rubber soul

42. BILL CLINTON (Stand by your man)




Born: August 19, 1946, Hope, Arkansas
Died: Still out there trying to promote himself

Term: January 20, 1993- January 20, 2001
Political Party: Democrat

Vice President: Al Gore

First Lady: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Before the Presidency: William Jefferson Blythe was born without a father, who had been killed in an auto accident just months before he was born. He and his mother lived with his stern Grandmother. When Bill was still young, his mother married Roger Clinton, an abusive alcoholic, and they all moved to Hot Springs. Bill was then adopted by Clinton. It was a volatile marriage and Bill often had to play the mediator in their battles.

Clinton excelled in high school and had an interest in politics early on. He also mixed church with sowing some wild oats so to speak and he was an excellent saxophone player as well.

Clinton attended Hot Springs High School where he got the attention of Principal Johnnie Mae Mackey. She saw his passion for politics, and he was one of two students chosen as an Arkansas delegate to Boys’ Nation. He got to go to Washington where he shook hands with President Kennedy. Clinton was a convert and politics would be his calling from then on.

Clinton entered Georgetown University in 1964 as an International Affairs major. Coming from modest means, he took advantage of scholarships and took part time jobs to support his way through college. Not being a Catholic in a Catholic school, he drew the ire of the elite part of the student body, but he had such personal charm that he would be a major player in Student Government, being elected as President of his Freshman and Sophomore classes. His college political career ended when he was crushed in a race for Student Body President. One of Clinton’s flaws, trying to please everybody and thus pleasing no one, was the major factor.

Since Georgetown was in Washington, Clinton found work as a clerk for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was there where he formed his opposition to the Vietnam War. Later, he won a Rhodes Scholarship and would attend Oxford University in England for two years. Clinton, of course, was eligible for the draft after he lost his college deferment, but the Arkansas Draft Board allowed him to go anyway.

While at Oxford, Clinton was, in fact, drafted, but he managed to get out of it with the help of Senator Fulbright (a very vocal dove) and Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. Clinton returned to Oxford but made himself available for the draft when he returned in 1969. Clinton would ultimately be saved when his birthday came up late in the Draft Lottery. Clinton then proceeded to become something of an anti-war activist though hardly in the sense of a radical like Abbie Hoffman for example.

In 1970, Clinton entered Yale Law School. It was there that he met Hillary Rodham, an ambitious young woman with a bright political future ahead of her. In fact, she would find herself working on the Nixon impeachment committee as a clerk just a few years later. Meanwhile, Clinton worked on a pair of political campaigns including the ill-fated George McGovern campaign as Texas Campaign Manager.

After graduation from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and entered his first political race in 1974. He ran for the House against a Republican incumbent. He lost, but he did well enough to be considered a rising political star and, two years later, Clinton would be elected as State Attorney General.

In 1978, thirty-two year old Bill Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas, but he would be way in over his head. He was inexperienced at this point, and it showed as he mishandled a riot by Cuban Refugees at Fort Chaffee and drew the ire of the timber industry while also raising auto license fees to pay for road construction. As a result, it cost him as he lost re-election.

But, if nothing else, Clinton was a savvy politician. He admitted his mistakes in his 1982 run for Governor and the voters gave him another chance. This time, he didn’t fail them, and he would be elected again in 1984, 1986, and 1990.

Governor Clinton ran Arkansas as a Centrist, appointing his wife, Hillary, to an education committee. Education reform was a hot button issue for Clinton, and he even advocated the reforms on National TV (On a personal note, this is how I was introduced to him). Clinton called for teacher competency tests (yes it was controversial to the unions) as well as other reforms. As a result, dropout rates declined, and college entrance exam scores increased dramatically.

Clinton also was an advocate of the death penalty, another divisive issue among Democrats. He was an early advocate to what would later be labelled as Workfare. On the liberal side, he also supported Affirmative Action and he appointed more African Americans to state boards than all the previous Governors combined. Indeed, he would prove to be especially popular among African Americans as both Governor and President.

Governor Clinton also had a penchant for looking at the polls to see which issues were most popular, thus, his penchant for always going with the political wind, sometimes as if he had no political convictions of his own. It was a play his political consultant, Dick Morris, was good at, and it worked.

After five terms as Arkansas Governor, Clinton was able to boost his national Profile. Indeed, he was a rising star on the National Stage, and he was chosen as the Keynote Speaker at the 1988 Democratic Convention. He fumbled with his overlong speech, however. Still, it was just a misstep and Dukakis was doomed anyway.

Meanwhile, Clinton finished out his Gubernatorial era by leading the National Governors Association for a time. He also led the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of moderate Democrats basically that called for Government help when needed but it was ultimately up to the individual to take care of himself. In other words, the government would boost you and help you, but it wouldn’t support you necessarily. Clinton would call this and other Centrist ideas a New Covenant.

So, 1992 was just around the corner, and with a reputation as a “New Democrat”, less New Deal, tough on crime, but very pro-civil rights, Clinton would be a formidable candidate in 1992.

Summary of offices held:

1977-1979: Arkansas Attorney General

1979-1981: Governor of Arkansas

1983-1992: Governor of Arkansas


What was going on: Contract with America, War in Kosovo, Somalia war, war on terrorism

Scandals within his administration: Whitewater, Paula Jones, the Monica Lewinsky affair

Why he was a good President: Like Reagan before him and Obama after, he had a way of communicating with the American public. He was a policy wonk and he managed to accomplish things like the Family Leave Act and the Assault Weapons Ban (though it would only be good for ten years). He also helped negotiate peace between the Irish factions as well as with Israel and Palestine (though he couldn’t do anything about Hamas). And whatever his flaws and his penchant for feeling the political wind, he basically meant well.

Why he was a bad President: Because he did have a penchant for feeling the political wind. He all but betrayed the gay community with his Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, because the military wasn’t ready to accept gays as of yet. In a way, he betrayed women too, not with his legislation, but with his own actions. The guy really couldn’t keep it in his pants. And, while it would be a mistake to blame him entirely, he did promote and sign the 1994 crime bill which would have a very negative effect on relations between police and the minority communities (To be fair, a lot of heads rolled on that one including one Joseph Biden)

What could have saved his Presidency: All he really needed to do was to keep it in his pants, but he also could have shown more political bravery and stuck with his convictions more instead of worrying about his political career.

What could have destroyed his Presidency: Well, the Monica Lewinsky affair nearly did. Otherwise, maybe staying more on the sidelines. To his credit, Clinton was a very involved President.

Election of 1992: Clinton came in as the front runner as the primaries got underway but his penchant for having affairs proved to be a hinderance in his campaign. First, there was the Gennifer Flowers affair where she insisted she had an affair with Governor Clinton. This is where many Americans got to meet Hillary when she announced on TV that she was no Tammy Wynette by Standing By her Man, this in defense of her husband, mind you, but also a poor choice of words as she probably lost the Tammy Wynette fan club vote.

Clinton also had to deal with rumors that he had smoked marijuana (of course, by 1992, who hadn’t?). Clinton responded that he did try it but didn’t inhale. So much for feeling the political wind.

In the end, people didn’t really care if Clinton was even a serial killer. They wanted someone who could emphasize with them, and Clinton pressed all the right buttons when it came to that. So, despite a worthy challenge by the other major candidate, Paul Tsongas, Clinton won the nomination easily and the Democrats would be stuck with the Clintons for a long time.

The general election, by comparison, looked like a cakewalk. By now, President Bush was about as popular as herpes and people were ready for a change after twelve years of the Reagan Revolution. In fact, Bush was so unpopular, he had to deal with a third party challenge by the eccentric billionaire, Ross Perot, who even looked like he had a shot at making history as the first third party Candidate to win the Presidency.

Clinton had little to worry about, however. Every time Perot withdrew or re-entered the race, it always seemed to hurt Bush more than Clinton in the polls. Besides, he had such a crack team behind him like campaign manager James Carville, whose mantra was, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Clinton never wavered from that assessment, and he pounded hard on the economy throughout the campaign.

The final straw occurred at the debates between the three candidates where Bush seemed out of touch and Perot was acting a bit erratic. Clinton won the debate easily just by gently telling a questioner that, “I feel your pain.”

And, in the end, Clinton won by a two to one margin in the Electoral College.

And the Slick Willie era began.

First term: The first two years of the Clinton administration was a bit rocky to say the least and it didn’t help that the corruption of his own party, in power of the House for well over four decades, became too much for the public to bear. Minority Leader Newt Gingrich would pounce on the scandal and the ineffectiveness of the Clinton administration to build his Contract With America and the Republicans would take over the House in the 1994 elections.

Meanwhile, President Clinton managed to get the Medical Leave Act signed and Hillary started a task force in a drive for National Health Insurance, an initiative that the insurance industry would successfully shoot down by scaring the public with their Harry and Louise commercial spots.

Clinton also had inherited a few foreign policy issues that involved some military intervention. There were still the sanctions against Iraq, of course, but there was also a genocide going on in Kosovo that NATO was dealing with. On top of that, the US was in the middle of a civil war conflict in Somalia. The Somalian campaign, though well meaning, would not end well. The scourge that was Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia would eventually have a happy ending, but it would take years.

But it would be two domestic tragedies that would dominate Clinton’s first year, first six months actually, in office. First, there was the World Trade Center bombing that killed six people.

Then there was the siege at WACO. A Branch Davidian sect led by someone who called himself David Koresh was surrounded by a Federal force known as the ATF. There was a standoff for about a month before Attorney General Janet Reno okayed a raid on the complex. The ATF probably got a little zealous and no one really knows what exactly happened, but in any event, the house was torched, possibly from the inside and maybe by Koresh himself, seventy-five people, including Koresh, were killed and Reno took the hit for the disaster.

Clinton, who had won the support of the gay community during the campaign, initially had allowed gays in the military, but there was such blowback by the military as well as America not being quite ready to accept gays as people (it takes time for the inhuman to allow people into the human race), Clinton took out his political barometer again and came up with his Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, a policy that the military would manipulate quite well until even they became enlightened and Obama would repeal the ridiculous edict.

Clinton also would have to deal with a major political scandal known as Whitewater that would hound him throughout his Presidency. It started with the suicide of his deputy counsel, Vince Foster, and Republicans, who had a personal hatred of both of the Clintons, would doggedly pursue the matter, uncovering a lot more (though not necessarily illegal) than they had bargained for.

During the first two years, Clinton also signed into law the controversial NAFTA trade agreement that was supported by Bush and Perot as well. And, while it did have its flaws, it did improve trade between Canada, the US, and Mexico, and especially was helpful to Mexico (though arguably at the expense of American jobs).

If Clinton’s numbers were abysmal in 1994, they took a turn for the better in 1995 as the Oklahoma City Bombing would be handled much better than the debacle in Waco. 168 people would be killed in this tragedy, but the culprits would be captured, and Clinton proved to be as adept at comforting the public and, more importantly, the surviving victims, just as well as Reagan had a decade before.

The Bosnian war ended under Clinton’s watch and a deal was brokered in Dayton, Ohio. Called the Dayton Peace Accords, this was a document signed by Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia in Paris and President Clinton would send 20,000 American troops (part of a larger NATO deployment) to enforce the cease fire followed by free elections.

The best news for Clinton, however, was domestic as the economy was again booming. Because he had a hostile House, and a particularly hostile Newt Gingrich, he was able to broker deals he couldn’t with his own party. It didn’t help Gingrich that a Government shutdown he engineered backfired on him, his party receiving the blame for that miscalculation.

So, though Clinton’s first term would be a mixed bag overall (He also pushed his workfare program through as well as a controversial crime bill though popular at the time), and despite his personal foibles (The Whitewater investigation was now gaining steam and he had former mistresses coming out of the woodwork), he would be a tough incumbent to defeat in 1996.

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rubber soul

BILL CLINTON (PART 2)





Election of 1996: With the economy recovering, Clinton’s chances at re-election were considerably better than it had been two years earlier when the Republicans took back both the House and Senate. As such, Clinton and Gore won renomination with no real push back.

On the Republican side, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole had the inside track to the nomination, but he did have some challengers, such as maverick businessman Steve Forbes who introduced his flat tax proposal. For about fifteen minutes Forbes was almost as popular as President Clinton with the young, but he never did indicate whether he wore boxers or briefs. He also had less serious competition from Former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander and the always controversial Pat Buchannan. Nevertheless, when the Convention hit the stage in San Diego, Dole had the delegates and he was all but anointed, the highlight being a speech by wife Elizabeth Dole, who came off as a conservative Phil Donahue.

Dole was behind in the general election from the start and another third party bid from Ross Perot didn’t help. Perot didn’t have the same clout that he had in 1992 and ended up with less the half the vote he received in 1992. Still, he would be a factor.

The campaign itself was a bit exaggerated though not especially smear worthy as Clinton warned that Dole would do away with Social Security and Dole jumped on Clinton’s personal flaws, promising the Republicans would make life miserable for him if he were re-elected. Needless to say, that wasn’t a good strategy and while Dole played up his World War Two record (He would be the last candidate to have served in World War II), it didn’t make up for his occasional gaffes and his tendency to be a bit too blunt, even bordering on mean. And, despite the one good idea the ticket came up with (VP Candidate Jack Kemp’s Urban Enterprise Zones, something he came up with after the LA riots in 1992), Clinton had no problem winning re-election.

But Dole kept his promise because, for the next four years, the Republicans would make Clinton’s life a living hell.

Second Term: The Newt Gingrich led Republicans began their war on Clinton as soon as he was inaugurated a second time. The Senate voted unanimously to investigate some fund raising discrepancies from the Clintons primarily but also from some members of Congress. Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr was investigating the Whitewater scandal. On top of that, Clinton was being sued for sexual harassment by former Arkansas State Employee, Paula Jones, who had the backing of Republicans basically out to get Clinton. They even paid for her nose job to make her look more sympathetic, but she couldn’t prove anything had happened and the judge would summarily dismiss the case. In retrospect, Jones was victimized twice, once by Clinton, who did indeed sexually harass her, (this was exposed during the Lewinsky affair), and by the Republican groups that exploited her in their zeal to destroy Clinton.

So, while Hillary Clinton (who likely had one eye on her own political ambitions by now), was complaining about the right wing conspiracy, a new scandal erupted. This one involved a young aide named Monica Lewinsky. It was alleged that Clinton had an affair with Lewinsky while Hillary was out of town. Kenneth Starr (who couldn’t find enough legitimate dirt evidently) decided to exploit this instead. Lewinsky stayed quiet and one had to feel sorry for the gullible young woman, but Clinton responded rather nastily by stating that he did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.

Now despite Clinton’s reputation as a cad, basically, he did have a pretty decent record when it came to women’s issues, most notably, with his Family Leave Act, so women’s groups were quick to defend the guy as hypocritical as it looked (A few years earlier, they sent Liberal Republican Senator Bob Packwood out on a rail for less transgressions after having even done more for women than even Clinton had- but he was a Republican- right?). Anyway, Starr went after Clinton like a pit bull, and it culminated in a deposition where he ultimately admitted the affair. Now it was off to the races and Speaker Gingrich pushed for an impeachment hearing. Not because of some Tenure of Office Act or covering up some political malfeasance, no this was for lying about having an illicit affair. No doubt if Gingrich could have gotten away with it, Clinton would have been impeached for littering.

Anyway, though Clinton had indeed embarrassed the office and I personally would have liked to have seen him resign, it was hardly impeachable. But, hey, that’s me. They did impeach Clinton, but it would cost Gingrich his seat. Yes, he won his re-election but only barely and he realized his effectiveness as Speaker was gone after his party lost six seats in the 1998 midterms. So, he resigned, and Bob Livingston of Louisiana was pegged to replace him.

But wait! It turned out Livingston had an affair as well and he fell on his sword and resigned. They ended up settling on Dennis Hastert of Illinois who later would be nailed for having sex with minors in the 1960s. Boy were those Republicans on a roll.

The impeachment trial took place in January 1999 and in no real surprise, Clinton was acquitted by a 50-50 vote. The last two years of Clinton’s Presidency would be relatively quiet.

Despite the Hijinx that was the impeachment process (and almost every President has been threatened with impeachment by the opposing party since then), Clinton did manage some pretty serious accomplishments in his second term. For one thing, he accomplished what no one had done since the 1920’s; he balanced the budget. He also was able to get an assault weapons ban passed after the Columbine School shooting in 1999. Clinton also was able to broker peace between the warring factions in Ireland in what was known as the Good Friday Peace Accords. He also mediated the Rye River agreements between Israel and the PLO, still led by Yasser Arafat.

But there would be some warning signs on the horizon for the next President, not all of it Clinton’s fault. NATO had to bomb Serbia when Milosevic though he could be Hitler again. Milosevic would finally be toppled and would be at large come the next Administration.

But the bigger issue maybe started with the explosion on the USS Cole. This was initiated by a would be freedom fighter named Osama Bin Laden. Clinton responded by bombing the bejeebers out of his compound, but the fun was just beginning, and it would be President Bush II that would pay the price.

In the meantime, The Clintons made plans to move to New York so Hillary could carpetbag her way to Senator. The Clintons would be out of the White House, but they sure weren’t done yet.

Post Presidency: While Hillary was padding her resume as a Senator from New York, Bill Clinton opened an office in New York City, maintaining an active speaking schedule. He teamed up with Former President Bush on a couple of humanitarian initiatives and they became friends. He also stayed very involved in politics becoming something of a respected elder statesman. Even a heart surgery in 2004 couldn’t slow him down. He could still be controversial as he helped Hillary in her 2008 and 2016 Presidential campaigns but, all in all, he has managed to come out with more integrity than he ever had as President.

Odd Notes: After a morning of jogging, Clinton was known to frequent the local McDonalds.

Hilary Rodham Clinton served on the Watergate Committee

Final Summary: And what have we learned? We learned that there is more than one meaning for the word, is. We also learned what not to do with a cigar.

But basically, when you look at the whole picture, Clinton was a pretty good President. Not that I’d invite him for Sunday dinner, I think his character has a lot to be desired. But he was quite adept at getting legislation passed even with a very hostile Congress hell bent on removing him from office. I think he may have been more effective in his troubled second term than he had been in the first. Maybe having an adverse Congress was good for Clinton.

Pity I wouldn’t be able to say the same for future Presidents.

Overall rating: B-

https://millercenter.org/president/clinton

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rubber soul

43. GEORGE W. BUSH ( When the President talks to God)





Born: July 6, 1946, New Haven, Connecticut
Died: Still kicking it on his ranch in Texas

Term: January 20, 2001- January 20, 2009
Political Party: Republican

Vice President: Dick Cheney

First Lady: Laura Welch Bush

Before the Presidency: George W. Bush was part of the Bush political dynasty. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, had been a Senator from Connecticut and his father, George HW, would follow in those footsteps after the family moved to Texas.

After a family tragedy when he lost his sister to leukemia, the younger George became closer to his mother, and it is said that he got much of his impulsive personality from her.
Bush, coming from an affluent family, attended private school as a teenager. He wasn’t crazy about the rigid structure that goes with a private school, and he struggled a bit academically. He was terrified of disappointing his parents however and would stay up at night studying. He fared better at making friends and would enjoy a full social life for quite a time.

Because of family tradition, Bush would attend Yale University. At the same time, his father made his first run for the Senate and Bush helped out where he could. This was his first real foray into politics.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Bush was a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society. He played athletics, but really wasn’t the baseball player his father had been, thus, he played rugby instead. He majored in European and American studies and was a lover of history in general.

Bush graduated from Yale in 1968. Vietnam was raging at the time and Bush, knowing his father was a pilot in World War II, knew he had to join the military in some capacity. He joined the National Guard where he too would become a pilot. As a result, there were accusations that he was able to get out of Vietnam because of political connections. Whether that was true or not remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Bush obtained his MBA in Business Administration at Harvard and returned to Texas where he got into the oil business in Midland. Bush, like his father, became a success at the business and developed a reputation of treating his employees well.

Bush was known as a hard partyer in his youth but found religion in the 1980s. He was heavily influenced by Bill Graham and began to read the Bible very seriously. It was through this that he developed his Conservative Christian values tempered with a compassion for those who may have felt left out. He quit drinking on his fortieth birthday.

Bush’s true political career started in 1978 on an unsuccessful run for the House. It was on this campaign where he met the political strategist Karl Rove. He also had help from his father’s circle of friends. He enjoyed campaigning even though he wouldn’t be successful, but he stayed out of politics for a time after that.

So, he concentrated on his business while working for his father’s Presidential campaign, often acting as a sounding board for him. In 1989, he, along with a group of investors, purchased the Texas Rangers baseball team. Bush became nationally known as a result and was considered a fairly popular owner. By the time he sold the team in 1998, he would make a $15 million profit.

After his father lost to Bill Clinton in the 1992 election, the younger Bush decided to get back into the ring again. In 1993, he challenged incumbent Texas Governor Ann Richards. He had hoped to make improvements in education as well as tort reform. Of course, he also touted his conservative Christian values in a state that seemed to be heading in that direction. Bush won the election and Texas hasn’t voted for a Democratic Governor since.

Governor Bush earned a reputation of being able to work with the opposing party and had a positive relationship with Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, a Democrat. Bullock even endorsed Bush for re-election and though Bush failed at tort reform, he made great strides in welfare reform and juvenile justice reform. After he was able to accomplish that, Bush went to his most important issue, education. An advocate for school choice, he pushed for legislation that encouraged school choice and competition as well as trying to ensure that every child could read. And, as a typical Republican, he lowered taxes. He also pushed for faith based initiatives, providing social services through churches and other private institutions.

As Governor, he’s also famous for the Karla Faye Tucker episode. Tucker was a convicted murderer who was on death row and was up for execution. While on death row, she became a born again Christian and drew the sympathy of famous evangelists such as Pat Robertson as well as Newt Gingrich. Governor Bush, a born again Christian himself but also a proponent of the death penalty, wrestled with this dilemma himself, but in the end, he refused clemency and Tucker was executed.

By re-election time in 1998, Bush easily won another term as Governor. His brother, Jeb, also won as Governor of Florida; the Bush political dynasty was thriving.

And there was a campaign to get George W to run for President in 2000. Bush wrestled with that idea and, through prayer, came to the conclusion that he should run.

And, like it or not, the rest is history.


Summary of offices held:

1968-1974: Texas Air National Guard, First Lieutenant

1989-1994: Owner, Texas Rangers (Major League Baseball)

1995-2000: Governor of Texas


What was going on: 9/11, War in Afghanistan, War in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession

Scandals within the Presidency: Scooter Libby perjury scandal, Lawyergate, Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the Valerie Plame affair

Why he was a good President: Whatever his flaws, he had a moral compass that his predecessor had lacked. He also managed to make life just a little easier for immigrants that were in the US illegally.

Why he was a bad President: He forgot the edict of Separation of Church and State for starters, but ultimately, it was his handling of the Iraq War that was his downfall. The truth is, he never should have invaded in the first place.

What could have saved his Presidency: Sticking to just Afghanistan and staying out of Iraq. Also, he should have acted like the President of the United States and not the Protestant Pope.

What could have destroyed his Presidency: Well, Iraq and Katrina ultimately did, didn’t it?

Election of 2000: After winning re-election as Texas Governor easily, Bush was pushed to make a run for President and, after a church service that convinced him he was destined, Bush put his hat in the ring.

It wouldn’t be a coronation though. Bush faced stiff competition from Moderate Senator John McCain of Arizona. McCain was known as a maverick not afraid to go against the party line and that proved attractive in the New Hampshire Primary. Bush took responsibility for his loss and regrouped. He already had the evangelical vote in hand as vehemently opposed abortion rights and was against gay rights in general. But it was his reputation as someone who could work across the aisle that proved to be the trait that put him over the top. Bush would win the nomination and McCain would have to wait another eight years.

It was a little more cut and dried in the Democratic Party. Vice President Al Gore was the clear favorite and although he did get some competition by New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, there was never any doubt Gore would win the nomination.

The general campaign would be a closely matched contest. Gore, like Bush, came from a political pedigree and checked all the requisites, including a stint in Vietnam as an Army reporter. But, as with Clinton in 1992, it was about the economy, stupid and, since that was still going well, it became a contest of philosophical differences instead.

Both candidates stumbled at the debates, and they were considered a push as was the Vice Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman. And it would reflect in possibly the most controversial Election Day in American History.

For the election would be the closest in American History, Gore winning the popular vote by the skin of his teeth. Third party maverick Ralph Nader wasn’t much help to Gore either and he may have cost him not only Florida, but New Hampshire as well. Indeed, those four electoral votes in New Hampshire alone would have been enough to give Gore the Presidency, making the circus that was about to unfold in Florida irrelevant.

Because there was no clear cut winner in Florida. It was initially called for Gore but a controversial “chad” style voting system in Dade County sent votes Bush’s way. The election was then called for Bush until Gore’s numbers started to close in yet again. Ultimately, there would be a number of recounts despite interference by Florida Secretary of State Kathryn Harris, who had her own political ambitions. It didn’t make Bush look very good when the infamous Brooks Brothers riot was initiated. In any event, both sides would go to court over the course of nearly two months before the Supreme Court more or less said enough and awarded Florida to Bush. Even that was controversial since the court tended to lean conservative, but liberal justice Stephen Breyer had sided with the majority 5-4 vote, so that could be argued.

So, for perhaps the first time since 1880, the United States had a President that half the country didn’t see as legitimate.

First term: The first eight months of Bush’s term was essentially a domestic agenda. He signed executive orders banning international abortion aid and deregulating religious charities. He also pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol meant to reduce global warming emissions.

Later in the year, President Bush had to deal with what was known as the Hainan incident. There, an American Spy Plane collided with a Chinese aircraft and was forced down on Hainan Island. An international incident was created as the Chinese refused to release the personnel and insisted on keeping the spy plane. The incident continued for ten days before China agreed to release the personnel.

The other big domestic issue was stem cell research. Evangelicals opposed the use of said cells for conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease because they felt it would encourage abortions. President Bush essentially agreed but he would allow funding of existing research but would ban the extraction of stem cells for future research. This was a controversial decision that earned the wrath of even some Republicans, notably Nancy Reagan, whose own husband was suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Meanwhile, the summer of 2001 seemed to be obsessed with more trivial things such as the Gary Condit scandal and the sudden plague of sharks like in the movie Jaws.

Then September 11 happened.

The Bush administration and, indeed, the United States, changed forever after two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. After another plane crashed into the Pentagon, it was obvious that George W. Bush was about to become a wartime President.

Bush’s popularity soared in the days after 9/11 as he rallied the Firefighters while visiting what was now being called Ground Zero. It was quickly determined that Osama Bin Laden was behind the terrorist act, and he was being backed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. As such, we were now at war in Afghanistan and only recently would we pull out, a decade after Bin Laden had been killed. Bush also started the Department of Homeland Security and signed the controversial Patriot Act which allowed the Government to access confidential information and subvert search warrants.

People didn’t care about losing a few civil liberties as long as they could feel safe though. Bush remained popular in 2002 as he pushed through the No Child Left Behind Act requiring standardized math and reading tests but also giving states flexibility when using federal funds for education.

The Emperor’s clothes would come off in 2003, however. Allegedly because of bad intelligence it was assumed that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction. For months, the US tried to build a coalition to topple Hussein, who Bush saw as a terrorist (and in Iraq, at least, he was). But weapons of mass destruction were never found.

Still, on March 19, 2003, the Iraq war began. The US bombed Baghdad with the same fervor it had in 1991, this time the press calling it, “Shock and Awe.”. Within weeks, Hussein had been toppled and a US backed interim government was put in place. President Bush even landed by parachute on an aircraft carrier to declare mission accomplished.

But the mission wasn’t accomplished. Bush missed the lesson of his father, who was smart enough to withdraw so the US wouldn’t have to try to win the peace. The younger Bush didn’t see that far ahead, and Iraq would be a headache for him for the rest of his administration and his poll numbers would suffer as a result.

And it only got worse. By the end of 2003, Chief US Weapons Inspector David Kay, a proponent of the war, announced that no weapons of mass destruction had been found. And in 2004, the biggest scandal of the Iraq War was exposed as a few wayward soldiers were photographing Iraqi prisoners in various stages of abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison. This shocked even the most fervent supporters of the war and Bush took quite the black eye over it.

Indeed, as the 2004 election came around, it seemed obvious that the Democrats would really have to screw it up to lose this one.

And guess what? The Democrats screwed it up.




Election of 2004: Despite the lowest numbers of his Presidency so far, Bush renomination was all but certain, the only question being who he would face in the general election.

The Democrats had an interesting slate of candidates starting with the experienced Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. He faced stiff competition from the likes of General Wesley Clark and Populist Senator John Edwards of North Carolina among others.

But it was the maverick Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean, that piqued the nation’s interest. He was the initial front runner but seemed to have a nervous breakdown after losing in Iowa as he celebrated with the infamous Dean Scream. Dean never recovered from the incident and Kerry would get the nomination, picking Edwards as his running mate.

Kerry was easy to paint as a waffler as Bush exploited his initial support of the Iraq War until he was against it (He said that almost literally). If that wasn’t bad enough, Kerry had been touting his success as a Vietnam War veteran and a Conservative Group called Swift Vets and POWs for Truth more or less called Kerry out as something less than honorable. It was all politically motivated, of course, and people knew it.

But Kerry really did waffle on the Iraq War spectacularly and that definitely hurt him. In the end, Bush won another close election and, despite a desperate attempt by the Democrats to challenge the controversial Ohio vote (A controversy with the voting machines more so than the vote itself which clearly went to Bush), there was no doubt Bush won re-election.

So, Bush got the distinction of being the least popular President to win re-election.


Second Term: And if you think Bush was unpopular in 2004, get a load of what happened in 2005. For that was the year of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was devastated, and people suffered in flooded houses for days on end. FEMA was unprepared for this disaster and Bush’s response in support of the beleaguered director was to say, “Way to go, Brownie.” Bush never really recovered from this disaster and how it was handled.

It wasn’t all bad for Bush, however. Bush was a lot of things but being a racist wasn’t one of them. Indeed, he even developed a rapport with the Muslim community after 9/11. He also enjoyed, arguably, the most diverse administration in American History, a pretty neat feat for a Republican. This all played into his one truly great accomplishment, the Path to Immigration. The idea was that it would strengthen the border between the US and Mexico while giving illegal immigrants a way to earn citizenship in the United States. This proved unpopular with his own party, but the Democrats, now in control of Congress, responded positively to the most humane response to the immigration problem yet.

In the end, though, as the economy finally collapsed into what became known as the Great Recession in 2008, Bush essentially governed a failed administration and while he was still liked personally, he would go down as one of the least successful Presidents in history.

Post Presidency: Bush, one of the least popular Presidents in history, happily retired to his ranch in Texas only making public appearances for his brother Jeb when he would run for President in 2016. Bush made it a point not to criticize his successor, Barack Obama, knowing that he would have enough pressures to worry about. He tried to do the same with Donald Trump, but it eventually got to the point that he could be silent no longer. Like others, including a few brave Republicans, he saw Trump as a threat to Democracy. Still, Bush is mostly content with an occasional public appearance. And he has since admitted his mistakes in handling the Iraq War.

Odd notes: Bush stopped drinking after he turned 40.

President Bush famously survived after choking on a pretzel

Final Summary: Bush may very well have had the best of intentions but his policies, especially on the foreign front, were mitigating disasters. Indeed, for a long time, there were people that were rating him as the worst President ever. Of course, that’s pretty unfair in retrospect.

But he was certainly a below average President, especially for someone who served two terms. He let his religion get in the way of what was best for all and not just some. He was clearly ill prepared for Hurricane Katrina. And, by the end of his two terms, we were mired in two wars with seemingly no way out. He couldn’t even capture Bin Laden.

But, despite the ill-advised Patriot Act, and the support of the controversial practice of waterboarding (basically a torture method to get prisoners to talk). He still believed in a Democratic Nation, something a future President obviously wouldn’t.

And when compared to that future President, George W. Bush frankly looks like George Washington.

Overall rating: D

https://millercenter.org/president/gwbush

__________________

rubber soul

44.BARACK OBAMA (Yes we can,can)




Born: August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii
Died: He’s still with us on a TV screen near you

Term: January 20, 2009- January 20, 2017
Political Party: Democrat

Vice President: Joseph Biden

First Lady: Michelle Robinson Obama

Before the Presidency: Barack Obama was the first President to be born outside the Continental United States. He would also be the first person of African American heritage to become President as his father was born in Kenya. His mother, who was white, more or less raised Barack after his parents broke up when he was young. She would remarry another foreign student at the University of Hawaii and Barack would spend time in Indonesia where he attended Catholic and Muslim schools. Obama learned about different cultures at a very early age.

When Obama was ten, his mother, concerned about his education, sent him to live with her parents where he could attend regular school. His grandparents raised him from fifth grade until he graduated high school. He was a typical teenager of the late seventies, dabbling in drugs and alcohol, but he also played basketball and was an above average student.

Obama left Hawaii to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles. Two years later, he transferred to Columbia in New York City where he majored in political science. He soon found work as a researcher with a global business firm before accepting an offer from Chicago to become a community organizer for Chicago’s poor and black South Side. Barack Obama found his calling.

Obama excelled as a community organizer, launching the church funded Developing Communities Project and organized residents to demand improvements to a poorly maintained public housing project. Obama, however, would be frustrated with the city bureaucracy and felt he needed a law degree to give him some ammunition to play with.

So, Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988, this time excelling as a student, and graduating Magna *** Laude. While at Harvard, he was elected President of the Harvard Law Review for the 1990-1991 academic year. This despite being a liberal among a group of conservatives. Obama learned the values of being a good politician as he was able to persuade the conservative voting bloc he’d treat them fairly, and indeed, that’s what he did. He drew some media attention as the first African American to head the law review and he would ultimately write a highly acclaimed book about his struggles as a black man trying to find his identity titled. “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”

After Harvard, he returned to Chicago with his wife, Michelle, where he organized a voter registration drive. He worked with a civil rights law firm while lecturing at the University of Chicago.

And in 1996, Obama made his first forays into public office. He ran to replace Alice Palmer as Illinois State Senator (she was running for the US House and had endorsed Obama as her replacement). Palmer, however, changed her mind and tried to run for her own seat. Obama wouldn’t yield and, because Palmer was too late to get her name on the ballot, Obama won the seat.

The State Senate wasn’t a pleasant time for Obama. It was a Republican controlled body for starters, and he was all but shunned by the black caucus over his harsh treatment of Palmer. But he managed to form friendships anyway, working well with both sides of the aisle, and even found a mentor in Democratic Leader Emil Jones, Jr., also a black from Chicago.

In 2002, the Democrats retook the Illinois Senate and Obama was able to thrive as a leading legislator, helping to pass 300 bills aimed at assisting children, the elderly, labor unions, and the poor.

Obama had tried to win a seat in the US House in 2000 with an unsuccessful run against the popular ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush. Fortunately, he was still able to keep his seat in the State Senate and that would be a springboard for his 2004 campaign for the US Senate. It was a controversial race from the Republican end as the favored Jack Ryan was caught up in a scandalous divorce with a famous TV actress. Ryan was forced to withdraw from the race and Obama would be pitted against a carpetbagger from (guess where? Maryland) named Alan Keyes, a controversial black conservative, who had made two unsuccessful runs at the Presidency.

And as if Obama needed any help, he was pegged as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, If John Kerry made people cringe with his own Mike Dukakis moment (he announced he was ready for service), Obama wowed the crowd with an electrifying speech as he concluded there was not a liberal America or a conservative America, there’s the United States of America. Obama’s call for a united country rang positively and from that point on, he was on peoples’ minds as a possible candidate in 2008.

Summary of offices held:

1997-2004: Illinois State Senator

2005-2008: US Senator, Illinois


What was going on: The Great Recession, mass shootings, The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Scandals within the administration: Veterans Administration scandal, IRS targeting controversy, David Petraeus sex scandal

Why he was a good President: Let’s start with the Affordable Care act. Maybe not quite the healthcare version of Social Security but it does ensure that all Americans will be insured, regardless of health issues. Bin Laden was captured on his watch, and he found ways to enact progressive policies without the help of Congress. Plus, he was without a doubt one of the most persuasive Presidents in history.

Why he was a bad President: Well, he was black, wasn’t he? I’m sure that’s what some of the Trumpsters were thinking at least. Okay, to be serious though, he was a little skittish when it came to enforcing edicts overseas such as with Syria (on the other hand, he did deal with an incident involving Libya and stood up to Putin as best he could). He also was unable to work with the opposition though, frankly, I lay that more on the opposition.

What could have saved his Presidency: A quicker handle on the Russian election meddling might have helped. I also think he should have distanced himself from Hillary Clinton and encouraged Biden to run for President instead. It might not have saved the country but at least it would have saved us from Trump.

What could have destroyed his Presidency: A war with Russia which seems inevitable anyway, more realistically, if the economy had withered into a depression, Obama would have been the black Herbert Hoover.

Election of 2008: Already the highest African American office holder in the country, Obama formally announced his candidacy in February 2007. He tapped David Axelrod as his campaign manager, and they started an effective internet campaign.

Of course, 2008 was not supposed to be Obama’s year for this was the year Hillary Clinton expected to be coronated Queen of the United States and she began her campaign as if she was entitled to be the first woman President in history. She had a large contingent of mostly women, some who even threatened to vote Republican if Hillary was not nominated. Obama also had to contend with former VP Candidate John Edwards as well as another quixotic run by Joe Biden, a well-respected Senator, but never popular as a Presidential Candidate.

But it would be Mrs. Clinton that would give Obama the most headaches. She led early in the polls, and it looked like her coronation was inevitable. But Obama had developed a strong fundraising campaign and the fruits of his labor began to show as 2008 began. Obama won the Iowa caucus while Clinton took New Hampshire, and it was obvious that it would be a two way race.

Obama gained momentum in the South Carolina primary as he more or less took the African American vote away from the Clintons, who didn’t take the supposed betrayal very well. Mrs. Clinton ran a fairly mean spirited campaign for the most part, seeming more desperate every time Obama inched closer to the nomination to the point that she brought up the possibility that Obama could be assassinated much like RFK in 1968. The shocking suggestion was likely the final nail in her coffin.

Not that Obama himself didn’t have his slip ups. The same man who chastised Hillary Clinton by suggesting that silly season is over, proverbially shot himself in the foot when he suggested that when there is no hope, people cling to guns and religion. It likely lost him Pennsylvania in the primary.

But he won the big state of California, giving him enough delegates for nomination. Even then, Mrs. Clinton wouldn’t concede until California Senator Dianne Feinstein arranged a meeting where a deal may have been made. Obama would later appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

There was considerably less drama on the Republican Side. The Maverick Senator from Arizona, John McCain, came in as the front runner and easily beat back competition from moderate Mitt Romney and evangelist Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

But McCain had a lot of work to do. By now, President Bush was about as popular as raw sewage and he had to balance a line between not losing favor within the party (There were some who didn’t think he was conservative enough on social issues) and losing independent voters who were especially sour on Bush. McCain also didn’t necessarily have the best campaign team as they seemed more focused on attacking Obama’s character and not his positions, something McCain himself found disgusting.

Perhaps McCain’s most cynical move was to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin was certainly a likeable young woman with lots of energy, but her inexperience in national politics showed when people got beneath the folksy exterior to find she wasn’t very knowledgeable when it came to international affairs.

McCain’s nail in the coffin though would come when the economy crashed in mid-September. Obama was able to address the crisis that would become the Great Recession while McCain, much better at international affairs than domestic, could only say that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.

And it didn’t help (though maybe it should have) that McCain, possibly one of the most honorable candidates ever to run for President, found himself defending Obama when a McCain supporter accused Obama of being an Arab. McCain tried to assure the woman that Obama was simply a man he disagreed with; he was just as American as he was.

In the end, Obama with his message of hope won the day and the election while McCain returned to the Senate but at least could hold his head high.

First term: The first Obama term began the way Bush’s second term had ended, with a financial crisis to deal with. Bush, against his own philosophy and with the help of both Obama and McCain, signed a bill to bail out the banks. President Obama would later direct TARP funds to bail out the struggling auto industry with the promise that the government would be paid back. The loans were successful though people were left thinking it was a bailout for the wealthy, especially in the case of the banks.

Obama also inherited two of Bush’s wars, the one in Afghanistan which kept plodding along, and the one in Iraq where Obama pledged to finally get out of (He had always opposed the Iraq war). He kept his promise though it would be a slow withdrawal. By 2012, the troops were finally out of Iraq.

Afghanistan would be another matter. Instead of withdrawing, Obama stepped up the military presence there hoping it would ultimately speed up the withdrawal much like Bush’s troop surge in Iraq ultimately helped the withdrawal there. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and the US would be mired in the conflict until Biden controversially sent the last troops home in 2021.

Obama’s pet project though was finally adapting a national health care plan for all. But, as usual, Americans don’t want to hear about health care costs until it is too late. He got absolutely no support from the Republicans and realized he would need all the Democrats to get what would become the Affordable Care Act in place. And there were a few Democrats, beholden to the insurance industry, who weren’t willing to go for what essentially would be universal health care. So, Obama negotiated with the insurance industry because, frankly, he had no choice, and they got a very comprehensive bill that would make health care much more affordable to most Americans. Obama enjoyed a Democratic House and Senate his first two years in office and despite the right wing alarm bells warning of death panels, Obama was able to make affordable health care, or Obamacare as the Republicans derisively called it, become the law of the land, with the conservative Supreme Court twice upholding it.

Though Obama had some accomplishments in the bank already, there were suspicions about how the ACA would affect Americans in the future. Meanwhile, there was a right wing movement that called themselves the Tea Party which basically was a faction of Obama haters and angry whites in general. The liberals laughed at them, referring to them as tea baggers, but they wouldn’t be laughing when they swept into the House in the 2010 midterms. These “tea baggers” would make life miserable for Obama, and at times, the whole country, for the next six years.

The second half of Obama’s term would be dominated by the use of executive orders since the Republican House more or less refused to work with him. He also had to deal with something called the birther movement which falsely claimed that Obama was actually born in Kenya.

Despite the obstacles though, Obama still added some accomplishments such as rescinding the controversial Don’t Ask Don’t Tell provision for gays in the Armed Forces. By now, the top brass was willing to accept gays in the military and, with a little prodding from Vice President Biden, Obama agreed.

He also scored the major military victory that George Bush was unable to achieve. In May 2011, a special ops mission ended in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. He was also President during the Arab Spring uprisings, meant to make the Arab countries a little more democratic but ultimately with mixed results. President Obama supported the concept, however.

It would be nice to say Obama’s first term ended with more of a bang than a whimper (though he scored points with his quick assistance after Hurricane Sandy blasted New Jersey, even earning praise from Republican Governor Chris Christie), but again, he wasn’t getting much help from the opposing party. The country was divided, and it was only going to get worse, tragically worse after Obama.

But all in all, Obama had maybe a 50-50 chance at re-election and did have better numbers than George Bush at the same time. The only question then being, would the Republicans be smart enough to go with another John McCain or would they go back into the Bush playbook again.

__________________

rubber soul

BARACK OBAMA (PART 2)


Election of 2012: There was no doubt Obama would win re-nomination and it was thought he would have a decent chance to win the general against the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Romney, a moderate Republican not unlike McCain, had no trouble winning the nomination but still had to deal with infighting from the more conservative elements like Newt Gingrich which, by now, had the most control over the GOP.

And Romney, despite having come from a political family, had his own drawbacks. He twice made major gaffes, once in the primaries and once in the general. During the primaries, his manager made the mistake of admitting he would change his language to a much more moderate tone in the general election but had to sound like a religious conservative (Romney is, in fact, a Mormon), in order to get nominated. Thus, Romney came off as ingenuine.

The bigger gaffe came in the general campaign though in his infamous 47% speech. There, he essentially accused 47% of the electorate of expecting entitlements. This was more or less the nail in the coffin for Romney.

And, despite a near disastrous first debate, Obama recovered with the next two and Hurricane Sandy proved to be the October Surprise New Jersey certainly didn’t want, but it paid great dividends for Obama, who didn’t think twice about giving the devasted Jersey shore aid.

And, while Obama didn’t win by as large a margin as he had in 2008, the victory was solid nevertheless. Romney would move to Utah and get elected Senator there and become the Republican voice of reason (and against Trump) after McCain died in 2018.



Second Term: Before Obama was even sworn in for his second term, a mentally disturbed teenager entered an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut and fired an automatic weapon killing twenty children and six adults. Needless to say, the second term would begin with a plea for gun reforms which would again fall on deaf ears in a gun crazy country. Obama would again be forced to work with a House that was extremely hostile to him, and a couple of government shutdowns would be one of the results. Only a good working relationship with Speaker John Boehner would save the US from what was being called the fiscal cliff in 2013.

Even his foreign policy would be seen as less than perfect as he proverbially dared Syria to cross a red line. When they did, the US virtually did nothing.

Obama took a tougher stance against Russia when Putin invaded and took the Crimea. While he couldn’t get involved militarily for obvious reasons (Russia has the bomb), he could impose sanctions against the country, which he did fairly quicky. Relations between Putin and Obama soured to say the least and it may have had an effect on the Russian meddling in the 2016 election (Putin was even less of a Hillary Clinton fan).

What Obama couldn’t get done through legislative means (and very little legislatively would be accomplished), he did through executive actions. More than any President before him he used this process to accomplish many of the things he wanted to do such as requiring background checks for gun purchasers at gun shows, and severely reducing carbon emissions from power plants. He also used the bully pulpit in support of gay marriage, something that the Supreme Court would (at least temporarily for now) affirm.

He used his veto power sparingly but when he did, he was very effective. Several times, the Republicans tried to overturn the Affordable Care Act and it eventually would go to the Supreme Court only to be saved by Chief Justice John Roberts of all people. Obama also threatened vetoes on other bills being considered, thus, the bills would either be rejected or modified where Obama found it acceptable to sign.

He also used the power of the pardon with more frequency than previous presidents. He was an advocate of criminal reform and as such, he pardoned 212 people and commuted more than 1700 sentences, the majority of which were long sentences for drug crimes.

And, by 2016, the economy was booming, people were beginning to realize that Obamacare wasn’t so bad after all, and Obama knew how to communicate with the public much in the same way Reagan had three decades earlier. Plus, all and all, he was a pretty cool guy.

So, despite a rancoring cry for change being in the air for whatever reason, Obama himself left office as the most popular President since Reagan, especially when they knew who was coming next.

Post Presidency: Obama, for the most part has gone into private life though he still makes occasional television appearances, often making fun of himself. He has stayed out of the political arena for the most part, though he supported Biden’s campaign in 2020, even appearing with him in a TV interview. He also would be critical of Donald Trump and his followers in general.

And yet he continues to have hope for the nation and the world. His wife, Michelle Obama, has been touted as a potential Presidential Candidate in 2024, but she has been resistant up to this point, Hillary Clinton she is not.

One thing is for certain, with the upheavals of the United States over the past six years, many of us sure miss Barack Obama.

Odd notes: Obama is a good athlete but a lousy bowler

Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize despite doing absolutely nothing to deserve it. Even Obama was shocked.

Final Summary: There was no doubt that Barack Obama was ready to be President, and, in a different era, he would have been one of the greats.

But let’s face it, America really wasn’t ready for a non-white President. No one, and I mean no one, got as much crap thrown at him as Obama had from the birther movement (If he had been a white guy with a Hungarian father, would anyone had cared?), the Tea Party, and other “Pro-American” groups. The Republicans, with few exceptions (two of them being his political opponents McCain and Romney), were so hostile, it’s amazing they didn’t try to have him impeached (luckily, being a black progressive isn’t an impeachable offense- yet).

And yet, despite the unnecessary roadblocks, Obama managed to be a successful President. Will his policies stand the test of time? Well, that remains to be seen and that is ultimately up to us Americans, not him. In the meantime, we do have the ACA, gays can now get married (for now anyway), there are more stringent background checks if you want to purchase a gun and, for a brief time anyway, we felt like there really was hope in this country.

And yes, that feeling of hope was brief, thanks mostly to Donald Trump and his deplorables, but hope has risen before. We thought hope was all lost after King and RFK were shot, but it rose again with Clinton (yes even Bill Clinton) and, to an extent, Jesse Jackson. We lost hope again after 9/11 and then Iraq but then came Obama.

And, you know what, if we can survive Putin and the craziness that is being promised for the next few years, hope will again rise from the ashes.

Because as long as people like Barack Obama are around, hope can never die.

Overall rating: B+

https://millercenter.org/president/obama

__________________

The Batlord

You don't have to lie for the guy. It didn't ensure **** and was at the center of Republican grievances until Trump came along.

__________________

rubber soul

It was the best he could do considering there were also Democrats that opposed universal health care.

Have any nice things to say about Trump? he's next

__________________

The Batlord

He might annihilate the Republican Party.

__________________

Mindfulness

__________________
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rubber soul

45.DONALD TRUMP (I'm the greatest)




Born: June 14, 1946, New York, New York
Died: he won’t go away

Term: January 20, 2017- January 20, 2021
Political Party: Republican

Vice President: Mike Pence

First Lady: Melania Knauss Trump

Before the Presidency: Donald Trump was the son of real estate mogul Fred Trump and he grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Queens, New York. He is said to have been difficult to deal with growing up. His father, thus, sent Donald to the New York Military School where he seemed to enjoy the military drills. However, joining the military was the last thing on Donald’s mind as he was able to get out of the Vietnam Draft with college and medical deferments and, finally, a high draft number.

Trump majored in business at Fordham before transferring to the Real Estate program at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1968 and returned to the family business in New York.

In the seventies, while the Trump family eyed real estate investments all over the US, Donald kept his interests closer to home. He invested in Manhattan skyscrapers and founded the Trump Organization and made himself President with his father as Chairman. By the end of the decade Trump was already beginning to become a household name.

Trump followed in his father’s footsteps and developed vast political connections from both parties, all with the intent to get tax breaks for his businesses. And he continued to expand, building Trump Plaza, the Trump Tower, in Manhattan. Later in the 1980s, he would get involved in the Casino business in Atlantic City and seemingly half the casinos were named after him from a second Trump Plaza to the Trump Taj Mahal. He also was seen as a major player in the failed USFL Football League as owner of the New Jersey Generals.

Trump, though, overplayed his hand a bit, and after lenders cracked down on his unusual financial practices, he was forced to sell part of his empire and had to live on a budget for a time.

But if Donald Trump was ever good at anything, it was in reinventing himself. He finagled his debts for decades before the gambling empire finally crumbled by the mid-2010s. Despite this, he stayed in the public spotlight through a scandalous second marriage that seemed to help his image more than not, a controversial stint as owner of the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants, and even being the subject of a how to book known as the Art of the Deal.

And then, Donald Trump broke into show business. In 2004, with the help of Survivor producer Mark Burnett, he hosted a TV reality show called the Apprentice. In this program, Trump basically played himself as a CEO and would revel at telling contestants they were fired. It became a huge ratings success and it only ended after Trump announced his candidacy for President.

So, in the classic tradition of being able to get anything you want as long as you’re filthy rich to begin with, Trump, by 2015, had owned at least a dozen golf resorts and eight hotel properties in the United States alone, plus various real estate holdings throughout the world. He was said to be at least $650 million in debt. With that in mind, he would simply respond, “I love debt.”

So, now we know a little about Donald Trump, the businessman, but what about Donald Trump the politician? Well, while never really active directly, he had switched parties on a number of occasions and even considered a run on the Reform Party ticket for President in 2000. He even supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Senate. But until Obama’s second term at least, he seemed content on promoting himself by way of the Apprentice.

But being a TV reality star wasn’t enough to soothe Trump’s oversized ego, so he ventured into the political arena and jumped head first into the birther movement demanding that Obama prove he was actually born in the United States (Apparently, a write up in the Honolulu paper from 1961 was fake news). Trump backed off a little after Obama showed his birth certificate, but he was far from done. He developed feuds with various celebrities, notably Rosie O’Donnell, and kept in the news as he kept people guessing as to if he would actually run for President.

On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President.

Summary of offices held: Well, he did own the New Jersey Generals of the USFL and ran the Miss USA pageant. He also hosted the Apprentice on NBC from 2004-2015.



What was going on: Mass shootings, Covid outbreak, Black Lives Matter

Scandals within the administration: The whole Trump administration was a scandal from Michael Flynn, the Russian hacking scandal, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Trump’s Godfather tactics with Ukraine trying to find dirt on Biden (first impeachment), and, of course, the denial he lost re-election that led to the Capitol Insurrection (second impeachment that even got a few Republican votes)

Why he was a good President: Look, he wasn’t, period, okay?

Why he was a bad President: Oh, God, where do I start? He practically did nothing beyond promoting himself. His White House was perhaps the most dysfunctional in history. The few he appointed that wanted to do right were quickly fired so Trump could be surrounded by only yes men. He nearly alienated all our allies even calling Denmark’s female President nasty because she refused to sell him Greenland.

And, of course, there was Covid, which he bungled by simply denying it even harbored a health threat. A million deaths later and the ex-President is now urging people to get vaccinated after seeing his base slowly dwindling.

And, most egregious of all, he all but instigated the January 6th insurrection. Yeah, he did the most for this country since Abraham Lincoln all right.

What could have saved his Presidency: It would have been nice if he had simply used some common sense. I mean, who else would have suggested bleach as a cure for Covid?

What could have destroyed his Presidency: At the risk of being publicly executed if Trump or DeSantis do end up in the White House, there really isn’t much to salvage from this disaster of the Presidency, and of the man himself.

Election of 2016: Trump, as per his M-O, made his grand entrance on an elevator at Trump Tower with his wife, Melania, to announce his candidacy. No one especially took it very seriously, after all, he was just a pompous reality star, right?

But as 2015 came to a close, it was obvious that Trump was getting interest from a sector of the party that felt ignored, mainly less affluent whites who couldn’t understand that the biggest problem was themselves. Trump knew this and exploited it to no end as he railed against immigration in particular saying we would build a wall and Mexico would have to pay for it. It looked like Trump would garner some popularity as an underdog much the same way outsiders like Rick Santorum and Herman Cain had before him.

But Trump was running against 16 other Republicans including Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Mark Rubio, seen as the early front runner. With so many candidates and with a very large pocketbook, Trump actually had a fighting chance.

Trump won the New Hampshire primary in a field with no clear cut favorite, and while he didn’t garner a large number of delegates initially, he stayed in the first tier. Even then, the Republican establishment didn’t take him very seriously.

But they also didn’t properly gauge the anger at the group they too had most exploited, the white working class. For decades, they had appealed to their darker, racist, tendencies in order to maintain power never thinking that it may one day backfire on them.

And backfire it did with Donald Trump being the fuse. Trump managed to humiliate Rubio out of the contest and got away with suggesting Ted Cruz’ father had something to do with the Kennedy Assassination. If anyone dared criticize him in the press, he simply dismissed it as fake news. His followers, some of whom would respond much the same way brown shirts would react to outsiders in pre-Nazi Germany, lapped it up. Even a desperately late stop Trump movement by Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich couldn’t stop the momentum and Trump was reluctantly nominated in a rather lavish convention all arranged by Trump himself.

The Democrats were, of course, salivating, figuring this buffoon would be the easiest win since LBJ over Goldwater and, had someone more likable been nominated, that very well may have been so.

But the Democrats, already experts at taking defeat from the jaws of victory, did it again. For, Hillary Clinton was again demanding her coronation and this time there wouldn’t be a Barack Obama to stop her. Indeed, Obama was secretly endorsing her as he convinced Biden, who had tragically lost his son to cancer that year, not to run. With little competition in the form of Conservative Democrat James Webb, Former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, and avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton seemingly had a clear run at the nomination.

But there was an element that was equally frustrated with the Democratic Party. They certainly loved Obama, but they despised Hillary. But who could be the alternative?

Enter Bernie Sanders. Like Trump, he was brusque at best, but unlike Trump, whose detractors certainly saw him as an unstable egomaniac at best, Sanders was seen as a well meaning curmudgeon. And, indeed, Sanders fascinated the younger voters in particular with his strong sense of idealism, threatening as it may have been to the Capitalist establishment.

But it’s quite likely Hillary Clinton had it rigged in her favor early on. The DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was a Hillary Clinton lapdog and she did everything she could to make the road as rocky for Sanders as possible. She found a way to deny Sanders access to a list of Democratic voters over a minor misstep. She reinstated the access after a large uproar by the public.

Despite the roadblocks, Sanders proved to be formidable, winning New Hampshire and staying within range until Clinton won the California primary. Only then did Sanders concede and then only with some guarantees of a more even playing field for the next election cycle.

So, we were stuck with Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump for the General election or, as the creators of South Park put it, a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. In other words, America was screwed.

And it was an ugly campaign to be sure, mainly from Trump’s end. Some of his rallies became violent. Any woman that crossed his sights was referred to as nasty. And an E-mail scandal involving Clinton was brought to light- by the Russians. It was obvious early on that Putin was supporting Trump behind the scenes, Trump was even publicly encouraging it. Finally, FBI director James Comey put the final nail in Clinton’s coffin when he announced, just before Election Day, that he would reinvestigate the E-mails. He backed off on the statement just before the election but by then it was too late.

In what would be considered one of the biggest upsets in American History, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and half of America mourned what was expected to be the end of the United States as we knew it.

And James Comey would get fired by Trump anyway.

First term: Trump clearly expected his Presidency to play out much like his reality show. He had his Press Secretary brag about the record crowds at his inauguration which was actually only sparsely attended, many of the spectators actually being protestors. Indeed, about the only legislative agenda he had on his mind in 2017 was his attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, something that would finally fail when Senator McCain surprisingly went against the party when it was obvious there would be no replacement. It also became obvious early on that you didn’t dare disagree with the Donald or he would condemn you on his Twitter feed and you’d hear the wrath from his hypnotized supporters.
He scared aides early on when he would ask questions such as “why can’t we use the nuclear weapons?”. He also had to answer to an investigation that the Russians meddled in the election on behalf of Trump. And, of course, he simply dismissed it as fake news.

The other domestic issue was on immigration. Trump did indeed attempt to procure funds to build the wall between Mexico and the US, but he would only get mixed results. And it was obvious that whatever the US did, Mexico wasn’t going to pay for it. More cruelly, and with the advice of his neo-Nazi advisor, Stephen Miller, he signed off on a policy to separate children from their parents when they crossed the US border. This amounted to cruelty that went even beyond the Japanese Internment Camps of the 1940s.

Yes, basically, Donald Trump was, and is, a cruel man, and his followers seemed to get off on it. The people Hillary Clinton once called deplorables felt enabled and would violently counterprotest such as with the protest in Charlottesville to bring down the statue of Robert E. Lee. That protest ended tragically after a woman was run over by a white supremacist. Trump, when pressured for a response, simply noted there were good people on both sides. Well, no one accused him of being a politician.

By 2018, and with only a controversial tax cut for the wealthy as his lone accomplishment, Trump’s numbers, though wildly divided between the parties, was at an all time low overall. And that reflected in the midterms as the Democrats took the House. Thanks to numbers that favored them, the Republicans would be able to hang into the Senate and that would enable Trump to shift the Supreme Court to the far right by the end of his term.

By 2019, the Trump Administration seemed to be in rare form as subordinates from the Vice President on down would publicly praise him as if he were a great emperor. Indeed, Trump wanted to run the US as an emperor and admired strongmen such as Kim-Jong Un and especially Vladimir Putin. He also had re-election on his mind and surmised that his toughest opponent would be Joe Biden.

So, he took a page from Nixon and tried to strongarm Ukrainian President Zelensky to find dirt on Biden’s son. Apparently, Hunter Biden had worked for a company and spent some time in the Ukraine. When Trump held back promised military equipment, even the Republicans took notice. It was also the smoking gun Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reluctant up until then, needed to approve impeachment proceedings, thus, Donald Trump became the just the third President to be impeached, and the third to be acquitted, though this time, one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, had the guts to vote for removal.

Indeed, it looked like the Trump Presidential Reality Show was a great success even as the country was crumbling all around him. But a foe much worse than Joe Biden would stop the Trump Dynasty in its tracks. For a virus, likely originated in China, would plague the entire globe.

Originally called the Corona Virus (Now known as Covid), it began affecting the US in February 2020. It accomplished two things initially. One, it turned the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, into a household name, it also turned the US into a mask wearing nation for the first time in its history, something that previously only seemed to happen in China.

Of course, the US wasn’t ready for this devastating illness that would eventually kill more than a million Americans. President Trump, worried about a Wall Street crash hurting his election chances more than people dropping dead like flies, did very little on the onset, saying the virus would go away. When it was obvious the virus wouldn’t go away, Trump would lash out at reporters and expect gratitude whenever equipment was sent to certain states such as New York, which was especially hit hard in the early going. Indeed, it became a war between those who supported mask wearing mandates and those who thought wearing a mask was something comparable to a Communist plot.

The other great divide in 2020 started in Minneapolis when four policemen, with onlookers with smartphones witnessing, brought down an African American man named George Floyd. One policeman pressed against Floyd’s neck with his knee. Floyd could be seen begging for his life as he complained he couldn’t breathe but the cops wouldn’t relent. Ten minutes later, Floyd was dead, and the nation was awash in mostly peaceful and biracial protests.

Of course, that didn’t stop the MAGA crowd. There would be violent counter protests as one man was decked by a cop in Buffalo for example. Trump himself, infamously, had the Army clear out a peaceful protest at Lafayette Square so he could do a photo op at a local church. And this, all with Covid going on.

Needless to say, Trump wasn’t going to have an easy time winning election, but he did have hope. The Democrats had a knack at screwing things up after all and it honestly didn’t look all that good for them in the Congress this election.

And anyway, Trump couldn’t possibly lose.

Unless it was legitimate, of course.

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