NationStates Jolt Archive

Now for a moment, just pretend that it isn't an election about Kerry Vs Bush. Look at it like a job evaluation. Has Bush done enough to justify him keeping his job?

I am actually curious to as what supporters will say. It seems to me that the country's entry points aren't significantly safer or atleast as safe as they should be as he as underfunded the security measures. The world has a lower opion of the US now than before his inauguration. His tax cuts to the top 1 percent are in my opinion inexcusable. He has cut womens programs. He has a a horrible evironmental record. Has created or I'll even be nice and maybe suggest exacerbated the eficit cosiderably. He has all but ignored or even one may say capitulated against his "No Child Left Behind" policy. There is not enough space to go into the Iraq handling or his minions manipulating of the Florida ballot system(on this post anyway:)).

Also important,(yet ignored by the pubic, because it did recieve media coverage) I would think to Americans of all stripes......

How he has fought the 911 commission every step of the way. Not even testifying under oath and in company of Cheney. This seems very clandestine to me on how the reacted to the commission. Seems like like an insult to everyone's intelligence that they are somehow above scrutiny or accountability that they should dictate terms to an independant investigation into the greatest tragedy in decades.

I am understanding of mistakes as long as he or others in his administration take the responsibility for them. Yet no one steps down(withe the exception of Tenet) or is fired. He just seems to try to wait it out and miraculously people forget. How? But,I digress. The sad thing is I know I must be leaving things out.

Why should he keep his job based ON HIS OWN MERITS? No Kerry bashing please. Again I am curious as to what supporters will list as accomplishments and how they will champion for his cause. What has he done that has been good?

Freedom Fries

Hehe. Yeah but he didn't even coin the term.

:rolleyes:

The world has a lower opion of the US now than before his inauguration.
Really, I along with most other people don't really care that much about this. Sure, its nice to have, but we're not going to allow Saddam to stay in power simply so people can view the US in a better light.

His tax cuts to the top 1 percent are in my opinion inexcusable.
See, to some of us, the richest 1% are people too. I realize its hard for some people to fathom the fact that some of us don't believe in screwing over the rich in order to finance inefficient programs or just for the sake of redistributing wealth, but to myself and to many others, tax cuts to the top 1%, 5%, quintile, whatever, are not bad.

He has a a horrible evironmental record.
Really? Sure, he didn't sign Kyoto. The Senate would have rejected it anyway, it was 0-95 in the senate, that means everyone who bothered to vote, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, voted against it. US companies are doing alright, though. I think there was a report out that we were, in fact, doing more to curb emissions than many of the Kyoto signatories were.

He has all but ignored or even one may say capitulated against his "No Child Left Behind" policy.
He's increased spending for education more than any other President, I think. My paper (Philadelphia Inquirer) recently did a front-page report and it showed that, across PA, schools are far more adequate now than they were before, even in the inner-city. I don't know if that trend holds up across the USA, but if it does, his education policy has been quite a success.

There is not enough space to go into the Iraq handling or his minions manipulating of the Florida ballot system
Both of which have more than one view to be looked at from, and are not necessarily bad things.

:rolleyes:
Really, I along with most other people don't really care that much about this. Sure, its nice to have, but we're not going to allow Saddam to stay in power simply so people can view the US in a better light.


Its political currency. His world be damned approach to Iraq has alienated alot of countries. If he open tendering to contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq instead of just giving them to Halliburton.


See, to some of us, the richest 1% are people too. I realize its hard for some people to fathom the fact that some of us don't believe in screwing over the rich in order to finance inefficient programs or just for the sake of redistributing wealth, but to myself and to many others, tax cuts to the top 1%, 5%, quintile, whatever, are not bad.


Middle class are more numerous I would hope that you would realize that they and the lower class need the money more than the wealthy. Plus as an added bonus the middle class are the consumers that drive the economy



Really? Sure, he didn't sign Kyoto. The Senate would have rejected it anyway, it was 0-95 in the senate, that means everyone who bothered to vote, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, voted against it. US companies are doing alright, though. I think there was a report out that we were, in fact, doing more to curb emissions than many of the Kyoto signatories were.


Didn't even mention Kyoto directly. But he could have vetoed it. Its not like being unpopular has bothered him before.


He's increased spending for education more than any other President, I think. My paper (Philadelphia Inquirer) recently did a front-page report and it showed that, across PA, schools are far more adequate now than they were before, even in the inner-city. I don't know if that trend holds up across the USA, but if it does, his education policy has been quite a success.


I am genunely interested in those numbers.


Both of which have more than one view to be looked at from, and are not necessarily bad things.


Eliminating Voters is a good thing? Being Apointed by the supreme court is a good thing? Iraq is a mess but I'll agree its complex.

Its political currency. His world be damned approach to Iraq has alienated alot of countries. If he open tendering to contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq instead of just giving them to Halliburton.
Haliburton was one of a select few companies that have the resources and ability to do the massive job that was assigned to them for Iraq. The other companies are foreign, I think, and given the resistance from France and Germany (Where I believe the next best replacements would be), we weren't going to give them the contracts.

Middle class are more numerous I would hope that you would realize that they and the lower class need the money more than the wealthy. Plus as an added bonus the middle class are the consumers that drive the economy

And Bush cut taxes for them, too. In fact, the poorest tax payers under Clinton got the biggest tax cut of them all (part of the lowest bracket was flat out eliminated). Of course the lower class needs money more than the upper class. The job of the government isn't to redistribute wealth en masse to create equality, though. The progressive tax system already takes a bigger slice out of your money as you get richer.

Didn't even mention Kyoto directly. But he could have vetoed it. Its not like being unpopular has bothered him before.
You can't veto a decision to vote something down. He could veto it if the Senate passed a bill and put it on the desk of the President, but even *if* he could veto voting something down, the Senate could easily override the veto with the massive backing the one side had.


Eliminating Voters is a good thing? Being Apointed by the supreme court is a good thing? Iraq is a mess but I'll agree its complex.
The state of Florida, along some other states, thinks that eliminating felons is a good thing. He wasn't appointed by the Supreme Court, either. He was elected via the Electoral College. The Supreme Court simply said that Gore's plan to recount only heavily Democratic districts were wrong (7 justices out of 9 agreed) and that there was no time to carry out further recounts (5-4 final decision).

On Education :

http://www.georgewbush.com/Education/Brief.aspx
Historic Levels of Funding - President Bush's overall Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget represents a 49% increase for elementary and secondary education since FY 2001. It includes an additional:

$1 billion in Title I funding for disadvantaged students, for a total that represents a 52% increase since FY 2001.
$139 million for reading programs totaling four times the amount spent in FY 2001.
$1 billion for special education programs, for a 75% increase since FY 2001.
Back to 2001:
http://www.nsba.org/site/doc_sbn.asp?TRACKID=&DID=7911&CID=316

A piece of commentary that has stats :
http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/001273.html

From the DoE, I think :
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html

Ye trying to prove something, lad?

Unless you have 100% graduation, no money for you. Its like that Soup Nazi guy on Seinfeld.

I can go on with problems with No Child Left Nehind.

Bush raised level of arsenic in water, trust me this is not environment freindly.
He passed the Clean Air act allowing more pollution in air, irony how we loath you. Healthy Forest act? cuts down healthy and hoefully unhealthy trees, allowing more logging(making them like him maybe) and so it might cut down on fires.
Problem, that is like saying if I destroy you house no one can rob it. Its true but it misses the point entirely.

Unless you have 100% graduation, no money for you. Its like that Soup Nazi guy on Seinfeld.

I can go on with problems with No Child Left Nehind.

NCLB works by increasing standards over time, not suddenly imposing new ones. The very high ones don't come until the end of this decade, not right now...

Bush raised level of arsenic in water, trust me this is not environment freindly.
He passed the Clean Air act allowing more pollution in air, irony how we loath you. Healthy Forest act? cuts down healthy and hoefully unhealthy trees, allowing more logging(making them like him maybe) and so it might cut down on fires.
Problem, that is like saying if I destroy you house no one can rob it. Its true but it misses the point entirely.
I agree his environmental record is mixed. Its far from all bad, though.

I'd give him a C-. He hasn't been the worst president ever, not by far, but he hasn't exactly excelled in his job. If it weren't for his gung-ho attitude about dismantling Iraq, I probably would have given him a B-. Like it or not, world opinion does matter.

For comparrison, I'd give Clinton a B, Bush Sr. a C, and Reagan a B+.

Actually with Florida they eliminated alot legit voters by using parameters, like similar names as criminals, birthdays etc. They had alot of false positives. In the neighborhood of 80-90 percent. Of poorer demographics(where crime is higher so more criminals to share birthdays with), often black who were traditionally democratic voters. Just one one the many things that were done there. I mean the head of his campaign in florida was the person who was also in overseeing the balllot purge and she knew of the high margin for error

Actually with Florida they eliminated alot legit voters by using parameters, like similar names as criminals, birthdays etc. They had alot of false positives. In the neighborhood of 80-90 percent. Of poorer demographics(where crime is higher so more criminals to share birthdays with), often black who were traditionally democratic voters. Just one one the many things that were done there. I mean the head of his campaign in florida was the person who was also in overseeing the balllot purge and she knew of the high margin for error
Actually, thats never been proven. There was a lawsuit that happened but nothing official came out of it because a settlement was reached before a definitive answer could come out.

Well fine even though his finger prints are all over it I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't the one one responsible for that debacle that did happen as there were people that were purged from the voters list erroneously. But that is off topic anyway, whats he done that has had an overall good impact on America.

It funny how we never hear anything on this board about the war in Afganistan and how it was a GOOD thing to go in there.

Good point. Afganistan was a good thing. It was a little bit of a no brainer though. He should seen it through as well.

Now for a moment, just pretend that it isn't an election about Kerry Vs Bush. Look at it like a job evaluation. Has Bush done enough to justify him keeping his job?
Yes!

I am actually curious to as what supporters will say. It seems to me that the country's entry points aren't significantly safer or atleast as safe as they should be as he as underfunded the security measures. The world has a lower opion of the US now than before his inauguration. His tax cuts to the top 1 percent are in my opinion inexcusable. He has cut womens programs. He has a a horrible evironmental record. Has created or I'll even be nice and maybe suggest exacerbated the eficit cosiderably. He has all but ignored or even one may say capitulated against his "No Child Left Behind" policy. There is not enough space to go into the Iraq handling or his minions manipulating of the Florida ballot system(on this post anyway:)).
1. The so called "entry points" are safer than they were before 9/11. The U.S. is a huge country and very difficult to control all illegal immigration and import/exports. I would be for building some "great walls" on our borders; but the people who would object are people like yourself. Admit that all you are is a anti-American Bush hater.
2. The world has a "lower opinion" of the U.S. because of one thing. ENVY. They were envious before; but now they envy that the US has the power to do whatever it wants militarily. Something that France envies and Russia misses.
3. The tax cuts to the 1% are to those making over $200,000/year. There are only a handful of people who have these salaries. They are either LIBERAL actors, LIBERAL athletes, corporate executives, business owners, Doctors, Lawyers, and maybe some other obscure professions. Now, since liberals are in support of taxing the hell out of the "rich", they should immediately handover their tax break AND retroactively pay/donate their excessive income (that should have been taxed under their philosophy) to the Government and the poor. As for corporate executives; most of their money comes from stock options...they need these stocks to keep their position within the corporation. As for business owners...these people may make over $200,000/year in gross sales/revenue; but their income is much smaller...however, they pay taxes as if they were making $200,000 in net income. I am a small business owner and I should know. I could go on and on, but the point I'm trying to make is that the so called "wealthiest 1%" aren't that wealthy and without them, the economy could not function and it would not be where it is today.
4. What women's programs have been cut?
5. What has he done to "hurt" the environment? I know nothing better or worse than what Clinton did.
6. Campagin promises like "No Child Left behind" and others have been funded as best possible. But socialists (liberals) like yourself keep conveniently forgetting 9/11. This terrorist attack cost not only over 3,000 INNOCENT lives but it cost billions, if not, trillions of dollars. Was the attack supposed to go un-answered? Of course not...UBL went unanswered for almost a decade under Clinton (WTC 1, Africa, Cole). The war in Afghanistan cost billions! Furthermore, the US will do everything in it's power to keep another 9/11 from happening (it hasn't happened yet); this is where Iraq comes in. So what are your priorities? Safety and a deficit, or no deficit and completely fulfilled secondary campaign promises. What did you think about the record deficits to end the Cold War under Reagan comrade?
7. As for the Florida election. Please! I live and vote in Florida. If people can't work a ballot, they shouldn't be allowed to vote. But really...were you for endless recounts in just a few counties until your man Gore won? What about not counting the absentee ballots of those military servicemen abroad? It was all happening. I personally would have been for a STATEWIDE ballot recount...but the Democrats only wanted a few counties re-counted. Talk about unfair and disinfranchisement of the voters.

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON TO KEEP BUSH...AND THE REAL CONTEST IN THE ELECTION IS CAPITALISM vs. SOCIALISM.

If you are an envious, week, socialist, or ignorant vote Kerry.
If you are a capitalist pig vote Bush.

I'm a capitalist pig and not ashamed of it. I am proud that I work hard, and have NEVER taken advantage of anyone to be one of those "rich" people.