Let's Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

For those who criticize President Barack Hussein Obama and Vice President Biden for their minor gaffes, let's you and I take a trip down (short-term) memory lane. The following vignettes are what I was able to recall within about 10 minutes' time. It is by no means a comprehensive list:

The Bush Administration leads the United States into a war under false pretenses. 100,000+ dead, millions injured, not yet over, not yet paid for (we are beholden to China in this regard).

Secretary of State Colin Powell is intentionally fed misinformation regarding evidence of WMDs in Iraq, which he presented to the world at a televised forum at the United Nations.

Colin Powell, once the darling of the Republican Party (their first choice for presidential candidate) resigns in humiliation, his contact with the Bush Administration the only stain in an otherwise stellar career.

Valerie Plame's husband is sent to Nigeria to prove a connection between the Iraq regime and weapons purchases. He finds none and publishes his findings. His wife – a covert CIA agent - is "outed" by the Bush Administration in retaliation to her husband's findings. Scooter Libby takes the fall for Cheney/Rove, and is indicted. Exposing Valerie Plame results in the deaths of at least three agents who worked with her overseas. Exposing an undercover agent is a treasonable offense.

Senior analysts at the CIA say they felt pressured to make their intelligence reports on Iraq conform to Bush administration policies. Resignations follow.

Head of CIA, George Tenet, resigns over intelligence lapses regarding Iraq and WMDs. He writes a "tell-all" book about how the Administration misused the information his agency provided as a case for the invasion and then turned around and blamed him for the misinformation.

John Brady Kiesling, a career U.S. diplomat, resigns from the State Department. As he wrote in his resignation letter to Colin Powell: "I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share."

In the early years of the Iraq war, Bush fires Larry Lindsey (Director, National Economic Council) for saying the war could end up costing cost as much as $100 Billion - $200 Billion. The Administration had been advertising the total cost of war at $60 Billion - $80 Billion. (It will, in the end, cost well over $1 Trillion).

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never included in Bush Administration budgets.

Secret Rendition

Secret Prisons

Torture: and torture carried out, not by the military or CIA, but by for-profit companies.

Kodak moments at Abu Graib, including rapes of female and male prisoners.

Underestimating the enemy ("Mission Accomplished." "Bring’em on!")

Donald Rumsfeld mismanaging the war from the start, against the advice of Colin Powell and Pentagon.

Rumsfeld resigns.

Failed reconstruction of Iraq. Hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid unaccounted for. Auditors discover one contractor that was paid $80 Billion to electrify US-related installations performed substandard work in 78% of the buildings, which has resulted in the death-by-electrocution of three American soldiers and injuries to dozens more. This contractor was awarded $30 Million in bonuses in 2008.

Christine Todd Whitman appointed head of the EPA, then resigns when she learns the EPA under George Bush is a joke.

Senior scientists resign en masse from the EPA because the Bush Administration doctors and politicizes their findings.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft tramples on civil liberties to the point of becoming a liability even to the Bush Administration. Ashcroft resigns immediately following 2004 election results. The Administration expresses regret that he hadn't resigned prior to the election.

Alberto Gonzalez appointed as the new Attorney General.

Firing of Federal prosecutors for political purposes.

Illegal wiretapping exposed.

Senior attorneys at the Justice Department resign under Alberto Gonzalez as he politicizes the Department.

Gonzalez resigns as Attorney General of the United States instead of facing further scrutiny in the politicizing of the Justice Department and his involvement in the firing of Federal prosecutors for political purposes.

Cheney Administration "loses" thousands of e-mails that would have either proven his innocence or guilt in a number of scandals (firing of prosecutors, outing of Valerie Plame, etc.). He had been required by law to preserve them.

Vetoing reauthorization of Children's Health Insurance Program

Vetoing Water Resources Development Act

Eight years of pushing back against energy initiatives and global warming initiatives, in support of big oil and their record-breaking profits.

The entire Department of the Interior is found to be in collusion with energy companies. Employees of the Department accepting gifts, bribes, money and, yes, even exchanging sex for services.

Supporting Wyeth in the Supreme Court, which is a sharp break with decades of FDA policy, the administration now sides with the pharmaceutical industry.

The Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal and the neglect of returning Veterans.

Katrina

Scrapping the Kyoto Protocol

Attempt at Social Security privatization. Imagine if he had succeeded?

Backing out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

By almost every measure - GDP growth, jobs, median incomes, financial market performance - Bush stacks up as probably the least successful President on the economic front since Herbert Hoover. The last Clinton administration budget had a surplus of more than $100 billion; the fiscal 2009 deficit approached One-and-a-Half Trillion Dollars.

While Bush's handler, Carl Rove, is sidetracked to deal with a possible indictment, Bush nominates his own personal lawyer, Harriet Meyers, to the Supreme Court bench. As soon as she is asked questions concerning Constitutional law, she backs out of the process.

Not going after Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida in Afghanistan and instead pouring resources and manpower into Iraq. As a result Bush destabilized Iraq to the point of opening its borders to terrorists, where the United States then fought against the newly formed "Al Qaida in Iraq" as well as both Iraqi Shiite and Iraqi Sunni insurgents: the wrong war for the wrong reason.

Refusing to take a seat on (and thus influence) the Human Rights Council.

Signing Statements: Gives a president the right to ignore parts of legislation he signs into law. Used if president feels parts of legislation is considered – in his opinion – unconstitutional, or unduly inhibits the performance of the Executive branch of government. To be used judiciously. From Presidents Washington through Clinton, presidents averaged 2½ signing statements each. By 2006, George Bush had invoked 750 signing statements in 125 bills. A bi-partisan panel of the American Bar Association concluded that his assertions of constitutional authority "undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers."

Middle East Peace Initiatives: According to Michael Oren, a professor at Georgetown University and author of Power, Faith and Fantasy, a history of American involvement in the Middle East, Bush spent five full days in office on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, coming to the region twice and hosting the two-day Annapolis conference. Eight years: five days.

78% of Americans disapprove of Bush’s eight years in office. The remaining 22% apparently reside in western Massachusetts.