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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Marie McHarry wrote:

> Does this mean you think Bush was okay as a president? 

I don't see Bush as being any more of a detriment to the US than Clinton
before him or Bush or Reagan or Carter or Nixon, etc..   If Clinton had
gone after OBL when he had the chance, we would not even be having this
discussion.  The president is only one man.

He started a
> couple of wars we can't afford, and presided over the collapse of our
> financial system. In my opinion neither of those are good things.

True, it's not good now, but only time and history will be the final
judge of what was necessary or justified.  You say, a couple of wars,
and I assume you mean Afghanistan and Iraq.  In my opinion, we (noticed
the we, not he) only started one war, the one in Iraq.  OBL was in
Afghanistan at the time of 9/11, and we were in uncharted waters as to
how to respond against terrorism by an organization as opposed to
terrorism by a government.  We drew the line and called it 'state
sponsored' and held the Taliban responsible because they hid him.   In
my opinion, Al Qaida started the war in Afghanistan, not the US.  As for
the financial collapse, realize that the seeds for that were sewn long
before Bush became POTUS, maybe as far back as the early Reagan years or
the Carter administration..



> This is not to say that the current administration is getting a good
> review from moi. It's hard to say what ought to be done about the
> wars in progress, but rewarding the barons of Wall Street for
> screwing over the financial sector is very poor.

I don't think Obama has much to do with that.  I think he is just going
with the Congressional flow.  I don't want to fault the President when
blame, IMO, squarely falls on Congress and ultimately the citizens of
each state for electing and supporting their reps.  I *will* question
Obama's appointments for czars and judges as those do reflect his
personal views-not that it matters anymore because he is now President 
and will do whatever he wants with the popular mandate-but old habits 
die hard<g>.  Like I wrote on my blog, it is very disappointing to me 
that President Obama views Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment as 'showing 
empathy' instead of the (my opinion) bigoted remark that it was.  In my 
blog, I called that Strike One, but really, it is Strike Two, if you 
recall Obama's comments about the rural folks in western Pennsylvania. I 
gave him a pass on the first comment, which he probably made without a 
teleprompter ;)  I read the press corp is now calling the teleprompter, 
TOTUS.  LOL!

Personal views aside, that doesn't mean he is or will be a bad
President. I just don't happen to see things the way he does.  He
certainly won't be the first President with biased personal views and/or
character flaws, and in the end, it probably won't affect his job
performance much.  Time will tell.  In any event, I try to separate
issues and lay responsibility where it truly lies, not just on the
figurehead-unless it is deserved.

Bev

--
"Never expect magic from no where"  Baringo (Kenyan) working motto
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA