Bush Was A Big Disappointment

And So Is Obama

By Phil Staudt
blog.philstaudt.org
March 25, 2009

When George HW Bush was in office, I became totally disgusted with Republicans. Reagan and Bush used the abortion issue as a way to get votes from the people that they wanted to trample into the dirt. They got 'em and they did. When Reagan beat Bush in the 1980 primaries, the Bush family mob discovered that if they could get Fallwell and an army of religious folks to convince everyone that the 11th commandment was to vote Republican, and at the same time give fiscally disastrous tax cuts to anyone making over $300,000 or more (moral or not), they could get away with all kinds of atrocities and still be supported by religious voters because they were supposedly the moral choice, no matter how immoral or irresponsible or corrupt Republican politicians were. George HW Bush and Reagan ran record deficits and increased national debt, created a Savings and Loan crisis to rip-off taxpayers and funnel billions to their buddies (just like the current banking crisis), funneled billions of dollars to their buddies to supposedly fight the "war on drugs" (just like the war on terror), got rid of energy conservation programs and encouraged oil dependency, bave billions to Bin Laden (the brother of Bush's business partner, Salem Obama), came up with laws to make their insurance company buddies rich (like AIG) by ripping off consumers, sent troops to protect Kuwait because they were in the oil region at the same time that mass genocide was taking place in Rwanda (just like in Africa today), encouraged illegal aliens to flood into our country to labor costs for their buddies, and made it harder and harder for common folks to get ahead financially at the same time that they made it easier for billionaires to multiply their wealth at a disproportionate rate. The Republicans had their chance to be moral, but instead they squandered and pillaged.

The Bushes were able to get elected and stay in power during 20 of the past 28 years by supposedly being the moral choice, and all they had to do was say something like "sanctity of life" or that they are in favor of less abortions, and the flock followed them, even though morality was never high on their list at all.

Now, diehard Democrats and the gay rights folks and ecology folks and people who are against whites, are all lined up behind Obama and singing his praises no matter what he does, the same way the religious folks did with the Bushes. Obama can try to deceive Americans into thinking that he and Geithner did not know months ago that AIG was going to pay those bonuses, and his supporters are behind him all the way. He can rack up more debt in two months than Bush did in eight years, but that is okay with them. "He is still new," they keep saying, but if McCain was President they would not be saying that. If he takes away Constitutional rights for the sake of the economy and safety on our borders, or just because he thinks he should be able to, he knows that he will be unopposed by the people who fought so hard and long to get George Bush and those religious right wingers out of office.

Are Americans just stupid and easy to fool, or what? Why doesn't Obama have a popularity rating of less than 10%? Why didn't Goerge Bush have a popularity rating of less than 10%? Everybody has a pet peeve, and if their political hero or political party panders to their pet peeve, then who cares if they rob the store and sink the boat and run off with the money leaving us in the middle of the desert to die and be eaten by vultures, the important part is that the politician who supports our one and only pet peeve won. I knew a preacher and used to say not to throw the baby out with the bath water and not to major minors. Not only do American voters major on the minors, they throw the baby out to spite the bath water. When will Americans realize that the enemy is not the Republicans or the Democrats, but the enemy is the Republicans and the Democrats?

I felt good about the economy when Clinton became President because both Clinton and Gingrich, the undisputed leaders of the Democrats and Republicans, were dead set on not running deficits and paying down national debt, and that is what actually happened. Sixteen years later, after surviving 8 eight years of Bush and two months of Obama, I don't feel good at all. I feel like I am a passenger on the Titanic, and everyone is singing and drinking and have a good old time.

When I was in high school, I looked around at the people I had to go to school with, and I said to myself that the day that my peers got in charge of running government and business, our country would be doomed. Well, they did and we are. Since then, there were times when I hoped that my generation would somehow learn to become responsible and rational and disciplined, but now they are in charge, and it looks like this spoiled greedy self-centered introspective generation has only gotten worse, and has not learned anything since they were watching Dan Akroyd and John Belushi and Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live (that was all there was to watch way back then).

Rush Limbaugh would vote for anybody who gives him the biggest tax cut (so he can spend more on illegal drugs), and has made a career of telling lies and being inaccurate, but he is the one who was selected by CPAC folks as their choice to be the voice of the Republican Party. GE owns NBC and plans to make a fortune with the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to build a green infrastructure, and everything on NBC is so one-sided and misleading in favor of Democrats that it is ridiculous.

If the same people who are now criticizing Obama for his knowing about AIG bonuses and his desire to expand control by the Feds and his racking up huge deficits and piling up unthinkable debt, would have been just as vigilant in criticizing Bush and the Republican controlled Congress that was doing the same things just a few years ago, the country would be better off today.

Conversely, if the people who were criticizing Bush and the Republicans when they were in control a few years ago, were just as vigilant today in criticizing Obama for trying to deceive Americans into believing that he did not know all about those AIG bonuses months in advance, and his using the economy as an excuse to broaden Fed control, and his using the Mexican drug cartels as an excuse to take away Constitutional gun rights from law abiding citizens, and his creating record deficits and unbelievable national debt, it would be better for the country right now.

A few months after the Iraq war began, a reporter was interviewed people on their opinion was. One wise person said that if the Democrats were in office instead of the Republicans at the time, most people who were opposed to the war would have been in favor of it and the people who were in favor of it would have been opposed to it.

(By the way, wasn't the reason that Obama said he was different than Senator Clinton is that he would bring all the troops home in two months. Two months is up. I guess that was just a lie. Go figure.)

Decades ago, a waiter I was working with at a restaurant in Kansas City gave me a story about needing some money and asked me to loan him $10, and said he would pay me right back. I loaned him the money. Then, after he put the money in his pocket, he told me that people like me don't get ahead because we let anybody rip us off. He was right. But, if nobody was like him, nobody would have to worry about getting ripped off. People like him think that they are the smart ones, and the people who they rip off just have not learned to be smart like them. The United States of America has become a society of people just like him. Me me my my mine.

By the way, have you seen Obama's budget?

By Phil Staudt
blog.philstaudt.org
March 25, 2009

"Approval poll has bloggers taking sides"
Boston Herald March 25, 2009 By Joe Dwinell
The first national poll showing President Obama’s seemingly perfect political posture slipping as voters grow skeptical of his job performance had the blogosphere bloviating at a fever pitch yesterday... read_article

New poll spells doom for Obama? Nah, not really…
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR March 24,2009
...To be fair, it could be right. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. And inevitably his numbers will go down. They always do. This poll just doesn’t sync up with others.
Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll shows the president enjoys a 56 percent approval rating. Gallup and CBS show a 65 and 64 percent approval rating for the president respectively... read_article

"Zogby poll puts Obama's rating at 'about 50-50'"
USA TODAY March, 2009
President Obama's job approval stumbles to about 50% over the lack of improvement with the crippled economy. ... Pollster John Zogby said his poll out today will show Americans split on the president's performance. He said the score factors out to 'about 50-50.' " (Gallup's latest tracking poll gives Obama a 65% "approval"... read_article

"Drive-Bys Cover Up for Obama"
RUSHLIMBAUGH.COM March 24, 2009
RUSH: The Zogby poll, which was indeed published at the Boston Herald, Zogby has his poll out today, shows that Americans are 50-50 on Obama. Some polls show him coasting with a 65% job approval, but Zogby says these numbers are going down. It's not because of the gaffes, but a combination of high expectations and that things aren't moving fast enough with the economy... read_article
Tags: Democrats Obama Republicans Bush