George W. Bush doesn't deserve the media's efforts at rehabilitation

[TomSea]

George W. Bush doesn't deserve the media's efforts at rehabilitation
James Bovard, opinion contributor

“Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results,” former President George W. Bush declared in a presumably well-paid speech last week in the United Arab Emirates, a notorious Arab dictatorship. Bush is being exalted as if he is the second coming of George Washington thanks to his implied slams against the Trump administration. But Bush’s actions during his eight year reign did far more to ravage democracy at home and abroad than most people realize.

Thanks to gushing media coverage, Bush is enjoying one of the greatest comebacks in modern American history. In the summer of 2008, only 22 percent of Americans approved of Bush and 41 percent said he was the "worst president ever." Last month, a poll showed that 61 percent of Americans now approve of Bush, and his support among Democrats quintupled, from 11 percent in early 2009 to 54 percent now. If Americans want to understand current political challenges, they need to recall Bush’s forgotten debacles.

Read more at: http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/374081-george-w-bush-doesnt-deserve-the-medias-efforts-at-rehabilitation

Author's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bovard

Do not let the article offend one for those who are big fans of Bush, he does talk about some important issues, just if anyone is interested.

[Cyber Liberty]

The press hates Bush as much as they ever did.  He's been mouthing the right things for them lately, and it makes for yet another bludgeon with which to bet the current occupant of the White House.

[EasyAce]

The press hates Bush as much as they ever did.

@Cyber Liberty
His presidency involved floutings of the Constitution such as his suspension of habeas corpus (2001), his attorney general Alberto Gonzales
claiming a "commander in chief override power" regarding the Bill of Rights (Mr. Bovard refers to it in the article the OP uses), his signing
of the McCain-Feingold Act despite his assertion a year earlier that it was flagrantly unconstitutional, and what Gene Healy (in The
Cult of the Presidency) described as "Situational Constitutionalism," the idea that there should be a "'Neoconstitution' in which trust would
take the place of checks and balances. Under the Neoconstitution, the president has the power to ignore the law, spy on citizens, lock them
up without due process, put troops in the streets, and keep Americans from finding out what happened if they're harmed along the way."

The vision that animates [the Neoconstitution] is as alien to the Framers' Constitution as was the Progressives' dream of a president unbound
by law.

Yet, some say that removing restraints on the executive is necessary to meet the threats we face . . . In the phrase that's become so common since
9/11, "the Constitution is not a suicide pact."

That phrase has become the "tell it to the hand" of constitutional debate, a means to bring discussion to a close before it has properly begun. Those
who deploy the "suicide pact" sound bite rarely bother to provide evidence that protecting whichever constitutional liberty is currently in the cross
hairs amounts to national "suicide"---or at least presents unacceptable risks.

---Gene Healy, from The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power.

And it also involved---enabled by a Republican Congress who seemed to have checked their brains at the door---the metastasis of big government
enough to bring the former Republican Revolution down and enable the ascension of His Excellency Al-Hashish Field Marshmallow Dr. Barack Obama
Dada, COD, RIP, LSMFT, Would-Have-Been Life President of the Republic Formerly Known as the United States.

You'd think the press would just love the president and Congress who allowed His Excellency to happen, no?

[Cyber Liberty]

@Cyber Liberty
His presidency involved floutings of the Constitution such as his suspension of habeas corpus (2001), his attorney general Alberto Gonzales
claiming a "commander in chief override power" regarding the Bill of Rights (Mr. Bovard refers to it in the article the OP uses), his signing
of the McCain-Feingold Act despite his assertion a year earlier that it was flagrantly unconstitutional, and what Gene Healy (in The
Cult of the Presidency) described as "Situational Constitutionalism," the idea that there should be a "'Neoconstitution' in which trust would
take the place of checks and balances. Under the Neoconstitution, the president has the power to ignore the law, spy on citizens, lock them
up without due process, put troops in the streets, and keep Americans from finding out what happened if they're harmed along the way."

And it also involved---enabled by a Republican Congress who seemed to have checked their brains at the door---the metastasis of big government
enough to bring the former Republican Revolution down and enable the ascension of His Excellency Al-Hashish Field Marshmallow Dr. Barack Obama
Dada, COD, RIP, LSMFT, Would-Have-Been Life President of the Republic Formerly Known as the United States.

You'd think the press would just love the president and Congress who allowed His Excellency to happen, no?

The leftist press doesn't care about any of that.  They were just unable to get over the fact he defeated Al Gore and John Kerry, despite their best efforts.  Trump could enact the left's fondest dreams and they will still hate him for beating Hillz.

[skeeter]

The leftist press doesn't care about any of that.  They were just unable to get over the fact he defeated Al Gore and John Kerry, despite their best efforts.  Trump could enact the left's fondest dreams and they will still hate him for beating Hillz.

Whats discouraging is the media still has such control over popular opinion.

[EasyAce]

The leftist press doesn't care about any of that.  They were just unable to get over the fact he defeated Al Gore and John Kerry, despite their best efforts.  Trump could enact the left's fondest dreams and they will still hate him for beating Hillz.

Remember, too---Richard Nixon enacted or signed onto a lot of programs you'd think the left would have loved, but they couldn't forgive him even then
for Alger Hiss.

[Cyber Liberty]

Remember, too---Richard Nixon enacted or signed onto a lot of programs you'd think the left would have loved, but they couldn't forgive him even then
for Alger Hiss.

True dat.  To me, the drubbing he gave McGovern was icing on that cake.  I was 14 at the time.

[Suppressed]

What I find interesting is how young people became such fans of W, simply because he paints, jokes, etc. (I.e., even before Trump criticism). People of that same age bracket despised him 10 years prior.

[dfwgator]

What I find interesting is how young people became such fans of W, simply because he paints, jokes, etc. (I.e., even before Trump criticism). People of that same age bracket despised him 10 years prior.

Liberals love Rs when they're no longer a threat.....When they are a threat, they become Nazis.   

I remember right after Dole lost to Clinton in 96, suddenly the liberals LOVED Bob Dole.

[DB]

Liberals love Rs when they're no longer a threat.....When they are a threat, they become Nazis.   

I remember right after Dole lost to Clinton in 96, suddenly the liberals LOVED Bob Dole.

Liberals love Rs when they are bashing Rs...