years yelling at the TV whenever Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or any of the other assholes in that awful administration appeared on it. I despised all of them. I know it's all ancient history now, but I'm still bitter. W. Bush's presidency was a total disaster, and it never should've happened because the election was stolen.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | July 7, 2025 12:02 PM
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I fucking hated Dubya when he was president and I still hate him. I never thought that there would be a worse POTUS.
Until Trump.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | July 7, 2025 12:47 PM
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In 2004 - re-election year - Cheney and Rumsfeld went on live morning TV every week to announce we were probably going to be “hit” by terrorists again. Guess some voters clung to daddy by Nov fearing for their lives. The whole thing was complete manipulative bullshit.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 7, 2025 12:51 PM
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I really think that Rumsfeld was a certifiable sociopath.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | July 7, 2025 1:13 PM
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But DL wouldn't have had the Condi Troll if it weren't for the Bush 2 Administration!
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 7, 2025 3:14 PM
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Katrina was a disaster on both the federal and state level.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are as much to blame for not getting people to evacuate or requesting federal aid.
I am sympathetic to the "you're doing a good job Brownie" because Bush (at the time) thought everything was under control.
What I did not appreciate was how inept and unprepared they were. The Bush team was scattered when during one of the WORST NATURAL DISASTERS in history:
Bush was ranching in Texas;
Rumsfeld and Cheney were fly fishing in Wyoming;
Condi Rice was at the opera;
Michael Chertoff was MIA;
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 7, 2025 5:30 PM
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I have the Condi troll perma-blocked.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 7, 2025 6:52 PM
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Kept the nation staid in fear while proceeding to rob us blind. Isn't that always the republican way?
by Anonymous | reply 67 | July 7, 2025 6:56 PM
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R66 who is the Condi troll in this thread?
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 7, 2025 9:04 PM
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Bush and the Republicans crashed the economy so bad America voted in it's first Black President. Obama only had two years to put in motion a recovery that saved the US. When the Republicans feared everyone into voting control of the senate and congress back to the GOP he lost any abilty to get things done. People should not forget it was McConnnell who blocked him from seating Merrick Grarland as a Supreme Court Justice as well as RBG refusing to step down putting us in the Supreme Court Mess we have now.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | July 8, 2025 11:32 PM
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I understand, but Merrick Garland is a TURD.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | July 8, 2025 11:50 PM
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RBG trashed her entire legacy by holding on too long.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 8, 2025 11:59 PM
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He was on the right side of immigration, but couldn't get his party to support him.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | July 9, 2025 12:24 AM
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Invading Iraq was both the best and worst things he did
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 9, 2025 3:22 PM
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