From Financial Times:
A tragedy of errors
“In his farewell address last week, George W. Bush, America’s 43rd president, quoted America’s third, Thomas Jefferson, who said: “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” Put there to highlight Mr Bush’s very American sense of optimism, it could just as well serve as an unintentional epitaph on his presidency.”
(snip)
““Harry Truman and George Bush both left office with rock-bottom approval ratings,” says Strobe Talbott, head of the Brookings Institution, America’s most venerable think-tank. “That is as far as the parallel goes.”
He adds: “Truman set up Nato, strengthened the United Nations and helped lay the groundwork for the European Union – all legacies that persist to this day. Bush leaves no architecture, no institutions, no treaties and no respect for the international rule of law. His unintended legacy may be for America to turn back to those institutions and try to revitalise them after the aberrations of the last eight years.””
Want more reminders of how Bush was one of the worst presidents ever? Check out Keith Olbermann’s 8 years in 8 minutes.
And of course this “legacy” wouldn’t be possible without the five Supreme Court Justices that decided which man won the 2000 election instead of letting the entire country decide.
I’d like my democracy back. It’s about time.
Posted by Vixen as News at 10:03 PM CST