03/23/2017
Presidential Evaluation Exit Project: George W. Bush
The day that George W. Bush was sworn into presidency, January 20th of 2001, was also the day that America was sworn into eight years of affairs that were not handled properly. Much foreshadowing the future, he had gone into office being one of America’s only presidents who had not won the popular vote. Ultimately, this lead to the downfall of our nation as a whole. Although the evaluation of his presidency is considered to be a very controversial topic, a general overview will find that his domestic affairs were mainly well handled while foreign responses were very flawed and caused the nation to suffer. Many can agree that foreign policy in addition to military strategy were not exactly the president’s fortes. The calamity that was his presidency is primarily remembered through the saddening disaster of 9/11, the prolonged Iraq war, the destruction that came with Hurricane Katrina, and the lasting tragedies of the financial crisis. His reactions to the majority of these events were reckless and ignorant, being made quickly without thinking of the consequences. Not to mention that, in terms of economy, he took out more money from the government than all of his predecessors combined. At the end of the day, he left his legacy of unfinished sloppy business to Barack Obama. He didn’t achieve the goal he wanted to with the majority of his actions, although some of them did benefit the United States.
Continue introduction here
To begin with, one of the major mistakes that Bush had made early on in his first term was his reaction to the tragedies of 9/11. Specifically, it was the way he handled the situation in terms of foreign affairs. On one hand, he was given the opportunity to unite the nation after the destruction of the attacks, and considering the circumstances, he did a very good job. According to Miller Center’s George W. Bush: Impact and Legacy, “By most accounts, Bush did a masterful job of speaking for and to the American people. His crisis leadership, including insisting on returning to the White House the night of the attacks instead of holing up in a safe bunker elsewhere, gave the American people confidence that someone was in charge. He became the most popular President in the history of polling, reaching an astounding 90 percent approval rating in the wake of the attacks.” Evidently, Bush succeeded at even remotely calming down the United States’ citizens and giving them hope to continue on after what had happened that day. Although it is inevitable to say that most were nevertheless noticeably stressed and feeling uneasy, Bush’s reaction to the situation domestically definitely gave confidence to a lot of people about who was in charge. Granted, it may have not been right to have confidence in him considering the colossal misstep that he was going to be performing next. In addition, referring to the speech itself, Bush states “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve… Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it's prepared.” This shows how he implemented a sense of safety despite the events that had rattled the nation by ensuring the people that we will not stop fighting and that everything is under control. However, although he may have not thought so, it was one of the largest errors that he made while in office. After getting an approval from Congress to abolish those who committed the attacks of 9/11, George W. Bush ordered to invade the country of Afghanistan. Despite early victories, the war that came out of that was the longest war in American history and the president never even got to capture the one behind the attacks (Osama bin laden, later achieved by Barack Obama). Sooner than later, he also invaded Iraq. Through all of this disaster, the president pushed for more advanced national security programs to prevent anything of the nature from happening again. This included “better” interrogation techniques, such as torture, which ignores laws on detainee treatment and violates the national precedent. One way or another, Bush’s foreign response to the attacks of 9/11 was irrational, prolonged and definitely could have been stopped.
(Iraq war paragraph)
Furthermore, to continue into Bush’s second term, one of the first disasters that had occurred was the damage of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, many people considered Hurricane Katrina to be “the beginning of Bush’s end”. Throughout the entirety of the storm, he was distant and did not do as much as he should have to protect and unite the nation. As if this isn’t enough, he didn’t even try to give any speeches encouraging or giving the nation confidence. At the time of the disaster, he was on a vacation in Texas, relaxing and playing guitar, and not caring about what was happening around him. As stated in Vanity Fair magazine, “Bush had failed to feel the profound implications of the moment as his predecessors had. He didn’t scramble into action. He didn’t touch the nation’s heartstrings by using epic oratory to inform the disaster. What we got, instead, were guitar chords and terse speeches void of human pathos. No matter how the Bush library in Dallas tries to spin Bush’s Katina performance, we all know he deserved an F in crisis management.” This shows how, in all aspects of helping our country, he was aloof and distant and did not seem to care about anything that was happening at the time. In pictures taken of him flying over the wreckage that Katrina had caused, he was grim-faced and showed no sense of emotion, portraying how he was in his bubble and that it didn’t particularly bother him that thousands of people were suffering. In addition, according to US News, “He also made a huge mistake when he praised Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with a now famous attaboy- “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” – even though the agency was botching the disaster response, adding to the impression that Bush was out of touch.” Clearly, when it comes down to it, Bush did nothing to help the citizens that were in trouble and it was out of fear. At the end of the day, not only did it hurt them, but he hurt himself as well as put himself in a position that he could never recover from.
In 2008, the United States was struck with the tragedy that was the financial crisis. According to several sources, it was “the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of 1929”.