The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance

[UGAalum94]

At this point, I'm kind of over it as I'm sure many of you are as well. Everyone who has posted is in agreement that Bush wasn't a particularly good President; we just vary in the degree for which we'd blame him on different issues.

I think it's really important not to let congress off the hook. I'll offer the reminder that Kyoto was signed in a largely symbolic gesture after the Senate refused (in advance) to ratify it during the during the Clinton Presidency. It was never even submitted by the Clinton Administration for ratification. We can say the Clinton Administration had a better attitude about global warming, but we can't really say they got much done, and in this case it was the Senate with the block.

Yes, I did pay attention when the expansion of the children's heath care program was shot down. And to tell you the truth, I support it being shot down. I'm all about health care for children but I think federal programs are the least effective way to guarantee that it's delivered well. Every nice thing that we think we need isn't best addressed by a federal program, IMO, so as heartless as it might seem, in this particular instance, I think Bush acted correctly. If states need to raise taxes to offer expanded children's health services, then they need to bite the bullet and do it themselves. Perhaps they could tax the CEOs.

Although I'm not particularly pro-CEO taxcut, I again tend to think that congress bears a lot of responsibility for the issues of taxing and spending.

If you all want, we can review this issues four years from now and see if we all feel the same way when there's been someone we generally like more than Bush in office for four years. Let's mark our calendars for 2012.