John Bolton: US Voters agree George W Bush left Barack Obama with a mess

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9301097/John-Bolton-US-Voters-agree-George-W-Bush-left-Barack-Obama-with-a-mess.html

John Bolton, Mr Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, said it would not be helpful for the Republicans to more vigorously defend the former president's record, which Democrats have sharply criticised.

"I think people would agree with Obama that he was left with a mess," Mr Bolton told The Daily Telegraph. "They're not arguing about that, and that's why it doesn't pay for Romney to argue whether it was a big mess or a little mess.

"Hillary and I, we've spent the last three and a half years cleaning up after other folks' messes," Mr Obama told a fund-raiser last month. Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Mr Obama, said that Mr Romney's campaign could be summarised as: "You didn't clean up our mess fast enough".

A recent CNN poll found 56 per cent of voters continued to blame Mr Bush and the Republicans for the country's economic problems, while only 29 per cent blamed Mr Obama and the Democrats. Only Richard Nixon ranked lower than Mr Bush in a Gallup poll on the last eight presidents earlier this year.

[Hawkowl]

1. What?!

Nixon was WAY better than shrub!

[CTyankee]

2. I never thought I'd see the day that I would agree with what you just said!

Back in the day I thought Nixon was evil personified. I am sadder but wiser...

[Drunken Irishman]

4. I don't know...

Both were awful in their own ways. Nixon really was the first president who diminished the respect afforded to the presidency and I don't know if we've ever gotten back to that point since. You know, as much as we disliked past presidents and protested them and voted 'em out of office, there was still a respect for the office. Even LBJ left office with a 49-38 approval rating in January '69.

Nixon changed that. Ever since he resigned, ever since Watergate tainted the office, we've not looked at the office the same way. Carter was the one who really suffered the most for it, since Americans had become so distrusting of the presidency over Vietnam & Watergate that when things went south fast, he could never really gain the public's trust.

In reality, Nixon was really the first president that successfully divided us. He made politics polarizing and we're still there today. Why? Because you have a huge segment of the population now that, since the 1970s, has been taught to hate the federal government and the programs that come with it. That started with Nixon.

So, I can see why Nixon is there. He was the first president in history to really disgrace the office. He was the first divisive president we've had in how long? Think about it. LBJ fucked up with Vietnam, but he didn't actively try to divide us. Neither did Kennedy or Eisenhower or Truman or FDR or even Hoover. Nixon did, though. He was the father of divided politics that gave way to the rise of the conservative right - even if, ironically, he was more moderate. His Southern Strategy has been used by every Republican since and in some instances, to great success. The addition of Watergate, completely wiping his ass with the U.S. Constitution, his hateful rants that have ultimately been released to the American people - by suggesting blacks should abort their children to anti-semitic remarks - and everything else does position him for the honor of Worst President Ever - if only because the way he led, the deceit in Vietnam, the lead up to Kent State, and so on, is damning and awful and I hope he's burning in hell because he is George W. Bush. He is Ronald Reagan. He is the every right-wing racist asshole this country has had to put up with for the last 40 years.

Nixon started it all.

[DCKit]

5. You right good. Seriously, well stated!

After that, I'm thinking that Reagan was an amateur, simply building on what Nixon started, and it's only gone downhill since.

Nowadays, the Republicans aren't even smart enough to follow a template. RMoney isn't prepared to talk about anything beyond "why aren't we talking about the economy and jobs?"

[chollybocker]

3. "Chickenhawk cheerleader declares war on self."

"Still refuses to lose sleep over it."

Fixed.