Every president of the United States wants to be remembered as one of the best that ever lived. So it’s no wonder that George W. Bush has written an autobiography that conveys that message. To sell the book and his place in history as one of our best presidents he has appeared on some widely watched television shows including Oprah Winfrey and a special hosted by Matt Lauer.
I am quite certain that most Republicans will praise him as a great leader. The facts do not support that opinion. Neither his religion nor his good intent is in question. What is questionable is his judgment. He surrounded himself with people whose motives are very questionable. He doesn’t regret taking the country into a war in Iraq that was based upon faulty information. He sees no error in his decision to limit the troop build up in Afghanistan and the limited search for Osama bin Laden. He sees nothing wrong with the Federal response to the Katrina Hurricane that devastated New Orleans. He blocked the use of Federal dollars for stem cell research. Finally at the end of his presidency he promoted the bailout of Wall Street bankers and poorly managed commercial banks.
He wants to be remembered as the president who prevented another terrorist attack like 9-11 which did happen while he was president. He had been warned of the possibility of such an attack by the Clinton administration. He went to extremes to ensure there would not be another attack that resulted in the Patriot Act which many people believe is an infringement of individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. He instituted the Department of Homeland Security that has had questionable success. He opened a prison at Guantanamo Bay that denies its prisoners the right to a speedy trial and instituted water boarding.
There are too many other things his administration did that were clearly extreme and possibly illegal. I wrote about some of them back on September 17, 2008.
So I am stuck trying to determine what happened during his presidency that would qualify him to be considered even a good president let alone a great president.
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November 12, 2010: Now to add even more to this obviously flawed book is a report on Huffington Post that some of the information he imparts was lifted from advisers books. Copies are now in Costco at less than $23.00.
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