Bushed

Today marks the start of George W. Bush's last year as the nation's chief executive. As 2008 is a leap year, we have 366 days remaining in what is certainly the worst presidency of my lifetime and will likely be regarded as being among the worst in American history.

Bush's comments that future historians will be a better judge of his tenure are a fairy tale, like most of what he says he believes. His administration, characterized by decisions made by a small group of twisted ideologues, has done vast damage to the country and the world in ways that will take decades to repair -- if repairs are indeed possible.

It is enormously disturbing that Bush and his people were able to filch the 2000 election from the arms of democracy; then, in 2004, it was equally upsetting to see that any Americans would actually vote to reelect someone who was clearly so incompetent and disingenuous.

Look around: the US military is mired in Iraq; the economy is tanking; we've gone backwards on the environment, healthcare, consumer safety, etc.; and America has virtually no credibility throughout the world. Are you better off than you were eight years ago? Is the world a safer place?

There's no argument that Iraq has become less violent since the surge of US troops arrived there last spring, but it doesn't take a genius to agree that more soldiers on the ground make it easier to control the insurgency. The success of the surge only emphasizes how badly Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld screwed up when they dismissed estimates, some by career military men, that more troops would be needed in post-war Iraq.

But the fact that Baghdad is a little quieter these days distracts from the point of the surge, which was to provide stability so that Iraq's politicians could come together to solve the large and numerous issues that keep their government from working. So far there has been little progress there, with the country's legislature even taking off last summer because of "the heat," even while American soldiers were out in that same heat in full gear -- and even while some of those soldiers were being killed and wounded.

Speaking of vacations, here is a point that has not been discussed enough, yet is a microcosm of Bush's time in office. Back in the summer of 2001, after about half a year in office, the president left Washington for a month to vacation at his Texas ranch. From Aug. 3 to Sept. 3 he was out of the nation's capital, even as Mohamed Atta was receiving money wired from al-Qaeda, rounding up the other hijackers and purchasing a utility knife at Wal-Mart. On Aug. 6 -- the day that the he was given an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" -- Bush was so concerned about the implications of that memo that he played golf that morning.

We can't be positive that the 9/11 plot would have been stopped if the president were less disengaged and more vigilant, but I don't think it is a stretch to imagine that if Al Gore had been in office on that day -- even if he was working on the problem of terrorism all his waking hours -- the Republican Congress would have not only blamed him, but would have immediately initiated impeachment hearings.

George W. Bush should never have been elected, even once, to the White House -- and wouldn't have if it weren't for large sums of money, dirty tricks and a conservative Supreme Court. He should never have received his party's nomination in 2000. At this point we can only hope to survive one more year with him in charge, and we can only hope that our fellow citizens have seen enough of what happens when we fail to scrutinize closely our choices in the ballot box.