I wish I could thank George personally for all he did to protect us. He is a good, decent man as you pointed out. We hope history will treat him a lot better than the people who ran him down and hated him.

There are some critical things to remember about George W. Bush. He did indeed run his oil companies into the ground, and he owed literally everything (even his personal salvation) to Ronald Reagan selecting his dad to be his running mate in 1980. Bush then proceeded as president to run the Reagan Movement, the Republican Party, and ultimately the nation into the ground just like he did his oil businesses.

Conservatives like Ann Coulter, however, have said that Bush should possibly even be considered a great president because there haven’t been any more terrorist attacks upon the nation since 9-11. What she and other conservatives who are advocating this are missing, however, is that the same spiritual forces that got Bush elected to begin with and then re-elected, have protected the United States far more than Bush’s policies. Unfortunately, Bush then turned out to be such a poor president that those same spiritual forces were overwhelmed in the 2008 elections.

What many conservatives have apparently already forgotten or never noted at the outset, was that Barack Obama virtually gained no traction from his European trip as a candidate or from the Democratic Convention, and that John McCain was slightly ahead in the polls in mid- to- late September. Obama only gained traction when Bush re-emerged in the national picture with talk of the bailouts and many crisis. What Bush did to McCain and the Republican Party in mid-to-late September was unprecedented for a president during an election year as he literally handed the election to Obama. Why couldn’t Bush have waited until at least after the elections about the bailouts or better yet, just let things work themselves out on their own such as Ronald Reagan did following the Stock Market problems in 1987? We know of course now that 10,000 George W. Bushes as president is not worth one Ronald Reagan as president. Using a sports comparison, Bush’s choke in mid-to-late September was like Bill Buckner’s error in the 1986 World Series that greatly helped the New York Mets win the World Series except that Bush’s choke magnified Buckner’s error a thousand times since the stakes were so high during the 2008 elections.

Clay

Only time will tell how grateful we should be to President Bush and his administration for not being hit since 9-11. I also supported his position on Embryonic Stem Cell Research and his slant towards Pro Life, issues that will most likely be dismissed by the incoming administration.

I do agree with the crux of your article. Mr. Bush, unfortunately, was a ‘big government’ president with his outlandish spending, huge debt and the enlarging of the federal government. Though I feel we were justified going into Iraq, the follow-up and processing of the conflict there was an abysmal failure, until the surge. But the surge, like many other good and productive things going on in Iraq, was covered up by the Media circus.

The ‘pebble in my shoe,’ as to President Bush was his stiffnecked stance on Immigration. His obdurate position on Border Agents Ramos and Campeon as he refuses to talk about pardons and he rues the fact that his Amnesty plan never got past the resistance of we the people. The whole irony there is that the Obama administration will probably be able to steamroll amnesty through in the upcoming term, to our nation’s severe detriment. This is all a travesty as the Clinton and Bush presidencies have put us in a precarious state of being as to the survival of our sovereignty and our identity.

My sense, however, is that most of the normalcy that we took for granted at the Bush White House will be sorely missed.

Greg Schneider
Tucson, AZ

I agree with your comments about Bush. However, if voters had carefully listened to his comments during the primary, they would have known that.

Frankly, I was surprised that he put the brakes on the Kyoto treaty and he did make some great Supreme Court picks. Reagan gave us Sandra Day O’Connor, remember?

Bottom line: He did do some good and the number one job of a president is keeping the country safe.

I spent almost 10 years with WTVJ-TV and have many friends there. I had a long segment on WTVJ’s 50th Anniversary special with Tony Segretto and the man we consider to be our father in broadcasting, Bernie Rosen. In fact, my husband and I will be going back for a reunion in March.

I have always been conservative and the comments you heard had nothing to do with my leaving. I left because my husband moved his business to southern California.

Concerning the current article, President Bush has been one of my greater Republican disappointments, even greater than President Nixon. I agree he kept us safe and I thank him for that. However, he is no conservative.

Larry Dorazio
Pembroke Pines, FL

Yes, same man. In fact, I booked him for an interview when his book came out during that time and it was abruptly canceled. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed.

However, you must remember that the press in Arkansas had portrayed Charlene and her husband as “Bonnie and Clyde.”

Nevertheless, he finally allowed the parole board to release her.