Thank you, George W. Bush.

[BigRedJed]

Dear President Bush,

Thank you for your 8 years of national public service, and your years prior, serving on the state level. You have presided over some very difficult times in our great country. Some, mired in partisan rhetoric, blame you fully for those problems. Some (very few these days), stuck in the same trap, blame you for none. As in much of the political world, the answer probably lies somewhere in between.

My personal observation, however, is that you served this country the best way you knew how. Your response to the greatest terrorist attack in U.S. history was initially universally lauded. Perhaps that response grew into something that it should not have, but the fact remains that on our own soil in the years since, Americans have remained unharmed.

While many of your opponents saw you as simple-minded, I instead saw you as single-minded, which at times proved to be detrimental. But I personally have never wavered in my belief that your personal motivation for whatever actions you took while in office came from a belief that you were doing the right thing for the United States. First and foremost, that needs to be the motivation for all who hold your office.

As you leave office, history, rather than partisan positioning, will be the judge of your presidency. I suspect that future generations will view you in a better light than does our present, polarized, frustrated, media-driven and beleaguered society.

Did you make mistakes? Of course. Perhaps your greatest failure was an unwillingness to readily admit to them. Your public relations skill admittedly left much to be desired. But you also championed causes, some of which were even unpopular with your own base, which will in years to come prove to have a postive impact on many millions of people in this country and around the world. During your post-Presidential years, please dwell upon those with satisfaction, and let the current criticism roll off your shoulders. You cannot undo that which has already been done.

Thank you also for the gracious manner in which you have handled the transition to your successor's administration. The position you have held for the past eight years is too important to allow it to be burdened with pettines, something some of your predecessors failed to understand. Based on its current problems, our country needs the new President to hit the ground running, with as little partisan bickering as possible. Your actions have allowed this to happen as much as is possible in today's political climate. Additionally, you have proven yet again to the rest of the world that despite all of its flaws, the United States of America boasts the most righteous model of government in the world today, one that allows for a peaceful transition of power between two very idealogically different leaders, based upon choices made by its people.

Mr. President, thank you for being an American who was willing to serve your country. As you leave office, please pray for the man who will occupy the office you are vacating, a man who now needs all the help he can get. I am convinced that you will do so.

[85Sooner]

here here

[olevetonahill]

Well said, bro

[I Am Right]

Good Job

[swardboy]

Righteous words.......

[1890MilesToNorman]

:D :D

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Dear President Bush,...

...But you also championed causes, some of which were even unpopular with your own base, which will in years to come prove to have a postive impact on many millions of people in this country and around the world. During your post-Presidential years, please dwell upon those with satisfaction, and let the current criticism roll off your shoulders.
Good letter, but pls explain the above. Thnx

[tommieharris91]

Good letter, but pls explain the above. Thnx

Start with bailouts of just about every industry...

[Boomer_Sooner_sax]

I totally agree. I think the US will miss him more than most will admit. He did what was right for America and was concerned about America's interests first, and I believe that to be a great leader. Cheers to you President Bush 43, and thank you for your service!

[GrapevineSooner]

I obviously disagreed with his boondoggle government spending programs from the prescription drug program to No Child Left Behind.

But the man made his decisions because he felt they were right for the country. And he had a ton more class than the whiny petulant leftards will ever have. To be sure, I expect Obama will have similar petulant critics on the right. And just as Bush has, I'm sure he'll handle them with the same class.

For Bush's sake, I'm relieved his Presidency is over and he can get back to his Texas roots. Amazing how much a Presidency can age somebody.

[picasso]

boo for spending too much money and boo for not making your case better in anything, in all of China.

[SoonerStormchaser]

I've already said what I think about the unrepentant diehard haters...and I still feel that way.

[crawfish]

Good post.

[47straight]

Good letter, but pls explain the above. Thnx

His aid programs to Africa have been spendy but pretty effective, in both an immediate and long-term sense. Millions of lives saved is not an exaggeration.

[OklahomaTuba]

Bush will be missed.

And I hope that Obama can be HALF as strong as Bush was, and that he does succeed and makes us all better off. We should all hope for that.

[SoonerStormchaser]

But you'll never hear the media report that...just that he killed babies in Iraq and let New Orleans flood.

[BigRedJed]

Good letter, but pls explain the above. Thnx
That would involve and encourage policy debate in this thread, which I can't stop, but would like to avoid. We have had and will have plenty of threads where policy debate is available in abundance.

I intended this thread to be thanks to a man who I personally believe conducted himself with the best interests of the country foremost in his mind, regardless of whether any or all of his decisions were good or bad. I think it is fair to agree with him or disagree with him on most or all of it. Being able to do so openly is much of what makes America great. But it can be/could have been done without casting him in the light of "evil," as plenty of people chose to portray him. Perhaps some of the people he surrounded himself with had self-serving personal or political agendas, or put party over country, but in my heart I don't believe that selfishness describes George W. Bush. In fact, he might have in some ways been done in by his own idealism.

Personally, I agreed with him on far more than most probably do/did, but that's beside the point. His administration is over. Debating it is pointless. Now there is a new man for the country and the pundits to maliciously tear apart for their own political advantage.

[OklahomaTuba]

Is Rachel Maddow a chick or a dude???


OR BOTH???!??!??

[AggieTool]

This thread is chock full of 20% 'ers.;)

[OklahomaTuba]

He did manage to have two-three times the approval ratings the donks have in congress, even at his lowest.

So, just say'n.

[SteelClip49]

WOW...don't remember this much credit ever given to Bush since he threw out the first pitch in 2001 before a Yankee game.

[LosAngelesSooner]

I disagree with almost everything said so far, but I'm gonna leave this thread alone so you guys can have a peaceful wake. Lift your glasses...

[Boomer_Sooner_sax]

I disagree with almost everything said so far, but I'm gonna leave this thread alone so you guys can have a peaceful wake. Lift your glasses...

I respect your opinion, but I also don't think we or anyone else ever treated Bush like the second coming of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine what the love affair with this guy is. I don't think he is charming, charismatic, or even interesting, but the is my $.02. I respect Obama since he is our President, something a lot of Donks couldn't say during Bush's terms and now they wonder why we are upset with a Donk in office. Go figure. :rolleyes:

[JLEW1818]

LA what do you think about what the Rev said??? "brown can stick around"??

[LosAngelesSooner]

I have always thought Jesse Jackson was an idiot.

[OklahomaTuba]

White debils, all of you.

[GrapevineSooner]

I disagree with almost everything said so far, but I'm gonna leave this thread alone so you guys can have a peaceful wake. Lift your glasses...

Duly noted.

Now go back to your own sandbox. ;)

[LosAngelesSooner]

Duly noted.

Now go back to your own sandbox. ;)Word.

I'm having more fun reading the recruiting boards right now, anyway. I'm kinda concerned about our WR recruiting right now... (while occasionally stirring the pot in my STFU thread. :D)

;)

Now, back to your barbecue...

[85Sooner]

So here is CLASS.

The crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye," a section of the crowd chanted.

The crowd packed immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath office to become the 44th president of the United States.

The jeers are among the final public feedback Bush will receive as president.

First Lady Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney received light applause when they were announced to the crowd.

Bush is scheduled to depart from the East Front of the Capitol by helicopter after the swearing-in ceremony.

Obama received the loudest sustained cheers from thousands who chanted his name.

Before Obama took the stage the crowd gave its warmest welcome to former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)

Vice-president elect Joe Biden also Michelle Obama also received warm welcomes.

House Democratic lawmakers formed a raucous audience from the section of seats rising immediately south of the speaker's podium.

They launched into a "Rahmbo" chant when they spotted White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

[Jerk]

Thank you for kicking the sh*t out of our Islamic terrorist enemies, and of course, thank you for Alito and Roberts. I'm not sure what else I can thank Mr. Bush for, unless I throw in the fact that he gave the moonbats fits. They hated him in every way, and saw every wrong as his fault.

Bush did "OK." He protected this nation from attacks, went on the offensive in the Euphrates , kept our taxes from going up, preserved our right to practice our very own self-preservation, and put most of AQ in the grave.

He failed to secure our southern boarder, failed to control government spending, and failed to intervene soon enough in Louisiana...no doubt because their government was incompetent ( Mississippi did fine ).

So long. Your biggest weakness was that you always tried to reach out and compromise with people who absolutely hated your guts.

Obama will fire all of your federal attorneys, and the media and the liberals here, won't say nothing.

[BigRedJed]

Please guys, save the partisan bickering for one of the many threads dedicated to it. I started it to thank someone for giving 8 years of difficult service to his country. If President Obama does the same during his term or terms, and if I feel like he gave it honest, heartfelt effort, I promise to start a thread just like this one, thanking him.

Personally, where I probably differ from a lot of the posters in this thread is that I suspect I WILL want to start one. Right now, I'm pretty grossed out by the public pants wetting and messianic crap, and because of his liberal record I darn sure didn't vote for him, but -- call me naive -- I believe that he also fundamentally wants to to the right thing for this country, even if he and I disagree on what the right thing is.

I think the thing that will protect America from his most pronounced liberal tendencies will be politics itself. He is the consummate politician, and what every incumbent wants more than anything is re-election. The only way he will be re-elected is to build the bridges he claims to want to build, and to surprise liberals and conservatives alike by governing mostly from the center, a la William Jefferson Clinton. Again, call me naive, but while I am not swept up in the Age of Obama, I don't share the same doom and gloom outlook that most of my Republican bretheren does. I'm far more concerned about what an overreaching, "empowered" Congress might have in store for us.

So there you have it: LAS lumps me in with the neocons, and the super-right on this board will dismiss me as liberal trash, and in my mind it means that I'm probably doing something right.

I just wanted to honor a longtime public servant, one I respect despite his unpopularity, as the end of his service is drowned out by the cacophony surrounding the inauguration of his sucessor. As much as anything I admire the way President Bush conducted himself during the transition. Despite all of the nastiness of party-based polarization over the last decade or so, including the unapologetic beatdown he has taken from opponents, the public and the media alike, culminating in this most recent political season, he handled himself with nothing but class since the election.

Personally, I think that America would be at its best if we could all agree to disagree, without hating one another. Of course, I'm probably talking now about an America that doesn't really exist, and is as far from that now as it has been in a long, long time. If I'm pulling for the new President to accomplish one single thing, it's to reverse that trend.

[LosAngelesSooner]

So there you have it: LAS lumps me in with the neocons, and the super-right on this board will dismiss me as liberal trash, and in my mind it means that I'm probably doing something right.I don't remember ever lumping you in with any group. :)

[OklahomaTuba]

Remember what the left did to Bush in 2001???

http://doubleplusundead.mee.nu/will_mccain-palin_supporters_act_the_same_way

Only seems to be one group of folks out there causing the problem, and its not the right.

[LosAngelesSooner]

You're right, Tuba. There's nobody bad on the "Right" at all. Only the "Left" has bad people.

[KC//CRIMSON]

Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye!

[olevetonahill]

Jed , Bro yer a Mod . Move the Idjits Posts to Las's thread ;)
Yer welcome .

[BigRedJed]

Nah. Whatever will be will be.

[olevetonahill]

I do believe that some of these folks Instead of Telling their Loved ones good By with heir Last Breath will try Blame their Death On GW .

[bonkuba]

Thank you W..........my family is safe because of you.

God Bless and now God help us.

[KC//CRIMSON]

http://www.theboxset.com/images/reviewcaptures/612capture_tombstone03.jpg

Well, bye!

[bonkuba]

Man........I got a PM from one of the loons saying my post was moronic.....so here it is in ALL CAPS so you can here my all the way over there to the left where ya are my friendly village idiot.

THANK YOU W......MY FAMILY IS SAFE BECAUSE OF YOU.

GOD BLESS AND NOW GOD HELP US!! (also the hard headed individuals that can't understand a simple truth).

I love repeating truths.

Now back to work :D

[LosAngelesSooner]

Do you love repeating truths using bad grammar, incoherent ramblings and misspelled words?

Thanks. Back to work you go.

[BigRedJed]

You seriously had to bump this thread two days later to take that shot? Geez. My thread bids you all adieu.

*click*