Reader comments
Obama deserves bashing

George W. Bush was an incompetent boob, and his 8 years in office did irreparable damage to this country, particularly in our relationships with other countries. Whatever faults Obama has, just remember that everything that is wrong with this country now (and there are plenty) was inherited from the Bush administration. Give the guy a chance.

So George was an incompetent boob who gave us the longest prosperity we have seen and won a war. the truth? Yeah, in your dreams.

The amateur in foreign policy is Mr Obama. He's learning on the job and frankly, I don't think he has the stomach for the decisions he will have to make. He's kinda wimpy, he makes the French look daring. Thirty years from now, Bush's decisions in Iraq will be seen as a brilliant move. Its just a shame that most of the naive US voters can't think in terms longer than six months out.

The war in Iraq will have cost Americans two trillion dollars by the time we're finally out of there. That's a fact.

Our national infrastructure - our roads, bridges, dams, etc., saw the largest gap between maintenance needs and actual maintenance performed in the history of the nation in the Bush years, and the gap between America's richest citizens and America's poorest citizens widened and actually accelerated.

40 million Americans now have no health insurance - that's roughly twice as many as in 2000.

America's international stature has never been lower.

Those are all documented facts, and they speak plainly to an appalling lack of leadership, or even a casual concern, for the well-being of Americans by the Bush Administration.

Bush earned the ridicule he received.

Be specific, please, how is Obama a worse president?

Well, if the media says Obama is great then that is good enough for me. I'll just look the other way as he passes bill after bill without even having congress read them. Then when something does go wrong, like the execs of AIG who got bonuses with bailout money even though nothing was written against that in the bill (if only they had had enough time to read it and see what is and isn't in the bill...), then I'll get all upset like the media tells me I should and put peer pressure on the execs to give the money back. Oh, and when someone else says something about what Obama is doing, I'll just say that Bush was worse and not even address the issues at hand.

It is truly sad when we see and read people who have given their minds over to political symbols rather that do their own thinking.

All presidents have done both good and harm to our nation, we should not base our opinions on the political party but on the deeds themselves. The measure of a leader of Americans should be the good that he does for the people of America, and the world.

Wasn't it the Bush administration that warned us about giving loans to people that couldn't pay them off?
Wasn't it Obama that fought to keep giving them out so the poor people could buy a home they couldn't afford?
Wasn't it Obama that bailed out the Fanny and Freddy big shots?
Wasn't it Obama that increased the National debt by a TRILLION dollars in less than six months?

@ 7:17

Prosperity? Bush didn't give us the longest period of prosperity.
Won a war? No he didn't. I saw him start two wars, didn't finish either of them. I also saw the worst terrorist attack on American soil happen during his presidency.
He alienated our allies and helped our enemies recruit and gain support with his neocon policy and attitude. Wanting to interfere and influence all parts of the world.
He drove up deficits.
Took away freedoms.
Tortured.
Pass the Patriot Act, which allows the government to spy on its' own citizens.
Passed No Child Left Behind, which has proven to be a failed program.
Did nothing to help in regards to illegal immigration.
Did nothing to help in regards to health care.
Did nothing to help in regards to energy.

There's so many other things I could say too.
The major difference is, in 8 years Pres Bush did a whole lot of bad things and failed to do a whole lot of good things.

Meanwhile, neocons find it appropriate to bash Obama on things that they've heard on the radio. Things that aren't true, incorrect, or are lies.

the problem with this country is greed and an unwillingness to work together to fix problems. There is too much " my way or the highway mentality in our Congress". We need to work together for the benefit of Americans instead of for the party.

To "A little help, please | 7:34 a.m." let me give you some help. The US is scheduled to leave Iraq by next year. Currently the total cost of Iraq and Afghanistan is $875 billion, according to an anti-war website. It has taken us 8 years to get that far, so, assuming that spending remains the same, but in Afghanistan only, it would take a very long time to reach the $2 trillion dollars you qote.

Of the "40 million Americans now have no health insurance." What are we to do with the roughly 40% of those that can afford insurance but CHOOSE not to buy it? To we force them to buy insurance?

He was validly criticized. President Obama, on the other hand, has been vilified for no reason other than the fact that (1) he inherited a horrible mess from Bush and (2) has had to take draconian measures to clean up that mess and put this country somewhat back to rights President Obama has made a good start, but still has a lot to fix.

I don't agree with everything President Obama has done, but he's head and shoulders better than his predecessor (that predecessor, if history treats him honestly and doesn't get re-written by his syncopants, being eventually recognized as one of the worst . . . if not THE worst . . . president this country has ever had).

Did the Bush administration that warned us about giving loans to people that couldn't pay them off? Answer -- NO

Did Obama that fought to keep giving them out so the poor people could buy a home they couldn't afford? Answer -- NO. He contested the practice of red-lining (deciding, based on the neighborhood in which a person lived and not on his/her credit history) whether a person should receive a loan.

Did Obama that bailed out the Fanny and Freddy big shots? Answer -- NO. That was Bush.

Did Obama that increased the National debt by a TRILLION dollars in less than six months? Answer -- He did what was necessary to get the economy running again, after its having been put down the toilet by Bush. President Obama also presented an honest budget -- everything up-front -- unlike Bush and his "supplemental" budgets that contained expenditures which should have been submitted in his main budget.

President Obama inherited a hellacious mess from Bush, and had to take draconian measures to try to fix it. He has a lot of work left to do, but has made a good start.

The republicans in congress keep saying they were not given time to read the bills before they went on. The problem is that they want to keep delaying/obstructing passage. Most of these bills have been debated for quite some time so they know what is in them. They complain about closed door meetings and the other things the democrats have done and yet they did more/worse when they had the majority.
It seems like the Republicans have short term memory loss lately. They complain about Obama pulling out of Iraq yet it was the Bush adminstration's timeline,they complain about the bailout but it started off in the previous administration,they now want fiscal responsibility and yet it was okay to not include war costs in previous budgets and okay to allow no open bidding for companies to supply services for the Bush wars.
There is always something that is not covered when bills are passed. Greed/selfishness always finds some loophole.

Bush neither gave us the longest prosperity we have seen nor won a war.

The prosperity we had was prior to Bush coming into office, and was thanks to the programs President Clinton put into place (including a budget surplus and a plan in place which would have had the national debt close to being paid off by next year). Bush reversed the sound policies President Clinton had in place, financed all of the economy including his tax cuts for his cronies (and very costly wars) on credit, and generally put the economy right down the toilet.

No wars were won during the Bush administration.

And THAT is the truth.

@ John 8:13am

I agree. There's too much, "YOU'RE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US" mentality in Washington. We do need to work together for the benefit of Americans instead of pleasing AM radio, oil companies, and accusing "the others" of being unAmerican.

I see nothing wrong with criticizing Obama's policies. If he is making bad decisions, then maybe the voice of the people will help him see the light. His health care plan is already a lame duck and it hasn't even left the nest. He's putting thousands of soldiers at risk in Afghanistan and doing seemingly little against North Korea. He's dumping billions into one of America's worst ran businesses (GM) instead of letting the market correct itself. His long-term vision is skewed by his short-term agenda. He may be a good leader based on some of his skill set, but that doesn't make him intelligent or a good decision-maker. Obama, please do what's best for this country in the long term. Look at all of the data and make decisions based on logic, not emotion. When you keep throwing out a statistic that says 40 some million people don't have health care, find out why, and help motivate those of the 40 some million that want it, to earn it. Don't keep feeding the need or the need will continue to grow.

BO thinks he's a good humanitarian because he is taking from the rich and giving to the poor. But just like the millionaire father who gives his child almost anything the child wants, the end result is a selfish child, with less work ethic, who feels he/she deserves everything that he/she wants. The more freebies you give, the more dependent a freebie taker will become on those handouts. You don't help people become strong by removing the resistance from their motions. You enable others to become stronger by giving them incentives to improve themselves. When something becomes more than someone can handle, then you provide temporary assistance to help them get back on their feet. If they don't show any improvement, then the temporary assistance needs to be greatly reduced or discontinued altogether. BO doesn't get it.

Bush is the most hated/bashed president in history even though he removed an evil dictator from power in Iraq. Based on the data, the dictator (who had killed thousands of his own citizens) intended to pursue weapons to inflict harm on the U.S. Under Saddam, many Iraqis were severely tortured, beaten, & murdered. The war in Iraq has eliminated many bad things. Obviously some Islamic extremists continue to wreak havoc. Many of those extremists are likely a product of the dictator's educational system. Our military has accomplished much good in Iraq despite some negatives. The war wasn't popular, but I'm optimistic that it was the right thing to do and in the long run the people of Iraq will be much better off because of it.

N. Korea is becoming a real threat, but Obama will sit back and do nothing because war is wrong, right? Then N. Korea will continue to build up their arsenal and improve their technology until they really do some major damage and a much bigger war becomes imminent. The Iraq war wasn't popular, but it obviously prevented a lot of bad things from happening.

Do we bomb North Korea and start a world war? Is that would you do "Bush was bashed"? Do you think their allies would stand back and let us take matters in our own hands?
Most of the extremists have come from countries that are "friendly" to America-Saudi Arabia/Egypt.
Yes we did remove an evil man in Iraq but we still do "business" with many evil regimes-why are we not going after them? Who is to say what is evil anyway-did we not supply the Taliban with arms to fight off a evil invasion by USSR?
Why did the last president use doctored intellgence to get America in this war? Why did he try to connect Iraq with 9/11? Why did they out an CIA agent because her husband tried to bring out correct information on the uranium link? Why did we use waterboarding to bring about unreal connections with 9/11 and Iraq?
To entitlement we gave deregulation/incentives to companies and did they make it better or did the wanting of more increase?

Many critics of President Obama, many know-nothings. Get the facts right. For example:

"Wasn't it the Bush administration that warned us about giving loans to people that couldn't pay them off?" No, it all happened under the Bush watch. I personally know the parties involved. And you imply that the new guys allowed it, even if not in power but 5 months.
"Wasn't it Obama that fought to keep giving them out so the poor people could buy a home they couldn't afford?" No, don't make things up.
"Wasn't it Obama that bailed out the Fanny and Freddy big shots?" Happened under Bush, sorry.
"Wasn't it Obama that increased the National debt by a TRILLION dollars in less than six months?" No, none of it has happened, as Congress has not cleared it and it is speculative. It's all talk at this stage, and assuming the economy does not recover. Ease off on the right-wing radio talking points.