The American government is in transition stage, and the Bush administration appears to have determined to see how much damage it can inflict before their January 20th departure. With economic and foreign policy misadventures in full bloom, one wonders about the scope of the mess Dubya is leaving to his successor.
The DOW had fallen below 8000 and no one is predicting that the bottom has been reached. It hasn't often happened (one other time–as Hoover brought on the Great Depression!) that a president has presided over a net loss in the DOW over the course of an eight-year administration, but Dubya looks like he can fall to the ignominy of that achievement. He took over a booming economy from Clinton and has managed to run it into the ground, turning a budgetary surplus into record deficits where he manages to beat his own record of futility year after year. In recent weeks we have seen the remarkable hypocrisy of the Republican administration presiding over a multi-trillion dollar (current estimate: not the 700 billion that often gets in the media, but 7.67 trillion) taxpayer payout to businesses while their campaign decries the Democrats as wealth redistributing socialists! It appears that the bastion of free enterprise will soon complete the nationalization of their financial system.
Meanwhile two incredibly ill-managed wars continue in the Middle East. As a result, the armed forces are stressed to a breaking point, and are markedly overburdened by the large-scale, long-term deployments. The recent agreement with Iraq allows US forces, for the first time, to be subject to the justice systems of foreign jurisdictions. That alone will be a remarkable burden for the new president. Finally, they have the culture-wars at home. These have been inflamed by the campaign rhetoric of the Republicans and are widely evident as racial tensions arise in many locations throughout the country. There have been over two hundred hate crime incidents since the election, including cross-burnings, hangings-in-effigy, and assassination betting pools. Meanwhile in view of his criminal administration, Dubya prepares pardons for his friends (even for himself!) by issuing blanket pardons for torture while maintaining they didn't torture! And he tries to embed his cronies into job assignments, while relaxing environmental protections as favours to his business buddies.
What a legacy for a disastrous presidency! There are reasons why his administration is considered among the worst in American history, and why he is challenging Nixon for the lowest end-of-term presidential-approval ratings on record.
The DOW had fallen below 8000 and no one is predicting that the bottom has been reached. It hasn't often happened (one other time–as Hoover brought on the Great Depression!) that a president has presided over a net loss in the DOW over the course of an eight-year administration, but Dubya looks like he can fall to the ignominy of that achievement. He took over a booming economy from Clinton and has managed to run it into the ground, turning a budgetary surplus into record deficits where he manages to beat his own record of futility year after year. In recent weeks we have seen the remarkable hypocrisy of the Republican administration presiding over a multi-trillion dollar (current estimate: not the 700 billion that often gets in the media, but 7.67 trillion) taxpayer payout to businesses while their campaign decries the Democrats as wealth redistributing socialists! It appears that the bastion of free enterprise will soon complete the nationalization of their financial system.
Meanwhile two incredibly ill-managed wars continue in the Middle East. As a result, the armed forces are stressed to a breaking point, and are markedly overburdened by the large-scale, long-term deployments. The recent agreement with Iraq allows US forces, for the first time, to be subject to the justice systems of foreign jurisdictions. That alone will be a remarkable burden for the new president. Finally, they have the culture-wars at home. These have been inflamed by the campaign rhetoric of the Republicans and are widely evident as racial tensions arise in many locations throughout the country. There have been over two hundred hate crime incidents since the election, including cross-burnings, hangings-in-effigy, and assassination betting pools. Meanwhile in view of his criminal administration, Dubya prepares pardons for his friends (even for himself!) by issuing blanket pardons for torture while maintaining they didn't torture! And he tries to embed his cronies into job assignments, while relaxing environmental protections as favours to his business buddies.
What a legacy for a disastrous presidency! There are reasons why his administration is considered among the worst in American history, and why he is challenging Nixon for the lowest end-of-term presidential-approval ratings on record.
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