#43, George Bush

So it's January 2nd and I think it's particularly apt that I have begun to read a book on the presidency of our forty third president. It's not, as far as I can tell, this partisan bullsh*t about how Bush was a great man whom we should all idolize like a f*cking God, becasue a book like that would sell almost no copies. No, it more describes the man, a tempermental person who likes to win. He is a man who loved education and how the much vilified "No Child Left Behind Act" was started with the best will in the world. It describes how stuff happened to him during his presidency, like Katrina, 9/11 and other stuff. It recalls how you loved him, America, right after 9/11, and he had an approval rating in the 90's, which allowed him to start a war that his analysts said would last for at least five years.

So what happened?

Well, Bush is no FDR. He's not Lincoln. He doesn't possess the type of charisma that those men had that enabled them to rally people behind them for immensely bloody wars. He didn't have FDR's allure, FDR's charm, that thing that allowed him to get the people to elect him for four terms. Don't misunderstand me, Bush is charismatic. He is one of those people that can walk into a room full of strangers for a party and walk out with every single one of them his friends. But that's in person. That type of charisma is walking up to person, saying, "Hello, my name is George W. Bush." It's fine if you have that type of charisma, in fact, many people wish they did. But FDR had something where he could look into a camera and start talking and people would agree with him. Bush doesn't have that. He only got us into Iraq and Afghanistan because we were feeling very patriotic after 9/11, and he used that patriotism, not in a malicious way, but he did use it. He felt as patriotic as the rest of us, but he saw an opportunity to use that patriotism to start a war with Afghanistan and Iraq. The former he knew was the base for Al Qaeda, but he wanted to attack the latter to get Saddam Hussein, whom he had a grudge against.

I haven't gotten up to Katrina yet, but when I do, I will keep you informed. So, I leave you with this: George Bush is human. He's a good person at heart trying to do the best he can. He just isn't very smart. Think about that. Now, let's hope the FBI doesn't get me like her.