Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Bush's third bi-annual report card

From the perspective of a republican who voted for him twice, here is an up-to-date report card for the 2005-06 mid-term.

Domestic policies D; Foreign policies B+; Staffing appointments D-; Legislative liason D; Military leadership D-; Political skills F; Public Speaking skills D-; Personal ethics B.

Overall grade: D+

Discussion:

Bush completely went against his base by blocking any meaningful improvement of our border control and the flagrant illegal immigration crisis he not only ignored, but helped flaunt. That alone sank any other domestic policy gains into a vast morass of ineptitude.

Foreign policies were hit and miss, with no obvious failures in 49er's POV. Just because the rest of the world hates him is virtually irrelevant, IMHO. Because they don't vote, they don't count. Sorry. 49er doesn't always agree with their leaders, either. Tough.

Allowing Rove to stay on after the 2004 election was stupid, stupid, stupid. Weirdly brilliant - or maybe brilliantly weird - his brainpower was long ago overcome with dogmatic egomania - all to Bush's harm, but GWB seemed not to care.
Rummy should have been gone almost a year ago. His brilliance in 2003 faded to stubborn resolve by 2005, and his worth tumbled to nothing long ago. That GWB failed to understand this contributes to his "bumbling, stumbling" reputation. Totally unnecessary. Blind leading the blind.
Tony Snow's appointment was brilliant, though. Regardless of who brought it about.

Bush should have recognized how far left his majority party legislators had strayed in 2002, and by the 2004 elections dealt with it. He didn't. They didn't. The "republicats" ran amuck. And they blew it for 2006. Serves them right! Only saving grace was his ability to reach out to some elected democrats and build a few wobbly bridges during this current mid-term.

War is brutal. It breaks things and people. In 2003 the war was well fought. In 2004 it began slipping into a "rules of engagement" mindset. Stupid. War is best fought hard, fast, ugly, brutal and over! Too many post 2003 opportunities unrecognized and forever lost. Also, "rules of engagement" slowly evolve until they become counter-intuitive to the actual waging of a war. So from mid 2004 on we have been more in a WOC (criminals) situation, not WOT (terrorists). Unnecessary and costly in lives and assets.

GWB's seen as politically fiddling while Rome’s been burning for more than two years. He’s failed to either see it, or else to respond. Can anyone identify “a river in Egypt”? He apparently can’t.

Almost anyone today can learn through coaching and training to become articulate. If they want to. He apparently doesn’t care enough to do so. Shame on him. His speech and grammar reflect poorly on his ivy-league MBA. Somebody should be looking into rescinding his diploma, because the skills acquisition it seems to suggest certainly didn’t stick around very long.

49er thinks he’s probably a nice guy. Would probably make a fairly good neighbor, except for a classic lack of introspect ional skills, there are no known major gaffes.

49er is ready now to respond to instructions and corrections from other interested (and semi-interested) parties.

Cheers

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6 comments:

Bill said...

I like the comment "War is best fought hard, fast, ugly, brutal and over!" Not because I like war I still find it repulsive but If you have to do something abhorrent don't take forever to do it.

Republicans have always been the party of America first and to a large degree xenophobic (not a bad thing) where did these current guys come from TEXAS ? (-:

49erDweet said...

Could they possibly be "carpetbaggers"? Nah, couldn't happen. More likely they are merely "opportunists" who noticed a leadership vacuum and simply filled it to their own - and their friends' - benefits.

Cheers, bill

Jack Steiner said...

Almost anyone today can learn through coaching and training to become articulate. If they want to. He apparently doesn’t care enough to do so. Shame on him.

So very true.

Anonymous said...

dogmatic egomania

Perfect, pithy summary of what has always been wrong with the Bush administration. How much of it comes from Bush himself, and how much from the advisors he trusted implicitly (not only Rove but also Rummy and Cheney)? Don't know, and it doesn't matter. The diagnosis is spot on regardless.

Anonymous said...

p.s.
Glad to see you're over your health problems, and back on the front lines of the blogosphere!

49erDweet said...

Thanks for stopping by, js, that curious question has been bothering me for sometime.

Stephen, appreciate your insight. I suspect the greatest mistake GWB made was in not renewing his personal staff (Rove, et al), any more than he did immediately following the 04 election (including missing the opportunity to provide the US with a younger, more vigorous VP who could reasonably have been "passed the mantle" in 08. None of that meant he couldn't have kept using them as personal advisors. But new blood brings new ideas. Not the same ideas, over and over and over.

THAT decision [or more likely indecision] eventually sealed his administration's fate in the minds of most repubs for the 06 election, IMO. And thus GWB's legacy has turned to dust. What a black eye he has become to the reputation of Yale.

Read my latest post for more fun and games.

Cheers