The legacy of Bush lies in the dust of Iraq and the mud of New Orleans

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof (via Rook's Rant) utterly blows the legacy of Bush into atoms:

"Every presidency begins with fresh hope and vision, and even the losing side must, however grudgingly, give the new president his due time of a clean start and a new direction. Even with the sour notes of the overture that were played in the Florida recount, the attempt was there to give Mr. Bush a fair chance to prove that he wasn't the dilettante he seemed to be; that perhaps, like John F. Kennedy forty years before, he would rise above the shallow image that had been painted of him as a lazy playboy with little more than a family name to recommend him and sharp-eyed aides to guide him and fend off the inevitable quagmires that come with the job. Six years ago some of us thought that we would be in for four years of a bland presidency that would play more like a sitcom with a bumbling father, smart-mouthed kids, whacky neighbors, and a long-suffering wife who indulged her hubby because, gosh, how bad can he screw things up?

We found out with terrible swiftness. The attacks in September 2001 were forewarned but unheeded, but we cut the president some slack because he showed that he could unite the country -- for a few moments at least. But it quickly turned from defending America and justifiable retaliation to a long-term plan of self-preservation and political advantage. The opportunities to unite this country and truly be a president for all the people -- not just the ones who voted for him -- were gone in less than three months. The worst terror attack on America since 1941 was turned into the foundation of a political campaign and, true to the form of anyone who seeks to rule rather than govern, made into a weapon against those who refused to go along with the game plan. History is full of rulers who exploited national tragedies or events for their own gain, propping themselves up with the image of the Savior on a white horse; the Only Man Who Can Save the World from nameless terror that previously lurked under the bed. Mr. Bush demanded sacrifice from those who can least afford it and gave shamelessly to those who didn't need it -- who in fact didn't have a place to put more stuff, and then he turned to the oldest yet most effective tactic in the book: point out a horror, real or imagined (Communism, queers, fluoridated water, brown people, black people, the Jews), blame them for all the problems, and demand that he be given all power to fight them off. With cunning, guile, or just plain sheer force of overblown rhetoric and the cooperation of those who are in it strictly for their own share of the glory and power, he gathered his powers, legal or otherwise, so that he could sit atop the colossus unchecked, and he chortled with the childish glee that comes with finding out that exploiting the good will and benefit of the doubt of the people is easy. Suckers!"