HappySqurriel said:
When you consider how many of the problems that define the Bush administration were caused by things outside of his control, or were based on decisions that were fully supported by both political parties (and the American people at the time) it isn't unreasonable to suggest that Al Gore or John Kerry's presidency would have been just as problematic; and a lot of what people "hate" Bush for are problems that were a result of the time of his presidency, and not necessarily problems because of his presidency. On top of that, we get to see the results of the choices he made and we can never know the results of the choices he didn't make; and at times I see people assuming perfect outcomes from the opposite decisions. Some people (like me) might argue that the loose monetary policy and questionable lending practices during the Bush administration encouraged a housing bubble that crowded out conventional economic growth; but you have to consider that this conventional growth might not have happened in the absence of these (insane) policies, and the US could have experienced a lost decade in the wake of the dot-com bubble and 9/11. I'm not saying Bush was a good president because I really think he wasn't that good of a president, but I do think it is fair to say that he (probably) had the most challenging presidency of any of the ones in this poll; and a very good president might only look average if they were running the country at the same time. |
... ok ... honestly this shouldn't even be debatable ... at least we can agree Bush gave the impression his presidency was really, really hard...
