It’s Over—and Not a Moment Too Soon

It’s Over—and Not a Moment Too Soon

Posted on Jan 20, 2009

By Marie Cocco


Sixteen years ago, as another Bush ended his presidency, the retrospective I wrote began by noting that George Herbert Walker Bush once said he’d aspired to the Oval Office because he was awed by “the honor of it all.”

Now his son leaves the White House with less honor and with lower public approval than any other president since Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace over Watergate. The public bursts with expectation for the presidency of Barack Obama, who is seen as a savior from the political stress of the past eight years.

Bush’s campaign catchphrase in 2000 was that he would restore “honor and dignity” to the White House after the ethical imbroglios of the Clinton era. It was a cruel and cynical platitude. This was evident even before he was sworn in.

Bush’s strategy during the Florida recount that would put him in the Oval Office was to flex his family’s political muscle, manipulate Republican sycophants who oversaw state elections, and get the courts to shut down the vote count. Who can forget the shocking “white-collar riot” staged by a phalanx of Republican operatives who descended in a shouting, fist-pounding mob on a municipal office in Miami where ballots were being tallied? The intimidation worked to stop the counting that day.

Bush has not expressed shame or sorrow at this mocking of democracy. The affront to the rule of law was established as precedent. The world would soon experience the same bullying tactics.

The nation would also weep at Bush’s odd detachment from the consequences of his actions—or inaction, as in the tragedy of his gross failure to respond properly to Hurricane Katrina. The president in his farewell news conference lamented being misunderstood because he didn’t do some things differently—“like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge.”

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090120_its_over_--_and_not_a_moment_too_soon/

him and how he could have done his photo ops better.