Geogre Bush chaotic eight year presidency.

At noon on January 20, George W. Bush hands successor Barack Obama two unfinished wars and a worldwide economic meltdown and leaves historians the job of judging his tumultuous eight-year presidency. George Walker Bush: the man the whole world has come to love to hate. Rarely has an American president been so unpopular. But how well do we really know this man who despite holding degrees from Harvard and Yale, managed to come off to the world as an average Texan? Stephen Hess, “Clearly he is not a bit of a simpleton but he certainly did not have and chose not to have the image of an intellectual and for political purposes I guess, chose to be much more of a good old boy.” It is an image, however, that would come to play against him. The war on terror that followed September 11th has largely defined both Bush’s terms in office, and his refusal to compromise on Iraq greatly discredited the US in the eyes of its allies. Thomas O. Melia, “The Bush Administration, I think, in its arrogance, and its confidence that they were always doing things the correct way, they again unnecessarily alienated our friends in the world who don’t expect us to be perfect; they expect us to be always trying to be better. His poor handling of Hurricane Katrina, suspect practices at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the infringement on certain American civil liberties made Bush unpopular even at home. Add to this the loss of 2 and a half million American jobs in 2008, the worst decline since the 2nd World War. Stephen Hess, “He left office with a very very serious economic situation and presumably that is how he will be remembered. Will the Bush administration remain, as Jimmy Carter put it, one of the worst in history? Or will Bush be known in the future as a great defender of freedom. History will be the judge.

Channel: Videocrux Video Length: 1m 39s Date Found: Sun, Nov 08 2009 3:32 AM Category: News Date Produced: Fri, Jan 16 2009 12:00 AM View Count: 0