Dominic Baez

President George W. Bush has been in office for 2,774 days. That’s 2,774 days too many. He has 74 days left. That’s 74 days too many. With the much-needed election of Barack Obama, President Bush is now a certified lame duck who should quickly disappear in the rear view mirror; at least, I hope so.
The past eight years have been absolutely ridiculous. In 2000, the nation elected someone they’d like to have a beer with. Wow. Really? I know I wouldn’t want to get drunk with the man who has to deal with that 3 a.m. phone call. But what do I know, right?
All was well, at least until Sept. 11.
I remember that day: I stayed home from school because I was sick, and I recall vividly being upset because my cartoons weren’t on. That horrendous event will forever be a horrific part of American history, but some good did come of it: Bush soared when those towers in New York came down. I still remember the speech he gave three days later, one that brought together the nation. It was quite rousing, to say the least. I have not felt as patriotic since, until Obama was elected that is. It was arguably Bush’s finest hour. Reports stated he had a 90 percent approval rating, not to mention the entire world was up-in-arms and ready to aid the United States in defeating terrorism.
But Bush blew it, and he blew it big time. The next seven years proved to be an uncontrolled spiral of craziness. Here’s just a small list: the invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, torture, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, domestic spying, secrecy, lost White House e-mails, zero accountability, an economy in ruins and, my personal favorite, the USA PATRIOT Act. Does the Fourth Amendment come to anyone’s mind? I guess not. This current Cabinet has to be one of most secret in recent history, restricting what shouldn’t be restricted and hiding what shouldn’t be hidden.
In 2008, the History News Network conducted an unscientific poll among 109 professional historians. The poll uncovered that among those historians, 98 percent believed the Bush presidency was a failure, and 61 percent believed it to be the worst in history.
This is a quote from one of the respondents: “No individual president can compare to the second Bush. Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill.
In short, no other president’s faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large.”
An article from the Nov. 4 online edition of the Baltimore Sun summed up my feelings regarding Bush perfectly: “[Bush] soon became famous for exploiting divisions, refusing to hold himself or his subordinates accountable, letting expenditures soar and making America synonymous with arrogance in much of the world. Whatever Americans hoped President Bush would provide, it’s safe to say that an open-ended war, an assault on the Constitution and an economic panic were not among them.”
I agree with CNN’s Jack Cafferty: “President Bush will leave office as arguably one of the worst presidents this country ever had.”
His approval ratings are at an all-time low, 19 percent, and he didn’t even show on the campaign trail, which undoubtedly only helped Sen. John McCain.
“The ultimate irony is without the utter disaster that was the Bush presidency, an African-American would probably not have been elected president,” Cafferty said. “Funny how things work out. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, did as much to get Barack Obama elected as the primary voters in Iowa did on a cold January night earlier this year.”
I thank President Bush for his service, but enough is enough. His presidency is just about done; thank goodness, as it was not soon enough for me.