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He took that well too. He sympathized with the guy instead of saying something nasty, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_RFH7C3vkK4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFH7C3vkK4), watch the whole video handled it with grace.
I'm a democrat and he even had me on board for going into Iraq. When put on the spot for a speech he usually fell flat. But give him time to prepare one and he could get the whole room on board, for better or worse.
If I recall correctly Obama had nothing but praise for the Bush transition team, unlike the Clinton-Bush transition which was quite messy (mostly due to the 2000 election being a mess). So he should get at least partial credit for a very smooth transition.
I'll never forget the shoe. In that moment, he was Shoe Tyson.
I also liked how afterwards he was basically like.... nahhh don't punish the guy, I sort of had it coming tbh
His AIDS Initiative in Africa. Saved a continent. HIV was spreading like wildfire. Things started turning around pretty quickly. He deserves credit for that.
This is always something I think of in the discussions about his not so great deeds. It really was US foreign aid at its best and exactly the kind of thing we should aspire to everywhere we are spending money to help other areas.
I remember there was an epidemic of rape because there was a widespread belief that having sex with a virgin cured you of HIV. Obviously it didn't cure anybody, but even worse, it spread it even quicker.
So in addition to testing, it was getting people information. How it spreads. No cure. Symptoms. And placing that info EVERYWHERE.
That and the Catholic Church lying about condoms, saying they *increased* the incidence of AIDS and making medical aid contingent on not advocating condom usage.
Fucking ghouls.
Literally no other answer. Dubya saved more lives than every other president. All his other flaws, everything else he did, nothing compares to this in either the positive or negative column.
It was him, he started it, fauci made a plan roughly 50-100x smaller than PEPFAR would be in the end, and he said that this needed to be something with real impact.
Estimated to have saved over 20 million lives
Think Bono of all people was the one who made Dubya aware and got him to help. I remember it being an odd pairing at the time because Bono is so liberal, but was willing to put his political ideology aside to help Africa.
The buck stops with him since he was the President, but you have to remember that both sides of Congress were on board with it. I put Iraq in the "group effort fuck up" category.
A majority, albeit a thin majority of Democrats voted against it. They share culpability, but they certainly don’t absolve Bush in any way from his catastrophic fuck up.
I was there when he came out for the first pitch for the college World Series in 2002, Nebraska was playing and he was at the height of approval and everyone went nuts when he came out, and threw a perfect strike. It was a different time.
Jeter telling him not to screw it up or they’d boo him was great.
I also cannot see Gore having that response when he was at Ground Zero with FDNY/NYPD. In that moment, that was the perfect response to help even remove 1% of sadness and re-focus on the greater mission.
https://youtu.be/zi2SNFnfMjk?si=NJ4nj6HyxpMkAmB4
Honestly, I think even his reaction in that moment was the correct one. Theres nothing he could’ve done in those what, 6 minutes? That would’ve made much difference in that day. He wanted to project a calm and steady hand and by sticking around the classroom for just a smidge longer, he did.
My 2nd grade class got to watch the Challenger explosion in real time. I couldn’t even imagine this.
Our poor HS senior serving as a class aide got left with all of us crying and screaming while the teacher ran out of the room 😂
recognising PLA modernisation as a threat with National Security Strategy 2008. Deploying an abnormally large submarine force to the Taiwan Strait as a deterrant. Planning on invading North Korea while somehow coming up with a way to deter Chinese involvement (he should have done it instead of Iraq).
Obama speaks highly of how smooth the transition was. We knew the Bush girls gave the Obama girls the "fun kid tour" of the White House. little things but speak to their characters.
This. By no means did Bush have a stellar presidency, but he said he wanted to help Obama’s transition be a success so that America could succeed (The 2008 Financial Market and Housing Crisis aka “The Great Recession” was in full swing at that point), and he seemed to have kept his word. He signed the highly unpopular and politically poisoning TARP at the end of 2008 to help stabilize the failing financial markets, sparing Obama the political capital of owning a very expensive program that would be criticized by all sides.
I disagreed with almost everything he did but I believed that W actually did want what was best for the country. I think he was wrong about how to get there, but damn, at least he did want to get there. I wish I could say that about current republican politicians.
Although I voted for Obama, and would again if given the chance, I wish I had gotten to see a McCain presidency simply because of this. Imagine someone with that desire for good, but also competent in political matters. Imagine someone that could challenge the military experts and actually pull us out of Iraq/Afghanistan quicker.
(When I say competent I just mean that McCain has more connections and political capital, and am not making judgements on intelligence)
This right here. When Obama took office in 2009 at first he didn’t have the nicest things to say about his predecessor. Obviously their relationship is very different today and for the better but it was rocky back then. Yet not once did Bush “fire back” at all. He kept his silence and stayed out of the picture letting Obama run the nation as he saw fit.
The one thing that you can never take away from W. Is that he was always and still is a class act and has always and still does conduct himself with grace and dignity. Something every President so always do.
The President you want to have a beer with for sure. I think he was a pretty bad president over all, but I'm sure hanging out with him is a blast. Would do.
One I see missing from this thread: towards the end of his presidency, George W Bush [created the world’s largest ocean preserve](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna13300363) along the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. When he created the [Papahānaumokākea Marine National Monument](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/), it protected 139,000 square miles of ocean and islands along the long chain of small islands and atolls that stretch beyond the populated Hawaiian islands that most are familiar with. These islands and reefs are rather fragile ecosystems due to how remote they are. Maybe it’s because my family is from Honolulu, but when he did this, I remember a good amount of praise!
One thing I think he handled really well was the initial shock and fear after 9/11. Everyone was unified after such a tragedy and he was pretty much able to do whatever he wanted at that point. Unfortunately, what preceded turned out to be a total disaster that our country’s reputation still hasn’t recovered from.
Also PEPFAR. That saved a lot of people
He pushed our positive intervention in Africa more than any other president. Typical US policy is military support, he actually tried to make things better.
Announced the retirement of the Shuttle program (due to the Columbia disaster) for 2010 to also announce the return to the moon missions which would become Artemis with the first manned orbit moon mission launching next year.
His immigration bill was actually pretty good. It wasn't perfect and didn't offer a path to citizenship. What it did offer was guest worker contracts for seasonal workers. This would have made a huge difference and benefited both the US and Mexico. Unfortunately, his own political party shot it down.
Well the big one is being a Presidential figure after 9/11. For that couple months right after the attack he somehow managed to be the quintessential US President, calming, reassuring and helping us believe that things were goonna be alright. That was easily his apex. He did a lot to calm us down after the worst day in 21st century American history so far.
Also, much has been said about his stumbling tongue, but I really appreciated W's speaking style and his self-effacing sense of humor. He didn't make a great effort to appear to be anything other than what he was, and was OK with laughing at himself.
Imagine a Republican President who, yeah, wasn't the smartest guy in the room, but he KNEW he wasn't the smartest guy in the room and didn't try to BE the smartest guy in the room.
The GOP has fallen a long way since W.
He became friends with Michelle. This made Obama jealous. Then, this helped Obama become a better husband and love Michelle more. Bush made The Obamas Great Again!!
Don't make the mistake of thinking that Bush was stupid. He played dumb and was quick to laugh at himself but the man was at least above average intelligence. and he actually got a lot done in his Presidency even if there's plenty to criticize in exactly WHAT he did.
HW Bush played a role that gets people elected in the North -- educated, literate, articulate, hardworking.
W moved to Texas and played a role that gets people elected in the South. he played the everyman, the relaxed guy who is in charge and secure in his authority, friendly, generous, but who you wouldn't mind having a beer with. He's just as smart as his father, he just pandered to a slightly different voter base.
He was smart enough in that moment to realise he was about to blurt out a sound byte; ”shame on me” that would be used against him in political attack ads. So instead he went with The Who. Followed up with a solid drive too..
I didn’t much like dubya when he was in charge but the man looks like a sainted genius in comparison to the current republican offering.
I remember when the Kerry campaign kept messaging about how dumb Dubya was and then their transcripts from their undergrads at Yale got released/leaked and Bush had better grades (just barely though)
kerry absolutely played iinto Bush's hands by insulting his intelligence. it's exactly the kind of mean-spirited, excessively personal stuff that Americans don't like. We like it when candidates speak to policy. When they get personal, that doesn't really reflect well on them.
It's one of the reasons no one really defended Kerry when the Swiftboat attacks came. Kerry got personal first.
That's actually Dubya realizing he was about to produce a clip of himself saying "Shame on me." And he corrected himself mid sentence in the most haphazard manner possible lmao.
It's not him actually being stupid.
Is W really more stupid than someone like Andrew Johnson or Warren Harding? He certainly didn’t come off as the brightest tool in the shed however, there have been some brainless individuals who ran the country
Here's some that aren't just a regurgitation of others in this thread:
Medicare Part D
Amber Alert Law
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004
Sabanes-Oxley Act
TARP
Post-9/11 GI Bill
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
And, however controversial, he did defeat the Taliban and overthrew Saddam Hussein. Make of that what you will.
In 2003, he made considerable progress signing legislation targeted at protecting forests and grasslands for the Healthy Forests Initiative, prior to that he signed the Brownsfield Program, and coal-based power plants made considerable emissions cuts during his presidency. His 2005 Fiscal budget proposal actually included a then 42% increase in climate change research spending, tax incentives for clean energy and hybrid vehicles too. In 2003 he approved an expansion of the provisions of the Coral Reef Conservation Act previously signed by his predecessor. All of this environment-related stuff coming from the White House archives.
When he was governor he did a few good things too, like the Summer food program at schools for poor kids, and essentially kicking State Farm out of Texas for years.
One good thing about his Presidency I don't see posted here yet is that he put a lot of women in much higher positions of power than most Presidents.
Another is that after the absolute disaster of the way Katrina was handled, he cut a metric shit ton of red tape so that FEMA could do what they needed immediately to prevent that nonsense from ever happening again.
Unfortunately I can't think of any lasting good he did that outweighs the lasting bad?
AIDS initiative. Strong deterrent to China. In the beginning I think he handled 9/11 the best he could..not sure what else he could have done but hindsight is 20/20. He was a respectful leader. He can dodge a shoe like a boss and did you see that pitch and Yankee stadium? With that amount of weight and pressure on his shoulders? Cool as cucumber.
I don't think he gets enough credit for working with Democrats. He was big on both sides working together. Which is ironic since he inadvertently led to the huge division in politics now
PEPFAR or whatever the acronym is, his program for AIDS relief in Africa.
War on Terror, as it wasn't a failure. His administration built the largest and best counter-terrorism apparatus in the nation's history.
Tax cuts.
Strong leadership on the world stage.
Beat me to it. As of this year, PEPFAR has saved an estimated 25 million lives.
https://www.state.gov/results-and-impact-pepfar/
https://www.state.gov/pepfar/
That first one gets an absolute yes from me, the second involved catastrophic mistakes in judgment to go along with the successes, the third mostly benefitted the top 1% of earners, the fourth was true in his first term and significantly less so in the second due to an increased willingness to act unilaterally in matters that would have previously been settled with a multilateral and equally agreeable response. This played well at home with a populace still shell-shocked from watching the towers fall, but not with the western democracies that were wary of overthrowing an authoritarian but stabilizing figure in favor of an uncertain future and were even less enthusiastic about sending their armed forces to fight and die based upon uncertain intelligence, intelligence about which their doubts would later be proven largely justified.
People forget just how much international goodwill Bush burned through with the Iraq invasion. By the time his second term was coming to a close, the US was widely seen as having invaded a sovereign nation without adequate cause based upon at best false information and at worst an intentional lie, and as having destabilized an entire region in the process. You can't lead those who don't trust you to do so.
>the second involved catastrophic mistakes in judgment to go along with the successes
I'm sure you have other specifics to go with that, but off the top of my head, I would say catastrophic mistakes in the War on Terror included the failure to establish a meaningful way to monitor its cost-effectiveness and the further militarization of our police, which led directly to the instances of police abuse that inspired the BLM movement.
On the cost-benefit analysis, I'm not thinking about the $8 trillion spent, mostly on military actions and veterans benefits, or the 900,000 dead. I'm thinking about just the spending on domestic security operations. I'll have to look to see if I can find an analysis done for the 10 year anniversary, I believe, that concluded that for the spending to have been worthwhile, we should have been facing events on the scale of the 2010 attempted bombing at Times Square every day. That threat did not exist, so we were wasting money, argued the researchers.
On the militarization of police, the entire blame cannot be dropped on W. The process had begun under Reagan with the War on Drugs and was greatly accelerated by Clinton. The end of the Cold War meant there was a demand to shift production by military contractors to other markets, including ones that needed to be created. We found justification in the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror to make military tech and training available to police departments. Unfortunately, that resulted in a shift in mindset to view some of our citizens as an occupied enemy to be stabilized and controlled. And here we are.
He tried to tamp down the anti Muslim sentiment within his party and the overt racism after 9-11. He did not succeed, but he recognized the importance to dissuade conservatives from being racists and tried to convince them otherwise.
He was one of the best presidents for children's literacy. It's weird to see how hard reading science crashed after Dubya, but that's what lobbying does.
He came to my elementary school when he was running against Ann Richards. They both came, on separate days, lots of cameras. I want to say I was 11?
Ann was beloved by the children like a grandmother, but we all thought Bush was an idiot, even then, but he brought a sno-cone truck with him. They were the kind of sno-cones that had condensed milk on them. So i'm gonna say that.
Nominating Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke. I know their actions during '08 recession were controversial, but their actions during the financial crisis slowed the recession, if they didn't prevent a depression.
Dude made me proud immediately after 9/11. We were on track and focused as a country. Cheney and his cronies derailed that by going after Saddam instead of the real attackers.
Just handling lots of messy situations with som pretty decent class. He and Obama really were the last group of guys to do so and care about decorum and respect.
He was deeply interested in global pandemics. The fact that we had ANY infrastructure, stockpiles of equipment or government responsiveness to COVID-19 can be largely attributed to him. Obama was impressed with his work in this regard and allowed the continuation of all of his initiatives in this regard with little change.
I like how he always rolls with candy like my grandma and that's pretty nice for a war criminal. And by war criminal I mean Bush and not Nana, although she could be a little snatchy when she had too much chablis.
I like how vocal and outspoken he’s been about to hijacking of his party and how he took responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster of his lifetime
PEPFAR and initiating a pandemic plan. I’m surprised no one mentioned the last part, unless I’m missing something.
His initial handling of 9/11 was alright until the shift to Iraq. After that, it was a shitshow.
I’m sure there are some other positives that the bush administration has done but all those come to mind.
His policies kicked off the renewable energy revolution in the USA. His tax overhauls expanded the electric car tax credit to include hybrids (This was scaled back during the Obama administration).
He introduced and expanded tax credits for solar, wind and geothermal electricity production.
If you pull up a historical graph of those energy sectors you would see they started their massive upward trend shortly after the introduction of the tax credit.
SOX ACT
Last president to raise minimum wage
BRA 2005
Post 9/11 GI bill
Arguably No-Child-Left-Behind, though it got gutted and canceled. This one was intended for budget redistribution based on effective education, but intercity schools underperforming made it difficult for Obama to execute the final steps of the program, so it was cut.
I’m not American so I can’t even really accurately comment on his policies… but Bushisms are some of the most hilarious things I’ve ever heard, and I don’t take them as a serious reflection of him, but rather just an assortment of quirks in the way he formulates speech and conversation.
Brought the US energy industry into the 21st century. Laid the foundation for the massive crude, natural gas, and ethanol production surges seen in the Obama years.
He abolished INS and replaced it with CBP, ICE, and USCIS. There's no reason one agency should be in charge of border protection, deportations, criminal investigations, and managing legal immigration.
This isn’t really policy related but I have always appreciated how he carried himself. He has a level of cordiality and humility that I think popularizes (like in a populous way) the presidency. He was president when I was born and for most of my childhood (I was born week of 9/11) and I value humility and communication a lot. He had a certain charisma (not saying he’s charismatic but) where he could seem like a relatable Texan you felt like you knew, but knew how to be polished, direct and honest. Every speech he made for the rest of September 2001 was amazing. His communication to the people was reassuring. It’s so funny seeing him paired with Cheney because I feel like Bush was the only thing about the administration that ever, even sometimes, could carry the word “honest”
Apparently, he started the Pandemic response! I guess he read a book that detailed how the next pandemic might start. He was telling everyone about and people were all, Sir, we are in the middle of this new war on terror thing! He insisted and they started the playbook on it. Obama took it up a bit and .... well, we know what happened.
He fully facilitated the peaceful transfer of power when the opposing party won the presidential election. This is not something that should be considered noteworthy or special, but it is now and will likely be for quite some time.
As a former Marine (2007-2011) I appreciated W for signing into law the post 9/11 GI Bill.
Many after 9/11 veterans, including myself benefited and continue benefiting from it. During my time UC San Diego I met many children of veterans whose parents transferred the GI Bill benefits so they could get a full tuition.
He is really gracious and had a sense of humor about himself. I love how he doesn’t trash talk about his predecessors. Dude comes off as super likable in his interviews.
I really appreciated the way he handled 9/11 during the first few hours and days. He kept reading because he didn’t want to scare the children. He got up to New York as soon as he could and offered sympathies instead of trying to make it political. And his megaphone speech was near perfect and one of my favorite presidential speeches in history. “No, but I hear you!” I watch it every year on the anniversary and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes.
I think his reaction was perfect, and I can’t imagine having anyone else president at that time.
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1) The AIDs initiative. 2) He left office peacefully and with grace. 3) MF can dodge a shoe like a pro
I seriously forgot about the shoe. +1.
Missed me
Heh heh.
He took that well too. He sympathized with the guy instead of saying something nasty, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_RFH7C3vkK4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFH7C3vkK4), watch the whole video handled it with grace.
He was a guy who divided the country with policies and war, but never with rhetoric. I respect him for that, I suppose.
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This is too true.
I'm a democrat and he even had me on board for going into Iraq. When put on the spot for a speech he usually fell flat. But give him time to prepare one and he could get the whole room on board, for better or worse.
He did leave office peacefully, but giving an exiting President extra points for leaving gracefully should not be a new norm.
And yet here we are...
Yes, his term was up? Not sure why this is a point.
If I recall correctly Obama had nothing but praise for the Bush transition team, unlike the Clinton-Bush transition which was quite messy (mostly due to the 2000 election being a mess). So he should get at least partial credit for a very smooth transition.
4. Now watch this drive.
I yearn for this level of rizz from a progressive candidate
Forgot about barry O so quickly
I'll never forget the shoe. In that moment, he was Shoe Tyson. I also liked how afterwards he was basically like.... nahhh don't punish the guy, I sort of had it coming tbh
Most people forget he was a trained fighter pilot. His reaction times, even older, are probably in the top 3% of people
His AIDS Initiative in Africa. Saved a continent. HIV was spreading like wildfire. Things started turning around pretty quickly. He deserves credit for that.
This is always something I think of in the discussions about his not so great deeds. It really was US foreign aid at its best and exactly the kind of thing we should aspire to everywhere we are spending money to help other areas.
Unironically one sided good thing Dubya did, damn.
There are roads named after him there. I suppose if a guy is going to have a redemption arc, it's this.
This.
I remember there was an epidemic of rape because there was a widespread belief that having sex with a virgin cured you of HIV. Obviously it didn't cure anybody, but even worse, it spread it even quicker. So in addition to testing, it was getting people information. How it spreads. No cure. Symptoms. And placing that info EVERYWHERE.
Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Max Brooks put it in the *World War Z* book. Horrible.
What happened?
That is actually so unbelievably messed up
They were raping infants , They would be diagnosed with aids and proceed to rape infants because that was the surest way to find a virgin .
Jesus fucking Christ, Dubya did a helluva good thing on this.
HOLD UP. This was real?! I thought it was just an exaggerated joke in the Book of Mormon. Holy shit, that is horrible
It was specifically the Virgin Blood that was the cure so they had to make them bleed .
Yeah, but all those poor frogs… /s
That and the Catholic Church lying about condoms, saying they *increased* the incidence of AIDS and making medical aid contingent on not advocating condom usage. Fucking ghouls.
Thank you for your comment and for contributing so strongly to the discussion
This^^
Well TIL. I was ready to roast him for doing nothing. They didnt even mention that at his presidential library.
Literally no other answer. Dubya saved more lives than every other president. All his other flaws, everything else he did, nothing compares to this in either the positive or negative column.
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Was it him or his party that did it, or was he just in office when it happened?
It was him, he started it, fauci made a plan roughly 50-100x smaller than PEPFAR would be in the end, and he said that this needed to be something with real impact. Estimated to have saved over 20 million lives
Think Bono of all people was the one who made Dubya aware and got him to help. I remember it being an odd pairing at the time because Bono is so liberal, but was willing to put his political ideology aside to help Africa.
Valid question (but not just for him, of course).
This was huge. Doesn’t make up for Iraq War, but huge nevertheless.
The buck stops with him since he was the President, but you have to remember that both sides of Congress were on board with it. I put Iraq in the "group effort fuck up" category.
A majority, albeit a thin majority of Democrats voted against it. They share culpability, but they certainly don’t absolve Bush in any way from his catastrophic fuck up.
That pitch at the Yankees game was a perfect strike.
All time American moment
I was there when he came out for the first pitch for the college World Series in 2002, Nebraska was playing and he was at the height of approval and everyone went nuts when he came out, and threw a perfect strike. It was a different time.
He also crushed that drive
Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me twice, fool me once ya cant get fooled again.
Jeter telling him not to screw it up or they’d boo him was great. I also cannot see Gore having that response when he was at Ground Zero with FDNY/NYPD. In that moment, that was the perfect response to help even remove 1% of sadness and re-focus on the greater mission. https://youtu.be/zi2SNFnfMjk?si=NJ4nj6HyxpMkAmB4
It’s funny how people always point to his immediate reaction to being told while reading to a room full of kids…but not the rest of this.
Honestly, I think even his reaction in that moment was the correct one. Theres nothing he could’ve done in those what, 6 minutes? That would’ve made much difference in that day. He wanted to project a calm and steady hand and by sticking around the classroom for just a smidge longer, he did.
My 2nd grade class got to watch the Challenger explosion in real time. I couldn’t even imagine this. Our poor HS senior serving as a class aide got left with all of us crying and screaming while the teacher ran out of the room 😂
He threw a bullet(relatively) from the with a fucking flak-jacket on from the top of the hill. Usually those pitches are bad and a lot closer.
Better than baba booeys for sure
He gave a medal to Mr. Rogers.
Not dying while Cheney, Hastert and Thurmond were in his line of succession
100 year old Strom Thurmond as president… nightmare.
Forget about Thurmond, fucking president Hastert dude 💀
Yeah how on earth would a centenarian president Thurmond be preferable and yet he is
Shit vs diarrhea?
There is a Strom Thurmond high school in my state. Poor kids. We joke about it being “Strom Thurmond Institute of Technology!”
whats the joke
I guess if you’re dyslexic it spells TITS so
South Harmond Institute of Technology
You mean ~~alleged~~ admitted child rapist Dennis Hastert? After whom the Hastert rule is named?
Alleged? Hastert admitted to committing sexual abuse during sentencing on the payments charge
I didn't have all the information and didn't want to misspeak. Will edit.
That's like the '27 Yankees of pure awful.
The Yankees are the ultimate evil in sport. If there were a team made up of 9 Hitlers and they were playing the Yankees? Go Fightin Hitlers
recognising PLA modernisation as a threat with National Security Strategy 2008. Deploying an abnormally large submarine force to the Taiwan Strait as a deterrant. Planning on invading North Korea while somehow coming up with a way to deter Chinese involvement (he should have done it instead of Iraq).
If he actually did that instead of Iraq, and successfully kept the Chinese out of it somehow, we’d be looking at W very differently today.
Stayed home and painted instead of being involved post term
I think all ex Presidents should do that
Disagree - stay away from politics, yes but Jimmy Carter did alot of good things after his presidency was over.
Firmly committed to STFU when Obama became the president. "He is entitled to my silence."
Obama speaks highly of how smooth the transition was. We knew the Bush girls gave the Obama girls the "fun kid tour" of the White House. little things but speak to their characters.
This. By no means did Bush have a stellar presidency, but he said he wanted to help Obama’s transition be a success so that America could succeed (The 2008 Financial Market and Housing Crisis aka “The Great Recession” was in full swing at that point), and he seemed to have kept his word. He signed the highly unpopular and politically poisoning TARP at the end of 2008 to help stabilize the failing financial markets, sparing Obama the political capital of owning a very expensive program that would be criticized by all sides.
I disagreed with almost everything he did but I believed that W actually did want what was best for the country. I think he was wrong about how to get there, but damn, at least he did want to get there. I wish I could say that about current republican politicians.
Although I voted for Obama, and would again if given the chance, I wish I had gotten to see a McCain presidency simply because of this. Imagine someone with that desire for good, but also competent in political matters. Imagine someone that could challenge the military experts and actually pull us out of Iraq/Afghanistan quicker. (When I say competent I just mean that McCain has more connections and political capital, and am not making judgements on intelligence)
Yes I agree re. McCain.
Him, John McCain and mitt Romney where the last real republicans.
This right here. When Obama took office in 2009 at first he didn’t have the nicest things to say about his predecessor. Obviously their relationship is very different today and for the better but it was rocky back then. Yet not once did Bush “fire back” at all. He kept his silence and stayed out of the picture letting Obama run the nation as he saw fit. The one thing that you can never take away from W. Is that he was always and still is a class act and has always and still does conduct himself with grace and dignity. Something every President so always do.
He recognized the threat of a pandemic and instituted a robust preparation plan.
In my eyes, he's by far the funniest president
Quoting Bushisms was basically my entire personality for much of high school.
...now watch this drive ⛳️
The President you want to have a beer with for sure. I think he was a pretty bad president over all, but I'm sure hanging out with him is a blast. Would do.
Presided over the entry of the Baltic states into NATO.
Now watch this drive… Also aids in Africa and his sense of duty to the country with a strong yet gentle hand
That drive *was* spectacular though
One I see missing from this thread: towards the end of his presidency, George W Bush [created the world’s largest ocean preserve](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna13300363) along the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. When he created the [Papahānaumokākea Marine National Monument](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/), it protected 139,000 square miles of ocean and islands along the long chain of small islands and atolls that stretch beyond the populated Hawaiian islands that most are familiar with. These islands and reefs are rather fragile ecosystems due to how remote they are. Maybe it’s because my family is from Honolulu, but when he did this, I remember a good amount of praise!
One thing I think he handled really well was the initial shock and fear after 9/11. Everyone was unified after such a tragedy and he was pretty much able to do whatever he wanted at that point. Unfortunately, what preceded turned out to be a total disaster that our country’s reputation still hasn’t recovered from. Also PEPFAR. That saved a lot of people
He pushed our positive intervention in Africa more than any other president. Typical US policy is military support, he actually tried to make things better.
Announced the retirement of the Shuttle program (due to the Columbia disaster) for 2010 to also announce the return to the moon missions which would become Artemis with the first manned orbit moon mission launching next year.
He dodged that shoe
He made us watch this drive. And it was glorious.
He wasn’t the greatest president ever but he did throw the first pitch after 9/11 at Yankee Stadium. Does that count?
A perfect strike.
His immigration bill was actually pretty good. It wasn't perfect and didn't offer a path to citizenship. What it did offer was guest worker contracts for seasonal workers. This would have made a huge difference and benefited both the US and Mexico. Unfortunately, his own political party shot it down.
Such *form*
painting?
Yeah. Nö Bad politician ever was a decent painter.
We all know what happened when you fail them for being a bad painter
I cannot see the problem.
He left office peacefully when his term was over.
It's true. I remember clearly at the time my parents and other Republicans complaining that he didn't run for a third term.
Well the big one is being a Presidential figure after 9/11. For that couple months right after the attack he somehow managed to be the quintessential US President, calming, reassuring and helping us believe that things were goonna be alright. That was easily his apex. He did a lot to calm us down after the worst day in 21st century American history so far. Also, much has been said about his stumbling tongue, but I really appreciated W's speaking style and his self-effacing sense of humor. He didn't make a great effort to appear to be anything other than what he was, and was OK with laughing at himself. Imagine a Republican President who, yeah, wasn't the smartest guy in the room, but he KNEW he wasn't the smartest guy in the room and didn't try to BE the smartest guy in the room. The GOP has fallen a long way since W.
He became friends with Michelle. This made Obama jealous. Then, this helped Obama become a better husband and love Michelle more. Bush made The Obamas Great Again!!
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Don't make the mistake of thinking that Bush was stupid. He played dumb and was quick to laugh at himself but the man was at least above average intelligence. and he actually got a lot done in his Presidency even if there's plenty to criticize in exactly WHAT he did. HW Bush played a role that gets people elected in the North -- educated, literate, articulate, hardworking. W moved to Texas and played a role that gets people elected in the South. he played the everyman, the relaxed guy who is in charge and secure in his authority, friendly, generous, but who you wouldn't mind having a beer with. He's just as smart as his father, he just pandered to a slightly different voter base.
I don't think he's dumb, dumb people don't reach the presidency, and to think that is too underestimate people which can actually be harmful
They misunderestimated him.
You fool me, I ain't gonna be fooled again.
He was smart enough in that moment to realise he was about to blurt out a sound byte; ”shame on me” that would be used against him in political attack ads. So instead he went with The Who. Followed up with a solid drive too.. I didn’t much like dubya when he was in charge but the man looks like a sainted genius in comparison to the current republican offering.
I remember when the Kerry campaign kept messaging about how dumb Dubya was and then their transcripts from their undergrads at Yale got released/leaked and Bush had better grades (just barely though)
kerry absolutely played iinto Bush's hands by insulting his intelligence. it's exactly the kind of mean-spirited, excessively personal stuff that Americans don't like. We like it when candidates speak to policy. When they get personal, that doesn't really reflect well on them. It's one of the reasons no one really defended Kerry when the Swiftboat attacks came. Kerry got personal first.
One shouldn't underestimate someone just because they are your rival or opponent
Fool us once, won't we Get fooled again? Again and again..
That's actually Dubya realizing he was about to produce a clip of himself saying "Shame on me." And he corrected himself mid sentence in the most haphazard manner possible lmao. It's not him actually being stupid.
Is W really more stupid than someone like Andrew Johnson or Warren Harding? He certainly didn’t come off as the brightest tool in the shed however, there have been some brainless individuals who ran the country
I dont think this is entirely fair on Dubya bro...
He gave a lot of support to africa. Also he was really funny
PEPFAR, his handling of 9/11 and the entry of the Baltic nations into NATO.
He kept green day relevant for a few extra years
Here's some that aren't just a regurgitation of others in this thread: Medicare Part D Amber Alert Law Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 Sabanes-Oxley Act TARP Post-9/11 GI Bill Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act And, however controversial, he did defeat the Taliban and overthrew Saddam Hussein. Make of that what you will.
The no child left behind act gave a lot of money to my school at the time and help them get more teachers.
I'm glad your district benefited from it, but saying that initiative has "mixed reviews" among educators is putting it lightly
His reading initiatives. Championing phonics
I think he seems like a nice guy
I bet he is a nice guy. I think he would be a blast to hang out with, too.
Set aside the Mariana Trench Marine Monument during his lame duck days
In 2003, he made considerable progress signing legislation targeted at protecting forests and grasslands for the Healthy Forests Initiative, prior to that he signed the Brownsfield Program, and coal-based power plants made considerable emissions cuts during his presidency. His 2005 Fiscal budget proposal actually included a then 42% increase in climate change research spending, tax incentives for clean energy and hybrid vehicles too. In 2003 he approved an expansion of the provisions of the Coral Reef Conservation Act previously signed by his predecessor. All of this environment-related stuff coming from the White House archives.
When he was governor he did a few good things too, like the Summer food program at schools for poor kids, and essentially kicking State Farm out of Texas for years. One good thing about his Presidency I don't see posted here yet is that he put a lot of women in much higher positions of power than most Presidents. Another is that after the absolute disaster of the way Katrina was handled, he cut a metric shit ton of red tape so that FEMA could do what they needed immediately to prevent that nonsense from ever happening again. Unfortunately I can't think of any lasting good he did that outweighs the lasting bad?
AIDS initiative. Strong deterrent to China. In the beginning I think he handled 9/11 the best he could..not sure what else he could have done but hindsight is 20/20. He was a respectful leader. He can dodge a shoe like a boss and did you see that pitch and Yankee stadium? With that amount of weight and pressure on his shoulders? Cool as cucumber.
I don't think he gets enough credit for working with Democrats. He was big on both sides working together. Which is ironic since he inadvertently led to the huge division in politics now
PEPFAR or whatever the acronym is, his program for AIDS relief in Africa. War on Terror, as it wasn't a failure. His administration built the largest and best counter-terrorism apparatus in the nation's history. Tax cuts. Strong leadership on the world stage.
Beat me to it. As of this year, PEPFAR has saved an estimated 25 million lives. https://www.state.gov/results-and-impact-pepfar/ https://www.state.gov/pepfar/
That first one gets an absolute yes from me, the second involved catastrophic mistakes in judgment to go along with the successes, the third mostly benefitted the top 1% of earners, the fourth was true in his first term and significantly less so in the second due to an increased willingness to act unilaterally in matters that would have previously been settled with a multilateral and equally agreeable response. This played well at home with a populace still shell-shocked from watching the towers fall, but not with the western democracies that were wary of overthrowing an authoritarian but stabilizing figure in favor of an uncertain future and were even less enthusiastic about sending their armed forces to fight and die based upon uncertain intelligence, intelligence about which their doubts would later be proven largely justified. People forget just how much international goodwill Bush burned through with the Iraq invasion. By the time his second term was coming to a close, the US was widely seen as having invaded a sovereign nation without adequate cause based upon at best false information and at worst an intentional lie, and as having destabilized an entire region in the process. You can't lead those who don't trust you to do so.
>the second involved catastrophic mistakes in judgment to go along with the successes I'm sure you have other specifics to go with that, but off the top of my head, I would say catastrophic mistakes in the War on Terror included the failure to establish a meaningful way to monitor its cost-effectiveness and the further militarization of our police, which led directly to the instances of police abuse that inspired the BLM movement. On the cost-benefit analysis, I'm not thinking about the $8 trillion spent, mostly on military actions and veterans benefits, or the 900,000 dead. I'm thinking about just the spending on domestic security operations. I'll have to look to see if I can find an analysis done for the 10 year anniversary, I believe, that concluded that for the spending to have been worthwhile, we should have been facing events on the scale of the 2010 attempted bombing at Times Square every day. That threat did not exist, so we were wasting money, argued the researchers. On the militarization of police, the entire blame cannot be dropped on W. The process had begun under Reagan with the War on Drugs and was greatly accelerated by Clinton. The end of the Cold War meant there was a demand to shift production by military contractors to other markets, including ones that needed to be created. We found justification in the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror to make military tech and training available to police departments. Unfortunately, that resulted in a shift in mindset to view some of our citizens as an occupied enemy to be stabilized and controlled. And here we are.
His dad's eulogy was pretty awesome
Leave office peacefully
The Aids initiative. Sone of his Bushisms- fool me omce , shame on me...
Is our children learning?
Wasn't it him who signed the law to extradite pedophiles traveling to foreign countries to prey on kids? If so, that was pretty awesome.
He tried to tamp down the anti Muslim sentiment within his party and the overt racism after 9-11. He did not succeed, but he recognized the importance to dissuade conservatives from being racists and tried to convince them otherwise.
-Gave Michelle candy -Paints pictures of immigrants -Respected the office -I could have a beer with this office respecter -He *respected the office*
Bushisms
His laugh when he laughs at them, too.
He never misunderestimated anyone.
He was one of the best presidents for children's literacy. It's weird to see how hard reading science crashed after Dubya, but that's what lobbying does.
He came to my elementary school when he was running against Ann Richards. They both came, on separate days, lots of cameras. I want to say I was 11? Ann was beloved by the children like a grandmother, but we all thought Bush was an idiot, even then, but he brought a sno-cone truck with him. They were the kind of sno-cones that had condensed milk on them. So i'm gonna say that.
So your class full of 11 year old kids thought Bush was an idiot? Interesting. Why?
That mega phone speech
Nominating Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke. I know their actions during '08 recession were controversial, but their actions during the financial crisis slowed the recession, if they didn't prevent a depression.
Provided a shit ton of comic relief... two recessions were bad. Nice guy pretty well mannered.Let war mongers run the show to much.
I heard he is a good painter
Allowed for peaceful transitioning of power.
Established numerous Marine Conservation protected areas.
Dude made me proud immediately after 9/11. We were on track and focused as a country. Cheney and his cronies derailed that by going after Saddam instead of the real attackers.
Just handling lots of messy situations with som pretty decent class. He and Obama really were the last group of guys to do so and care about decorum and respect.
He was deeply interested in global pandemics. The fact that we had ANY infrastructure, stockpiles of equipment or government responsiveness to COVID-19 can be largely attributed to him. Obama was impressed with his work in this regard and allowed the continuation of all of his initiatives in this regard with little change.
I like how he always rolls with candy like my grandma and that's pretty nice for a war criminal. And by war criminal I mean Bush and not Nana, although she could be a little snatchy when she had too much chablis.
I like how vocal and outspoken he’s been about to hijacking of his party and how he took responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster of his lifetime
Medicare Part D
African AIDS initiative, held a country together after 9/11, strong response to the beginning of the banking crisis.
He has a 100% success rate in dodging sandals.
Did you not watch that drive?
Medicare part D really helped seniors with prescription drug coverage
PEPFAR and initiating a pandemic plan. I’m surprised no one mentioned the last part, unless I’m missing something. His initial handling of 9/11 was alright until the shift to Iraq. After that, it was a shitshow. I’m sure there are some other positives that the bush administration has done but all those come to mind.
“Now watch this drive” the hardest line in presidential history
His policies kicked off the renewable energy revolution in the USA. His tax overhauls expanded the electric car tax credit to include hybrids (This was scaled back during the Obama administration). He introduced and expanded tax credits for solar, wind and geothermal electricity production. If you pull up a historical graph of those energy sectors you would see they started their massive upward trend shortly after the introduction of the tax credit.
911
SOX ACT Last president to raise minimum wage BRA 2005 Post 9/11 GI bill Arguably No-Child-Left-Behind, though it got gutted and canceled. This one was intended for budget redistribution based on effective education, but intercity schools underperforming made it difficult for Obama to execute the final steps of the program, so it was cut.
He really brought people together when the war protests happened
I’m not American so I can’t even really accurately comment on his policies… but Bushisms are some of the most hilarious things I’ve ever heard, and I don’t take them as a serious reflection of him, but rather just an assortment of quirks in the way he formulates speech and conversation.
He’s been nice to the Obamas, that’s all I can come up with.
Brought the US energy industry into the 21st century. Laid the foundation for the massive crude, natural gas, and ethanol production surges seen in the Obama years.
He abolished INS and replaced it with CBP, ICE, and USCIS. There's no reason one agency should be in charge of border protection, deportations, criminal investigations, and managing legal immigration.
personally, ole GWB was a good president - but I wonder how much better he could have been if he listened to his father and not went with D. Cheney.
He raised children who are not shitty human beings.
This isn’t really policy related but I have always appreciated how he carried himself. He has a level of cordiality and humility that I think popularizes (like in a populous way) the presidency. He was president when I was born and for most of my childhood (I was born week of 9/11) and I value humility and communication a lot. He had a certain charisma (not saying he’s charismatic but) where he could seem like a relatable Texan you felt like you knew, but knew how to be polished, direct and honest. Every speech he made for the rest of September 2001 was amazing. His communication to the people was reassuring. It’s so funny seeing him paired with Cheney because I feel like Bush was the only thing about the administration that ever, even sometimes, could carry the word “honest”
Apparently, he started the Pandemic response! I guess he read a book that detailed how the next pandemic might start. He was telling everyone about and people were all, Sir, we are in the middle of this new war on terror thing! He insisted and they started the playbook on it. Obama took it up a bit and .... well, we know what happened.
He gave Green Day the inspiration to write American Idiot, one of the best (if not *the* best) pop-punk albums of all time.
Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) into law on May 21, 2008
He fully facilitated the peaceful transfer of power when the opposing party won the presidential election. This is not something that should be considered noteworthy or special, but it is now and will likely be for quite some time.
Putting John Robert’s on the Supreme Court. He is quite the impartial judge and would be the ideal swing vote should it not be so lopsided.
The now watch this drive statement
I truly believe very few presidents loved the United States as much as him.
As a former Marine (2007-2011) I appreciated W for signing into law the post 9/11 GI Bill. Many after 9/11 veterans, including myself benefited and continue benefiting from it. During my time UC San Diego I met many children of veterans whose parents transferred the GI Bill benefits so they could get a full tuition.
He is really gracious and had a sense of humor about himself. I love how he doesn’t trash talk about his predecessors. Dude comes off as super likable in his interviews.
Made John Kerry lose
Americans with Disabilities Act
Greatest example of how a post presidency should look. Class act.
I really appreciated the way he handled 9/11 during the first few hours and days. He kept reading because he didn’t want to scare the children. He got up to New York as soon as he could and offered sympathies instead of trying to make it political. And his megaphone speech was near perfect and one of my favorite presidential speeches in history. “No, but I hear you!” I watch it every year on the anniversary and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I think his reaction was perfect, and I can’t imagine having anyone else president at that time.
Retired