All that you have is your soul (Tracy Chapman).

Monday 20 July 2009

A Stunning List of Accomplishments

I was emailed this...

"If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have shrugged it off?

Had George W. Bush given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, in exchange for a thoughtful and historic gift from Mr. Brown, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had gifted the Queen of England with an iPod containing videos of his own speeches, would you not have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have been incensed?

Were George W. Bush to have visited Austria and made an inane reference to the non-existent "Austrian language", would you have brushed it off as an insignificant slip?

If George W. Bush had staffed his cabinet and circle of top advisers with persons who cannot or do not keep current on their income taxes, would you have been OK with that?

If George W. Bush had been so unbelievably ignorant of Mexican history and the Spanish language as to clumsily and nonsensically refer to Mexican Festive Day - Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) as "cinco de cuatro" (fifth of four) in the presence of the Mexican Ambassador, and continue to flub it when trying to recover from the gaffe, would you have merely winced in embarrassment and shrugged it off?

Had George W. Bush misspelled the word "advice", would you have hammered him incessantly as was Dan Quale for spelling "potato" "potatoe", and cite this as proof he's a dunce?

Had George W. Bush burned 9,000 gallons of air polluting jet fuel to go on a Midwestern photo op and plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have said he's a hypocrite?

If the Bush administration had okayed Air Force One with fighter escort flying low and unannounced over millions of people in downtown Manhattan while stirring widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?

Had George W. Bush been the first President to need a teleprompter to get through a press conference, would you have seen this as proof of how inept he is? And would you also suspect his words were actually those of someone behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief to flood victims in the Midwest where more people were killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you have fashioned it into an ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush, in an unprecedented government intrusion into the private sector, and completely without the constitutional authority to do so, dared "fire" the CEO of a corporation, would you have acquiesced?

Had George W. Bush in his first year proposed to double a national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have gone along?

And if George W. Bush then proposed to double the debt again in a few years, would you have questioned the wisdom of such a course of action?

If George W. Bush had degraded by 90% your own retirement plan's holdings in GM stock, and at the same time given the UAW a majority stake in GM, effectively giving ownership over to the union, would you have accepted that?

If George W. Bush, after telling Americans "it is time to sacrifice", had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fly Laura to New York City for dinner and a Broadway play on the taxpayer dime, would you have called him a hypocrite?

So, tell me again, what exactly is it about Obama that you consider evidence of his brilliance, competence, diplomacy, and leadership?

Can't think of anything? Don't worry. Obama's done all the above in his first 5 months and the MSM (Main Stream Media) has shrugged it off, so you have three years and seven months to come up with something."



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

May I note that while there are some good points here, some of them were results of the actions of others, not Obama, and some are either not really relevant or that bad, though the media would have made a larger outcry about Bush doing them. Also, some are just not true, such as filling the cabinet with tax cheats (since those who were at all not ethical withdrew their nominations as soon as their indiscretions were known).

Also, the UAW is not the majority owner of GM, the US government is, and any majority owner of a company has the right to hire and fire top executives to keep the company running effectively.

George W. Bush did not do any better on the gift-giving to Gordon Brown, giving him a fur-covered leather bomber jacket in the summer of 2007.

The claim that the Ipod given to the Queen contained video of Obama's speeches is an outright lie. It actually contained (according to the BBC) footage of the Queen's visit to America. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7973178.stm (scroll down on that page to where it says 1750 to see this news story)

Furthermore, how relevant are these things to Obama's leadership of America?

I have no problem with any President bowing to a foreign leader. It is a recognition of differences in culture that harms no one if we make it.

On the Austrian language mishap and spelling errors, Bush made enough slip-ups to fill calendars, books, and many other products... thankfully Obama has nowhere near that many yet... but you have to applaud them for providing jobs for the people who make that memorabilia... just kidding, kind of

On the Cinco de Cuatro incident, Obama was trying to make a joke... he failed at the joke, but he wasn't trying to call the fifth of may the fourth of may http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/05/obama-cinco-de-mayo.html

The use of the teleprompters is not proof of Obama being an idiot, but rather an attempt to prevent the type of slip ups that Bush had and represent America well.

Yes, Bush was possibly treated unfairly on the flood thing, but that does not mean we should do the same to Obama.

The claim that Obama's plan would double the accumulated national debt is false... it would rather double the budget deficit... there is a big difference, the debt is $10 trillion, and the deficit is less than $1 trillion http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed032409e.cfm

Let's end the flamboyant rhetoric and disrespect... our president should always be respected, regardless of party. Much of the treatment of President Bush was wrong, and the same treatment of President Obama would be wrong.