In one way, President Obama has had it hard: He inherited a mess.
In another, he has had it easy: His predecessor blew it big time.
As James Bovard put it in his 2004 book, The Bush Betrayal, “George W. Bush came to the presidency promising prosperity, peace, and humility. Instead, Bush … spawned record federal budget deficits, launched an unnecessary war, and made America the most hated nation in the world.”
The election of Obama turned foreign opinion around, but his actual policies have proved no advance over his predecessor’s.
Bush started the bailouts; Obama bailed out more.
Bush pushed through an under-funded entitlement, Medicare Part D. Obama leveraged his political capital to take an even bigger step towards socialized medicine.
Bush understandably undertook the Afghanistan venture — but the Iraq conquest and reconstruction betrayed his promise to forswear “nation-building.” Then Obama lingered in Iraq, upped the forces in Afghanistan — long after the rationale became murky — and also attacked a number of other countries, including Libya. So much for the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
But when it comes to America’s misguided War on Drugs, Obama has been especially disappointing. No-one really expected much of Bush. But Obama? He said he’d reverse policy at least vis-à-vis the states that voted in medical marijuana. Yet federal agents continue targeting medical marijuana growers.
We aren’t being served well by the presidents we spend so much time thinking about.
Could it be because they don’t really think much about us?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
13 replies on “The Obama Betrayals”
Yay, thank you for fixing the RSS feeds to not chop of episodes!
i do not know why everyone has something bad to say about Bush when he was President I never had my pay check messed with and he had alot of horrible events happen under his watch, twin towers, new orleans, etc.etc., give him a break the bad one here is you know who
Really? This edition of “CommonSense” is pure tripe!
Most of your articles are fairly decent; I don’t agree with all of your points (probably because I am not a Libertarian), but overall, most are largely on target.
Bush43 didn’t do “everything” right, but he didn’t blow everything “big time”. And which Party controlled the two chambers of Congress during his administration?! Iraq was necessary, because they would not have stopped with Kuwait, and the world needed Hussein to be out of power. Afghanistan was necessary because all reliable intel put binLaden in that place. I’ll concede your point on Libya. The “War on Drugs” was, at best, poorly handled from the date of its inception. Medical marijuana? Give me a break; that’s just an excuse to justify a gateway drug. (Remember those “Occupy” people?)
Sorry, but this column was nearly close to your usual caliber.
Error: That last line was supposed to be: “this column was not nearly close you your usual caliber”. Please excuse me for cluttering the bandwidth.
.… (United States of America’s then president George Walker) Bush .… spawned record federal budget deficits, launched an unnecessary war and made America the most hated nation in the world .…
Wrong on three counts. Mr Bush never controlled expenditure — that’s the role of The Reps. “Launched an unnecessary war” is a tired old Fascist (formerly “mainstream”) Press canard — and any who haven’t known about the world’s long-standing envy-based seething hatred of America and of all things American hasn’t, these past hundred-or-so years, been very widely traveled and/or been paying attention.
It looks like a rerun of Hoover and FDR.
Bush added $2 trillion to the federal debt over 6 years with a Repub Congress, then $2 trillion in 2 years with a Dem Congress.
Then Pesbo added 5 trillion in $3 years.
Worst that could be said about Bush is that he was Obama-lite.
While decrying Bush’s activities, Presbo has been doing the same thing at an accelerated rate.
We aren’t being served by the presidents because they are morphing into the tyrants that the founders feared and tried to protect us from with the
Constitution.
Newt said that it was a mistake to allow only the Supremes to assume to interpret wha the Consitution says. Presbo has already cavalierly taken it on with Holder to unilaterally decide what is Constitutional and what laws to not enforce. Time for the states to reassert their own duties and obligations to deteremine Constitutioanlity as well.
You perpetuate the myth that Obama inherited a mess. He inherited nothing. Obama asked, and worked hard, to become president, knowing that we were in an economic mess, believing that he had the answers to solving our problems. There is no excuse – none– for his failure to solve our depression, his failure in removing us from warfare in the Middle East and his continuation of the war on drugs, despite the fact that he, himself, is an unindicted drug user.
The man is a failure, something that I believe he is beginning to recognize himself.
Bush was aces compared to this criminal…
Good column, Paul — gee, you really have some fascist idiot warmongering dickheads posting here, don’t you? Pity.
You are right on on this one. I have been thinking these exact thoughts.
These United States will someday come to an end. The end will likely be a result of our own citizens who believe their way is the only way. America — love it or leave it — comes to mind, which means agree with me or move to another country.
This Republic, which we like to call a Democracy, founded on the principle of freedom, is fractured by differing ideologies that often restricts the freedom of others.
The marijuana issue is extremely sad. I try, but cannot find a way, to understand why people would deny other people access to medical marijuana. The people who oppose medical marijuana just cannot put themselves into someone else’s shoes.
The worse thing about marijuana is that it is illegal. I have read tons of pros and cons on this subject and that is my conclusion.
The point that freedom means to exercise a difference of opinion is completely lost.
That is why the United States will fail.
You people who disagree with this article’s truth are a bunch of idiot sheep — this is why America is in the shape it’s in today, because most of you don’t understand the facts, can’t get past your own ego, and have NOT walked in any shoes, relative to the points he has made. What on earth does the “occupy movement” have to do with the marijuana issue? See what I mean about the masses not understanding what’s going on in this REAL world? Good article!
I agree with D Smith — we’ve got a bunch of rabid RINOs who think they are conservatives supporting the statist Bush. Bush campaigned on “compassionate conservatism” which is an oxymoron IMHO. Forcefully taking money from taxpayers to give to seniors for the prescriptions is immoral (if you did it you’d go to jail — that government does it doesn’t make it moral).
Bush and congress could simply have issues Letters of Marque and Reprisal (it’s in the constitution) to deal with Al Quaeda, but instead decided to overthrow the Taliban, reward the military industrial complex, help deplete the treasury, and send thousands of soldiers to their graves. Bush was a statist, and Obama is as well. Obama is also a big liar while I can’t say that of Bush. Bush was fooled by the pro war individuals in the CIA, state department and defense department, and that’s Bush’s fault.