The one decision that doomed Bush’s presidency
A friend and I were discussing the new biography of Donald Rumsfeld, which led to a discussion of just how things went so bad, so quickly in so many areas for the Bush administration.
It got me to thinking. For most of the Bush presidency, I believed that people who pointed the finger at Dick Cheney as the source of most of the presidents’ problems were exaggerating. Yeah, Cheney was a bit of a nut, but the idea that Bush would let himself be manipulated by his vice president to such a degree — I had a hard time believing it.
I don’t anymore.
In fact, I’d argue now that the most important decision of Bush’s presidency — the decision that determined the fate of his administration and to a degree of this country — occurred in July of 2000, when he chose Cheney to be his running mate. From that moment, the elements of tragedy were in place. I suspect history will reach that judgment as well.
If true, that’s of course as much Bush’s fault as Cheney’s. More so, since he was nominally the guy in charge. But there’s no question that at least on the foreign policy front, the Bush administration got a lot smarter about things in its second term, once Rumsfeld — Cheney’s guy — was gone from the Pentagon, Cheney’s influence waned and Condi Rice finally began to assert herself. And the real break, I suspect, came when Bush realized in the summer of 2005 that he had been misled by Cheney and his minions about their role in the Valerie Plame episode.
It’s conjecture at this point, but I suspect that incident opened Bush’s eyes to what had been happening in his own White House, and broke whatever trust remained with his vice president. It would help explain why Bush refused to pardon Scooter Libby as he left office, despite repeated pleas from Cheney and others.
We’ll see what history has to say, but I suspect its general narrative will follow that story line.
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251 comments Add your comment
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 24th, 2009
8:23 am
Considering that Bush has been the most successful president from the early 1980’s all the way through today, I don’t know what you are jabbering about.
moonbat, winning wars and defeating evil is bad, ain’t it?
Normal
June 24th, 2009
8:25 am
Only one bad decision? Whiner, Bush wasn’t President in the 1980’s…
Jay
June 24th, 2009
8:25 am
Yes, Whiner. One of us is indeed a moonbat.
It’s either the guy who claims Bush is the most successful president since the early ’80s, or it’s me.
Personally, I like my odds.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 24th, 2009
8:26 am
“Considering that Bush has been the most successful president from the early 1980’s all the way through today, I don’t know what you are jabbering about.”
Andy why do you hate Ronald Reagan?
Peadawg
June 24th, 2009
8:28 am
I Report You Whine
You can’t honestly think Bush was a good president, do you? Please tell me you were being sarcastic. I’m a strong republican and even I was embarrassed by him.
RW-(the original)
June 24th, 2009
8:28 am
Still haven’t figured out how to square Barry’s new vocal position on Iran, that he claims has been his full throated position all along, with all your glowing praise over his keeping mum being just the right thing to do I see.
It’s always easier to throw out a little red meat to the diehards than it is to think critically about the realities of the present and those currently in power.
With that I’ve got an early day in the forest. I’ll email you a picture if I spot Sanford and Bigfoot out frolicking.
Later!
HDB
June 24th, 2009
8:30 am
Whiner – if you think that the Bushes were good Presidents, you MUST be DELUSIONAL!!
Here are a series of the Bush mistakes:
1) Running for President
Worse foreign policies
2) Selecting Cheney as his running mate
3) NOT listening to Colin Powell
4) Consorting with the Bin Laden family
5) Going after Saddam Hussein under false pretexts
6) Tax breaks for his wealthy friends
7) Bad economic policies
9) Persistent “Bushisms”
More to appear later……
Bill Mack
June 24th, 2009
8:32 am
Jay, You’re just genetically flawed. It should be embarrasing for you to refer to somebody else as “something of a nut.” Check the mirror
Bill
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 24th, 2009
8:33 am
I know and you like Obozo too.
I rule.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 24th, 2009
8:34 am
Cheney’s influence waned and Condi Rice finally began to assert herself. And the real break, I suspect, came when Bush realized in the summer of 2005 that he had been misled by Cheney and his minions about their role in the Valerie Plame episode.
Seems like the most plausible explanation, but then there’s also the possibility that those voices furiously working to cover their butts these days just happen to be uttering that version of reality most loudly at the moment.
AmVet
June 24th, 2009
8:36 am
If by successful, the welcher means impotent, incapable, ineffectual, unproductive, useless and weak, I whole heartedly concur.
And I also stand by my contention that there is a strong likelihood that he will ultimately finish in the top 43 of all US Presidents…
Normal
June 24th, 2009
8:36 am
I always thought that President Bush’s biggest mistake was his failure to use the tragedy of 911 and stand as a strong leader of a wounded nation, bring the world wide sympathy together, and join nations into working together for a common cause…Instead he sold it all for a few cheap Republican gains, failed to go after Bin Laden, started an unnecessary and unwanted war, spent like a drunken sailor, and set the rest of the world against us. You did a heckofa job, Georgie…Just sayin’
clyde
June 24th, 2009
8:37 am
I don’t believe Bush chose Cheney.I believe he was told to take him.Republicans wanted Cheney in power and knew he couldn’t win an election for dog catcher so they hung him on Bush like an albatross.I’ll always wonder what a Bush Presidency would have been like without Cheney.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 24th, 2009
8:38 am
Geez, these liberals can’t even comprehend a timeline on their own-
Considering that Bush has been the most successful president from the early 1980’s all the way through today
Which illicited this mouth breathing response-
Only one bad decision? Whiner, Bush wasn’t President in the 1980’s
You reckon? Gosh, what we would ever do without your care and guidance, Abnormal?
Andy why do you hate Ronald Reagan?
Ronald Reagan was elected president in the early 80’s, perhaps this might be why I said “the early 80’s.”
Are you libs fried out this morning or what?
Tank
June 24th, 2009
8:40 am
Again Jay, this is newsworthy? Rehashing Bush! The mantra of the wild-eyed liberals,
Just a shallow attempt to deflect attention from the economy, unemployment, North Korea, Iran and Perez Hilton.
You are simply a hack…
Time Will Tell
June 24th, 2009
8:43 am
The fact of the matter is only time will tell… Bush will be judged on Iraq. If a democratic Iraq exist in 10 years, then it will be hard to continue to bash him. Bush made plenty of mistakes, but I respect the man who made it his number one priority to protect the citizens of this country first. That’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 24th, 2009
8:43 am
ATLANTA — Gov. Mark Sanford arrived in the Hartsville-Jackson International Airport this morning, having wrapped up a seven-day visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, he said. Sanford said he had not been hiking along the Appalachian Trail, as his staff said in a Tuesday statement to the media.
WhoCares
June 24th, 2009
8:44 am
Well I guess if you can’t find something positive to say about your guy in office now, all’s that’s left is to bash Bush…..Again. Why stop there? If Bush left such a mess for Obama to clean up surely if was because Bush was so busy trying to clean up Clinton’s mess?
Sam
June 24th, 2009
8:44 am
Bush spending like a drunken sailor, have you paid attention to Obozo lately….Geeesh!!
Normal
June 24th, 2009
8:44 am
Whiner- your 8:38: Nice wiggle…close, but no cigar, Brutus…Just sayin’
AJC Sucks
June 24th, 2009
8:45 am
Jay,
Do ya’ll actually write anything news worthy at the AJC? I mean, really? You don’t have an opinion on anything else important that may be going on? I mean, the AJC gets all there news from twitter & other web sites. Why not do something original?
King Curious George (Jugo Obama)
June 24th, 2009
8:46 am
Articles like this are why newspapers are going bankrupt all over the country.
Funny how talk radio is flourishing though.
Go ahead and keep dwelling on mean old George W. Bush. There is not too much positive to say about our current president. His only accomplishment is the fact that he is black.
AJC and all newspapers going out of business, talk radio flourishing. Have to love it.
mike
June 24th, 2009
8:49 am
Well considering that Obama’s foreign policy changes are cosmetic at best, Jay must also have a low opinion of Obama too.
Oh wait. Obama is a Democrat, so the policy differences really don’t factor into Jay’s thinking.
Joey
June 24th, 2009
8:52 am
Jay: Very impressive.
We are so fortunate that you choose to share with us the clear picture that you bring into focus when you turn your penetrating, and unbiased, vision onto the subject of George Bush. What is it, 9 years now?
Furtunate indeed?
Wingnut Denier
June 24th, 2009
8:53 am
JAY U R A HACK!!!
LIBRAZL SUKK!
TEH AJC BURNS IN PAGEN H3LL!
GEORGE W. BUSH — BEST PREZNIT EVER!!!1!!!elevens!!!!!
Just Released
June 24th, 2009
8:53 am
Some documents from the Nixon administration that were just released give us some new insight into the mindset of another past president, for what good it does.
Normal
June 24th, 2009
8:53 am
Ever notice how the pro bushies have only sarcasm and insults to use to defend Grorgie? And, oh yeah, let’s not forget to throw out Bill Clinton, that will show us. They will also use President Obama’s spending and conveniently forget it wouldn’t have been necessary, if President George W. Bush would only have done his job!
catlady
June 24th, 2009
8:56 am
Am Vet: Depends on how many Presidents we end up having. He might rank higher than Calvin Coolidge.
HDB: Don’t forget NCLB and the generous business it rewarded his friends with.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
June 24th, 2009
8:56 am
Let’s see here, our comparison chart includes Klintoon, Bushitler and Obozo.
Billy Bob- Reduced the grandeur, prestige and honor of the presidency and White House to the level of a drunken frat house party. Major military actions include bombing a nation and slaughtering it’s civilians from 50,000 feet that had not even threatened the United States and for good measures, took out the embassy of our number one adversary, why, for fun perhaps? Lost his law license for malfeasance, raped and pillaged every trailer park in between DC and ArKansas, paid huge million dollar settlement for a BJ, which from his time in history would forever be known as a Lewinsky.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Bushie- Instead of conducting and environmental impact study of the possible effects of attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan, as al-Gore would have ate up the decade doing, attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan. Removed from power a regional and worldwide menace, while at the same time giving freedom to the 25 million formerly enslaved citizens of Iraq, which now stands as a beacon of liberty and democracy from which the Iranian people have derived hope from seeing.
Launched one of the largest economic expansions in US history by cutting capital gains and personal tax rates, fueling a huge boom in construction, which provided the longest period of growth in US history until the democrats brought it all cashing down to earth by giving houses to people who couldn’t pay for them. This growth period was DESPITE two major hurricanes, a giant terrorist attack on the country and two wars fought simultaneously.
Not bad, eh?
Obozo, hahahahahahahaha, come on, be serious.
eewwwww
Billy Bob
June 24th, 2009
8:56 am
As I survey the Middle East today, I haven’t seen any sign of The Messiah’s changes. The president’s campaign slogan must have been casually spawned while musing the daily rotation of his BVD’s on a trip to the Middle East. OK, I get it now. Change, periodically. Brilliant.
‘cept for the abject bowing, bending-over, grovelling and the lack of any end game, Obama’s change is wa-a-a-a-a-a-y better than Bush [sarc]. I mean, heck, he shuffled the pieces on the ME board game and thought presto, OBL will be caught, Iran de-nuked, Afghanistan stablized. Uh, well, almost.
And lawd knows, we don’t want to compare Cheney with Joe Biden. Best to keep people’s attention on the previous VP rather than the current one.
Change you can believe in.
thomas
June 24th, 2009
8:57 am
great history lesson Jay,
Nothing going on in world, or our country.
Unemployment of 10% looming,
A plan for a missle to be launched at one of our states.
Little disturbance in Iran
Still in 2 wars
Health plan est. to cost 1.6 billion
Poll numbers against stimulus package
Jobs not being created.
But I guess none of those fall into the agenda of you Mr. Bookman. Does your credibility mean nothing to you? That answer is obvious for any who have been reading your stuff for a while now.
Seriously what type of an odd alter do you have to bush? All that is currently going on and it has been at least 5 pieces from you since you spoke of anything of actual importance.
Do you think President Obama even cares that you are a stooge for him? Most likely not.
Normal
June 24th, 2009
8:57 am
Sam
June 24th, 2009
8:44 am
Bush spending like a drunken sailor, have you paid attention to Obozo lately….Geeesh!!
—————–
Sam if this is all you can find to pick on, then you must think that the rest of my post is true. Is that it?
Kamchak
June 24th, 2009
8:58 am
“…because Bush was so busy trying to clean up Clinton’s mess?”
Low unemployment, projected budget surplus, gasoline under a dollar a gallon…I agree that Bush definitely solved these “problems.”
WhoCares
June 24th, 2009
8:59 am
Bad staff! Bad, Bad Staff! Shame on you for not telling the poor media details that were none of their business to begin with. Bad Staff! What do you think this is? The AJC?
Vinny
June 24th, 2009
9:01 am
Typical -
His boy in the White House is doing such a terrible job that Jay has to attempt to create a diversion by revisiting the past.
Remember what Barry said Jay? “We Won”. This economy and record debt and deficit that he has created is all Obama’s. He is determined to bring this country to ruin.
Atlanta Native
June 24th, 2009
9:03 am
Jay do you remember when Bush was first elected and you tried to explain the mistake the country had just made? How you tried to explain what needed to be done to stop the Republicans, who held both the executive branch and legislative would become obsessed with their own power and bring this country down?
Do you remember how the partisan republicans and conservatives (not always the same thing) kept going “OOoohh that Clinton!” over and over? Remember how they remained blind to what was going on and just focused that hate on Clinton? How whenever you brought anything up it was “but Clinton?”
I do. I never liked W. I hated the fact that he had a republican congress and executive and there were no checks on our government and legislation was passed without thoughtful review. I was ashamed that W did not lift his veto pen for 6 years. Pork ran rampant and spending increased.
Now, things are the same. I do not like our president and hate the fact that the congress is also democratic, so there are no checks on their power and they are passing legislation without any thoughtful review. I try to explain to people that we need checks on power and our country will be bankrupt in a flurry of spending and pork and ridiculous taxes like cap and trade when NASA tells us we are cooling. Obama’s veto pen is starting to get dusty.
But what happens now? I am stuck with a bunch of partisan democrats and liberals (not always the same thing) who respond to any attempt at thoughtful discussion with “OOOoohh that Bush!” And when I try to discuss the ludicrous things going on in Washington all I get is “But Bush . . .”
Thanks for throwing fuel on the fire Jay. Use that old Republican strategy of keeping focus away from what’s actually going on by feeding on hate for the old administration. We’ll all go down together, see you at the bottom.
On the presidents scale recently
worst: Obama
2nd worst, by a hair: Bush
Looking better all the time: Clinton
lovelyliz
June 24th, 2009
9:03 am
Believing in you divine right to be right about quite often leads you to be wrong. The human race has free will for a reason. Unfortunately,, too many in the Bush adminstratin just couldn’t grasp the concept that their divine providence could be off.
USinUK
June 24th, 2009
9:04 am
Jay –
you’re forgetting – CHENEY CHOSE HIMSELF!!! He headed up the Veep search … and after poring through loads of resumes and conducting countless interviews, he decided that the BEST person to serve as Veep was … HIMSELF.
oh, yeah, the puppetmaster was at work from Day 1
Bosch
June 24th, 2009
9:05 am
Bush didn’t choose Cheney to be his running mate – Cheney chose himself. He was on the VP selection committee, and he just decided the best VP choice was him! Cheney knew he could never be the President, so he settled for the next best thing – the President’s puppetmaster.
Dick Cheney = Evil
godless heathen
June 24th, 2009
9:05 am
Bush must have done a lot right to get the libs to hate him so much.
WhoCares
June 24th, 2009
9:06 am
Gasoline under a dollar a gallon? When? Where? Damn I’m getting old cuz I don’t remember the last time gas was under a dollar a gallon.
Bosch
June 24th, 2009
9:06 am
USinUK (your name is hard to type),
As DB told me the other day when we had a similar thing happen – “Get out of my head!”
USinUK
June 24th, 2009
9:07 am
Bosch -
““Get out of my head!””
I prefer “Great minds think alike”
Gandalf, the White! (!)
June 24th, 2009
9:07 am
Jay, you are moonbat! How goes the job search?
WhoCares
June 24th, 2009
9:08 am
Doesn’t somebody owe a coke?
Bosch
June 24th, 2009
9:09 am
USinUK,
Yeah, that’s better.
The other sounds sort of mean.
USinUK
June 24th, 2009
9:10 am
“Bush must have done a lot right to get the libs to hate him so much”
well, gee … there was stealing an election in 2000 … then reversing the environmental rules … then enforcing the global gag rule … then ignoring the “Osama wants to attack the US memo” (complete with the lovely quote “well, now you’ve covered your butt”) … then there was the manipulation of 9/11 into an unnecessary war in Iraq … I’d go on, but my blood pressure is going up …
if you want to call all of that “right” … then it must be interesting in your world where the clock strikes thirteen and we’ve always been at war with East Asia …
Normal
June 24th, 2009
9:11 am
USinUk, you are right about Cheney, of course, but George W. wore the title of President of the United States of America. “Puppet” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The last administration should be considered an insult by all of the people of this country, some just don’t get it.
jconservative
June 24th, 2009
9:11 am
Good point re Cheney & Rumsfeld & their influence on Bush. If you recall, after Bush, Cheney was the most visible person in the administration. After Bush canned Rumsfeld Cheney became almost invisible.
Reports from WH insiders say Cheney & Bush had a real hard argument over Rumsfeld that got way to personal. Rumsfeld was Cheney’s man & he took the dismissal personally.
USinUK
June 24th, 2009
9:11 am
whocares – I think one of us has to yell “JINX!!! youowemeacoke!”