Bush In History

And let’s not forget how he single-handedly scuttled hope and a better quality of life for so many, including those suffering grievously from his war, by imposing his strident religious views on the country and so curtailing stem cell research.

Mr. Riccards didn't mention President Bush's biggest mistake--not being a true conservative. Expanding federal government, creating a new federal agency, the largest expansion of entitlements since Johnson, using traditionally liberal conceptions of warfare and the nation's role abroad (Wilson and spreading democracy, Truman with presidential war powers in Korea, and Johnson with presidential war powers in Vietnam).

The man who said "When people are hurting, they need a caring person, not a government bureaucracy," further bureaucracized the muddled Healthcare system with his $500 billion expansion of Medicare.

Hold up, why do liberals hate Bush again?

Sorry, but I've come to that conclusion. I see he conveniently leaves out Jimmy Carter, the author of 21% interest rates, 15% unemployment and 16% inflation. Carter also caved on foriegn policy and couldn't free our hostages after 444 days.
He talks about Clinton going to New Orleans but conveniently forgets that Kathleen Blanco failed to sign a declaration allowing federal help in the disaster.
Riccards talks about running "unscrupulous campaigns", but forgets that was the expertise of the Clinton administration with the "bimbo eruptions" team, attacking anyone who dared challenge the Clintons. Clinton sold nuke technology to the Chinese for campaign cash, oversaw the murder of over 80 Branch Dividians and had three shots to get Bin Laden and declined.
And, oh, that's right, Clinton is an admitted felon.
Bush is certainly not the best President, to be sure. But Bush needs to be compared in an unbiasd fashion, and Riccards certainly is not the person to make that judgement, as past columns have proven.
The one thing I admire about Bush is that the buck absolutely stopped with him. He took the blame for the Katrina mess and never blamed Blanco or Nagin, and they were equally culpable. He never blamed his advisors in Iraq, he took the blame. That is sommething that never could be said for Clinton, who was always pointing the finger at someone else.

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Weary, I appreciate your attempts at Obaminizing public discourse (please don’t attack anything I say or do but to the extent you feel you need to, don’t attack me only my message so long as you are ready to apologize when I take offense to that) but my calling you delusional was not an attack as much as it was an observation as you so ridiculously claim embryonic stem cell research, if only funded publicly, would save our war vets. That is a delusional statement if ever one was uttered. And in true Obama fashion, rather than respond with evidence to back the claim you respond with you are picking on me. The simple roadblock to your argument for taxpayer funded embryonic stem cell research is to date no evidence has shown beneficial results of such research. Additionally, Bush didn’t block all research, just publicly funded research. Any private entity willing to pay for embryonic research can do so. Science is free to fund this research all it wants; no freedom is being thwarted. As for Reagan benefiting from such research, again I say, prove how his 96 years would have been prolonged from as yet unproven experimentation. Need I remind you when Alzheimer’s first began interfering with the life of President Reagan, discussions on the proper use of dead baby parts was still in at the macro-level. It wasn’t until well into his final years, when the disease had taken permanent hold, had the discussion changed to micro. Even if Bush approved public funding for embryonic stem cell, Reagan would not have benefited from it. Neither would have Superman, nor will every middle-aged republican male’s role model, Alex P. Keaton, because the science isn’t there. It is a dead end. Death begets death, it’s a cosmic thing. And stop being so disheartened and discouraged (and weary). Negative energy draws more negative energy. That’s cosmic, too.

Fair enough. I won’t argue the ranking of Bush’s failings. Each would experience the impacts differently depending on where he sits.

RR: I find that a rather creative misinterpretation of “Why is it you need take on my person in addition to my paragraph?”

Public funding has significantly greater impact, and ripple effects on private funding.

Blastocytes are not “dead baby parts.” They are discarded routinely from fertility clinics. Congress twice passed a law—the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act-- to allow federal funding for stem cell research on those blastocytes that donors choose to donate to science rather than discard, and both times Bush vetoed it

Stem cell therapies might assist traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severed nerves, for example.

I don’t see much of a chance of influencing your views, and I’m comfortable with others drawing their own conclusions. I’ll stick with the scientists.