Shoulda killed the bitch……….

Unfortunately, Bush did not understand what leadership was…let alone the Presidency.

I find it very interesting how the publics opinion or perception of a pres changes from initial election, to his presidency to after the office. It’s usually years later before the effects of decisions made are felt and the real telling stories of character come out. Cheney opening his mouth this early in the game shows how little respect he had for GW. I expect history to eventually show GW presidency as a failure of epic proportions.

Bush couldn’t have done much differently. The problem was that a GM/Chrysler bankruptcy when the market was in such poor shape could have made horrible consequences pushing us further down. He only had one choice to punt it to Obama, that way when people regained their composure, the market could handle this, and look, he was right.

All I know is that late night monologues just haven’t been the same since he left office.

That will be his legacy
Obama will spend his first term cleaning up Bush’s crap
Nice!
DrFill

Bush wasn’t your typical politician, he was real. He had emotions, he made mistakes, but he was real. Not a slick talker or in it for personal gain – he did what he felt was best for this country. Maybe history looks at him unfavorably, but he didn’t make puplic opinion his priority, so I somehow doubt he’ll care what some historians in acadamia think anyway. Tough talk and actions made things happen and kept us safe.

how can you people put this all on Bush?
honestly hes one freakin person.
do you understand democracy? the CABINET makes most of the decisions.
if you all hated him so much why didnt you do anything about it before he was relected for his 2nd term?
Jesus

That should be “pull the buttplug”

Oh Please! Yeah right, the administration was on its way out the senate republicans were political grandstanding, If you believe they were honestly looking out for taxpayers… well… Pelosi and the Dems wanted to give them the money right away! The right thing to do was what was done – advance them just enough – and let the next admin deal with it.

If He let them go under – y’all would be screaming he shouldn’t and YADDA, YADDA YADDA! The hypocrisy is… well I guess considering… to be expected.

Just for the record: I am in no way a supporter of Bush and Cheney (the defacto pres/power broker for 8 years) should be in jail!!

DB9

@JakeK66

I’m so glad to see a voice of reason around here besides myself. You’re dead on about using TARP funds to sustain GM and Chrysler through the worst of the hysteria to prevent a real collapse of the economy. The whole purpose of TARP was to ward off the effects of the media’s absolute destruction of the American perception of our own culture for the pure purpose of electing Obama. Now that Obama is back in office the press realizes that things need to return to “normal” and thus have been very favorable to Obama to try to keep the “President’’s” approval rating up.

Li’l Jorge was the worst president of my lifetime, and possibly as bad a Buchanan or Harding.

If it wans’t for that stupid 22nd Amendment, Bill Clinton would still be prez. Better for everybody.

BULL $HIT!…….

All the TARP funds have done is aid in extending the inevitable. The opportunity cost of having used said funds elsewhere to prepare America for a better future was lost. If anyone really believes that GM is going to comeback to anything even remotely viable they are kidding themselves. America no longer needs GM, and will be better off without GM. Too bad a sector of America achieved getting so deep into an obsolete business model that they have dragged the rest of the country down with them too.

I want people to remember that sway vote for president Bush was Monica’s Lewinsky, obviously had something to do with taste and mouth at the same time.

Jake (and surprisingly Payton) I tend to agree with you. I totally disliked Bush senior, but junior is a real deal. Even if Iraq was an intelligence (as a reconnaissance) mistake, his cabinet came to the same conclusion as cabinet of very liberal Tony Blair. Furthermore, actions and responsibilities of the president are aimed outside of the country, internal matters are subject of congress and senate. Just like Nancy was misled about waterboarding, she associated it with watersckiing……
From military perspective, offense is the best defense. Our military would have to engage somewhere outside of US with potential enemy to divert Al Queda attention from mainland. All of those engagement are short lived: we beat them on battlefield in short period of time, then local government comes into play to remind civilized world that some primates can’t govern themselves.

What else is new?

Bush opted to “punt” on every single important domestic policy decision that came across his table.

As we have seen… you can’t just ignore the problem and hope it goes away.

Borat, it’s nice to see someone else had the same, and what some consider far reaching, hypothesis about the war. For some reason, it always appeared to me that this war wasn’t neccessarily about Iraq or WMD’s, it was about diverting the attention of the terrorists from the US to another site – being Iraq. Now was it right how they misguided people into thinking it was for the other reasons – maybe not, but did they have a choice to garner support in 2003? I say no, and we are to thank everyone in the military for their success in Iraq.

How many terrorists attacks on the mainland since 9/11/01? Zero.

OK what anyone else would done in 11th hour of presidency? Bush has MBA degree, not law, and if I recall he had extensive conversations with Obama before coming to conclusion. If Obama would indicate that he is not objecting of letting GM take course as any other company, I think Bush would assume responsibility of looking another way. He did not want to deliver economy in worse shape then it was already was, or perceived to be in a worse shape. I strongly believe that GM will be gone after waisting another 50 or 100 billions. There are no fundamental reasons for it to continue.

Jake, they did not misguided anyone. Remember Director of CIA was from Clinton days and he stated to congress and senate and to whole country that in his and his organization opinion WMD was guarantee. In his words it “slum dunk”. The approval rating for war 67% – 2 out of 3 adults knew that war was a necessity. I know that our collective historical recollection is length of a TV commercial, but whole country was behind Bush at that time (well 66% for sure).
As negative war is, it had some amazing effect on the world:: France elected premier friendly to US (as oppose of that schanzesucker Chiraq), Germany elected fairly conservative Merkel, more Arab regimes shifted towards US, even Syria crapped pants, Libya denounced nuclear race and trying to be normal (within their mental limits), Lebanon kicked Syria out and Greeks burned their own country- this is all result of Bush non-compromising policy. We all know who enemy is, and trying to build bridges will delay natural order of things, like military confrontation and total bankruptcy for GM.

Honestly I don’t believe that Obama’s plan to throw money at the economic crisis until it goes away will pay off in the long run… especially when it is money that we never had in the first place. But I will applaud him for having the courage to do something. Anything is better than sitting idly by while the nation tears itself to pieces.

Payton Byrd, please, put the bottle down

BUsh could not have resolved this in the time he had left. He made the right decision.

What Obama has done did not take courage. It was a politically calculated move to further governmental control of business and industry. Obama didn’t do this as a last resort. Obama was COUNTING on the failure, stepping in as the hero (to the applause of the media, but no one else….) and exercising fiat control of as much of the nation’s economy as possible. From banks to auto manufacturing to healthcare, he clearly is marching full-steam-ahead towards state-run control of the economy. Notice that the CEO of GM didn’t announce bankruptcy, he did. The CEO he put into power, after axing Wagoner. This has never happened in our nation’s history, and it is no accident. While it is irrefutable that GM was destined for bankruptcy well before Reagan left office, this outcome was completely calculated, and does not deserve our applause.

More proff that GWB is nothing but a pussy.

It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the private sector is incapable of running these companies… so I don’t see that there was a viable alternative except to have the govt. take control. I realise that out govt. is far from the model of a lean and efficient machine, but at the very least the people can exercise some measure of control every time there is an election. I didn’t see any public input when the boards of any of these companies were chosen.

dodgeyaussie, would you eat that pussy? I am sure wouldn’t, and I don’t mind eating one once in a while.

RaineMan, it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt (England 70’s , Soviet Union 1917-1989, Cuba 1960-present) that government can not run business entities in either autocratic or semi-democratic society. If we (US) want to be democratic society we have to admit to idea that economy has its rules and laws and they should be governed by the market not congress, senate etc. If those business could not be run by corporations, those corporations should seize to exist. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, FIAT they all are experiencing hard times, but they can obtain line of credit and they are not in the hole since 70’s.

Borat you say bush had an MBA. That may be true but I don’t think this man could manage a McDonald’s drink fountain without screwing it up. He bankrupted the companies he ran in the past.While the world economy slumped into recession in 2007 he sat back and watched and admitted that he was waiting for the problem to work itself out. Did he do the right thing with GM and Chrysler or was it just a political stunt to make democrats look bad after he left office? Only history will tell. It is ironic that all of the bluster being put out by the right about allowing the bk to happen way back then was more to do with squashing the unions and middle class than what was good for the country. Think about it this way…IF there were an attack on the US today like Pearl Harbor and there were no GM,Chrysler or Ford just where do you think the country would be able to build munitions like was done in WWII? This is more than just saving an industry and institution in the US its national security in my opinion.

You Bush-lovers crack me up.

Typical Limbaugh ditto-heads.

Him and the GOP congress had a $5 trillion dollar debt and turned it into $11 trillion and for what? Iraq war that cost 5,000 lives and counting, $1 trillion and counting, and ZERO regulation for the economy.

THE REAL DEAL? THE REAL DEAL? Yeah, uh huh. The REAL DEAL has cost this country incredible damage.

Made us safe? Ummm…9-11 happened on his watch; remember?

Also, Clinton has kept us safe for 8 years, but we still got attacked.

Stupid FauxNews talking points from foreign car-lovers.

Bush didn’t have the courage to ‘pull the plug’ on GM but had no problem sending thousands of US soldiers to their death in Iraq for oil and his own personal ego. He’s quite brave indeed.

Evil Dick just shrivel up and crawl back under your rock.

teahead – I’d love to see how Al Gore would have handled things. No really, I would have, I’m sure he could have standed up to the enemy and instead of killing them, he would have just put them to sleep with his talk talk talk. I guess you enjoyed the 90’s that had nothing to do with the Republican Congress or previous presidents who setup Greenspan and pushed for NAFTA. Oh it was ALL Clinton, yeah right. Where Reagan wouldn’t take his suit coat off in the Oval Office, Clinton felt the need to get off in the Oval Office.

Yeah, about the last time the Demcrats controlled the House, Senate, and Presidency – That was awesome. I miss the good ol’ late 70’s. Best thing out of the Carter admin was to put some solar panels on the White House.

I seem to remember both the house and senate was controlled by the Dems in the past two years before Obama, but you’d like to make it sound like the GOP was in control when the sh!t hit the fan. Barney Frank deserves to be commended for the sheet he put over everyone’s eyes. How he blames other people for the stuff he did directly is one of the best smoke and mirrors show I’ve ever seen.

RaineMan – It is not proven in the slightest that the private sector cannot run these companies – just the opposite. Take a look at any one of the non-domestic auto manufacturers that operate on American soil. They are shining examples of how cars can be made profitably in the good ol’ US of A. What is the biggest difference between the Big Three and non-domestics? We all know the answer…..unions. And who does Obama award the lion’s share of non-state ownership of the “New GM” to? The same people that drove it into bankruptcy. And what are they doing with their shares? Are they concerned with actually owning GM and doing right by it? NO, they are putting their shares up for sale, just like they did during the Reagan loans for ChryCo in the 80s. They have no interest in ownership/management – they will have no one to fleece.

I would instead challenge you to find for me a for-profit company that ANY nation’s government took over and ran more profitably than their private sector competition. Borat’s citings are perfect examples of how it has never worked. Just because GM was broken does not make Obama the man to fix it, regardless of how much of our money he throws at it (without approval of the people).

ToxicNut, Bush in fact received MBA from Harvard. He started several companies that he made profit on and he haven’t used family fortunes to do it. Perhaps family connection and pedigree did not hurt, but he is Texas guy and his pedigree and connections are in New England (lovely estate).
He did not do anything about economy, because he studied economics, and the science and his advisers (Paulson ) were telling him to sit tight. Let see how more successful Geithner will be. Both were heads of banks.
As far as 9-11 occurring on Bush’s watch – maybe true, but not really. It took more then 9 months to plan this operation and train pilots, conduct surveillance, obtain documentation etc. Bush was on the job the lats 9 month, before that was Clinton. I believe Clinton was either asleep at the wheel (actually Monica Lewinsky says he was busy) regarding terrorism, because the first bombing of WTC occurred February 26 1993. Clinton had 7 years to finish Al Quaeda till it got strong (or stronger). He lobbed 15 cruise missiles into the desert and that was response for 7 dead people. One blind sheik went to jail and now his lawyer will follow. BTW, I am sure there will be request to free blind motherf*cker to improve understanding with Muslims (and it will be done).

Wow, I cannot believe how many mindless MSNBC/CNBC/CNN/NBC/NPR-suckling zombies there are on here (including Drew Johnson, the author). How much longer can the tired old “Bush did it” card be played? If 9/11 wasn’t Clinton’s fault but rather Bush’s, then I fail to see how the opposite holds true this time around. Barry’s at the helm now. And his monumental failures have just begun. Too bad we don’t have freedom of the press in America, otherwise we’d hear about more of them and probably wouldn’t even be saddled with this lying ingrate for the next 3.5 years.

psiclone the only monumental failure here is the failure of your brain to perceive the world objectively…

one of the main reasons i started posting here, rather than just lurking, is because of the right wing bias to the comments here…a lot of you have shown a knee-jerk reaction to the new administration and have laid so much blame at obama’s feet it’s ridiculous…a lot of you argue from nonsensical positions without a shred of logic or fact behind your exaggerated statements…

i’ve brought up this point in previous posts because some of you people seem to think that the bailouts began when obama came into office…the fact is the bailouts started during the bush administration…now, does that make the crisis bush’s fault? hell no, the president doesn’t really have much control over the economy…but if you can’t understand that what obama has done, he’s done because he was left with a lot of crap to clean up, well you’re just not thinking…

and psiclone you can’t blame 9/11 on a single president, if anything the seeds of 9/11 began after the muj broke the back of the soviets in afghanistan in the 80s during the reagan administration…9/11 was literally decades in the making…to lay that at the feet of a president 20 years after the problem started shows short-sightedness…our policy in that part of the world obviously failed, but those policies have been in effect for decades…

just remember: “I thought that, eventually, the right outcome was going to be bankruptcy,” Cheney said of GM. “It had to go through such a dramatic restructuring to have any chance of survival that they had to be able to renegotiate labor contracts and so forth, and the President decided that he did not want to be the one who pulled the plug just before he left office.” if you blame obama for this, when cheney himself admits they punted on solving this problem and left it for the next administration, then you’re not using your brain and thinking objectively…

What part of Darth Cheney saying they punted this to the winner between McCain or Obama don’t all you Rush-puppies get? There is a lot of churlish right-wingers on this site. Too bad-you lost so we all gain our country back.

No attacks since 9/11? WOW!! Really?

The families of the victims of the anthrax killings would like to disagree. The family of the Doctor, WHILE IN HIS CHURCH, killed by a right-wing-nut over a legal medical procedure would like to have a word with you. The victims of the father-son shooting-out-of-holes-in-the-trunk duo have a few people still hurting, folks.

Oh, those weren’t done by ‘mooooslin’ folks from a foreign desert. Sorry, I forgot, 95% of the commentators on here are numb ditto-heads who only read LLN by glancing away from FAUX NEWS.

Oh, the Dems had regained control of the House in 06, but with a slim majority, also won that year, the Senate got nothing done. The Republicans filibustered more times than any previous minority (and just a few years after Senate Republican majority leaders wanted to use ‘the nuclear option’ to destroy the filibuster!! http://www.alternet.org/democracy/126116/the_gop%27s_filibuster_hypocrisy/ ).

W & Dick wanted all this chaos as a smokescreen to get the hell outta town…

raineman- What are you talking about, the private sector not being able to run these companies?! Every other automaker (nearly) is run privately.

Unfortunately, they have no clue how to turn a healthy profit and be stable. Partly because nearly every automaker has snowballed over the past fifty years. Partly because of labor contracts and healthcare/bonuses. Automakers such as Fiat group, Lotus, Porsche, some foreign divisions of Ford and GM have learned how to make a good car and make a good profit off of them, but only by keeping labor costs down or prices artificially high, having a good business system that’s efficient and keeping production just slightly lower than demand. The fact that X numbers of models sold makes Y the best automaker has turned this whole automotive thing into a mess, let alone that X number of vehicles have to be sold to even break even… they haven’t been designed to break even from model one since Gd knows when. Only a few of the automakers, some of which I mentioned have the desire to do all of that.

My point is… it’s not because of the business they’re in, it’s because of the situation they’ve gotten themselves into.

Don’t you guys get it? Nothing is Junior’s fault. Everything is Clinton’s and by extension, Obama’s fault.

In fact, you can go back further than that. The arming and training of Osama bin Laden and the muhajedeen during the early 80s Afghan war with the Soviets? Not Reagan’s fault… it was Clinton’s. The cowardice withdrawal from Lebanon in 1983 after the suicide bombing death of 220 U.S. Marines? Not Reagan’s fault at all. It was Clinton’s fault for emboldening the terrorist. And of course 9/11 isn’t Bush’s fault after receiving a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden determined to strike in US” on 8/6/2001. You fools! It was Clinton’s fault some 9 months after he left office. Nothing is ever a Republican’s fault. It is ALWAYS a Democrats. Save your breath, young ones. Because the bad guys planned it in a cave half a world away on Clinton’s watch is enough to let Junior off the hook. Haven’t you folks learned anything over the past 8 years?

I have 3 major points I have to question about this article:

1. GM on the path to bankruptcy since the 70’s?? They had 50b in cash reserves not too long ago?

2. “That initial $17.4 billion has now snowballed into more than $50 billion in government loans.” Why are these still called “loans” if they own the company now?

3. I have never been one to defend GW, but I think we all know it was Cheney that wore the pants in the relationship.

@Krugeri,

That’s the funniest crap I’ve heard in a long time.

yup.good ‘ol Republicans.

George Dubya will go down in history as the dumbest, crookedest, and most ineffectual president of all time. This last act of his is proof that he was never the man for the job- throwing money at the problem to put it off until the next guy can deal with it. What a jackass.