Time to come clean: how many DUers approved of GW Bush after 9-11?

[skipos]

Poll question: Time to come clean: how many DUers approved of GW Bush after 9-11?

According to most pollsters GW Bush's approval ratings right after 9-11 were somewhere in the 80s or 90s. That's a large majority of Americans, and I am wondering if there were any DUer's in that group.

Please Complete the following sentence...

"Right after 9-11..."

[trumad]

1. LIHOP

[Aristus]

2. Right after 9-11, I thought of George W. Bush:

"You arrogant, pinheaded prick! This is all your fucking fault!"

That answer your question?

[zonmoy]

21. simularly my first thought was that the whole thing

was some sort of plot by the government to allow them to take over the world.

[PWRinNY]

29. Me too nt

[riderinthestorm]

37. I said MIHOP as the second tower fell

I have had a visceral dislike of the criminal moran since he first stepped up and announced himself as a candidate. From the despicable selection by the Supremes to the Iraq War debacle, I would be hard pressed to find any moment when I haven't been utterly disgusted by this BFEE front-man.

[durrrty libby]

3. I've loathed him from day 1 and 9/11 didn't change a thing n/t

[texasleo]

4. you'd be surprised at how united DU was on that day.

check the archives.

[tocqueville]

5. your IP adresses are being recorded

just kidding...

[file83]

46. LOL

no, but seriously, they are....





:rofl:

[Gman]

6. I thought at first 9/11 was retaliation for Bush allowing Israel to

kill as many Palestinians as it could during the Intifada and ranted senselessly about it here on DU. In any event, I knew Bush was to blame.

[saltpoint]

7. Had a pollster contacted me, my response to Bush would have been

very negative.

I didn't like him in the first place, and I vaguely resented, at that early stage, what I knew would be an exploitative series of grandstanding conceits.

It didn't take him long to show up at "Ground Zero" with that bullhorn, either.

What a little puke.

[cushla_machree]

17. i remember being pissed off

Because he was off on vacation AGAIN. and i disctinctly remember watching tv and waiting to hear a response from clinton, because i never considered bush my president. I watched the debates in 2000, he was dumb then, dumb now.

[saltpoint]

22. Yes. Bush is a terrible debator. The worst of my lifetime, definitely.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Like the Kinsey poll in the lounge...

I doubt many, otherwise well intentioned, people will be honest with this one.

[stop the bleeding]

9. Resident of Florida since 1996 - voted in 2000 and 2004

:mad:

[MissWaverly]

10. Why wasn't there an investigation

Why wasn't there a real forensic investigation with arson investigators looking for clues,
why was everything dealt with by "smoke him out of his cave" and bring him back "dead or alive"
Why wasn't there a major thing with interpol and track the money and punish the collaborators,
all I saw was 1 press conference where they announced who did it, for the cost in human
suffering I thought everything was handled in a disjointed way. I thought the same thing
during Katrina. I know people will think I am just posturing here, but when I was young
I was involved in an investigation into a hotel fire that killed 11 people. It was dealt
with in a very meticulous, careful way and the press were on the scene from day 1, it
didn't happen with 9-11 unfortunately.

[Ron Green]

11. I heard about the attacks as I arrived at work that morning,

and watched the towers fall on TV. I was saying aloud, "Where the hell is that little pissant? Why doesn't he stand up and say something?" These musings were no surprise to my co-workers, who knew the extent of my scorn and derision from well before the stolen election.

[Jigarotta]

12. never believed or trusted him for one moment after 2000. nt

[Sanity Claws]

13. Not sure -- probably neutral

I thought it was awful that the Supreme Court interfered in the election but I don't think I bore Bush a tremendous amount of ill will. I remember thinking that the country survived 8 years of Reagan and so we can survive Bush too.
After 9/11,I probably would have answered a pollster's question by saying I was neutral toward bush or held no opinion.
What turned me against Bush strongly was the invasion of Iraq. Since then, it's been bitter hatred.

[Quantess]

Me too.

I've never liked *. But back then, my loathing wasn't as intense as it is now.

[pookieblue]

14. Right after 9-11

I was in complete shock.

and to tell the truth, I wanted 'our dear leader' to come out and speak to us.

But he took so long.

And all I could think was, if it was Gore in the White House, he wouldn't have waited so long. If Clinton was still Prez, he wouldn't have waited so long.

We would have heard something that same day...

Now as time went by, and I started to find out more and more.

I realized, if Clinton and Gore had been in DC, 9-11 most likely wouldn't not have happened.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. me too

I was impressed with the bullhorn moment, for a week or two. It didn't take long to come back to my senses.

And then I started to learn, and got MAD!

[Yollam]

62. I was NOT impressed.

On the day of 9-11, one of my co-workers said "Thank GOD Bush is president, not Gore." Now I had not been a Gore supporter, but this infuriated me to no end, because by Sep. '01, it was already clear that Bush was doing horrible job. Remember the Ehime Maru and the spy plane downed in China? I was like, "What? Thousands of people have died, and you're spewing partisan political crap? What is your problem?!" She said "well, you know, because the republicans will fight back and not just sit back and sing kumbayah." I would like to say I went off and had a big fight, but it hardly seeemd the time to have a big dumb argument, so I let it go. Then a few days later when POS Bush climbed atop the mountain of corpses which we later learned were a result of his incompetence, and started barking a bunch of platitudes through a bullhorn, I was utterly mystified at the way everyone rallied around him. I thought he sounded as dumb and rehearsed as always, and that he hadn't done anything any other president wouldn't have done.

There must be a wire loose in my head, because I'm seldom able to participate in that kind of groupthink.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

15. I could not stand GWB from the day he was appointed

I was devastated that Gore was hung out to dry. I could not bear to watch the grinning cowboy on TV.

9/11, however, really knocked me for a loop. I had seen those buildings go up in my teen years, and one of the big things to do in Somerville was to go out onto the mountain where you could see the WTC. And half my northern family and many alumnae from my high school worked there. So I took it rather personally and I looked to GWB no longer as an individual but as the leader of America. I gave him loyalty until, oddly enough, "mission accomplished." That really stuck in my craw. Katrina was the icing on the cake...literally. So there was about a two-year period I might have given a favorable poll response. But nobody asked me.

If Al Gore ever announces he is running, I will burst out in tears. And I will work in his office in Tallahassee every damned afternoon after work until he is where he rightfully belongs.

T-Grannie

[Cha]

16. I was a proud member

of the so called 10% club. I don't know how anyone could have given bush a positive rating when the fucker was asleep on 9/11 and then ran around and hid from the country.

[smokey nj]

19. My husband and I....

discussed our concerns about who was in charge. We made a list of Presidents we WISHED we had at that moment. FDR, JFK, Lincoln, Ike topped the list. We also kicked ourselves for our Nader votes in 2000.

[6000eliot]

20. I thought he ran away like a little girl.

Clinton would have been right there at ground zero. In fact, Clinton was right there long before the idiot got there.

[driver8]

23. That is exactly what he did.

He is the biggest phony on the planet.

[pauliedangerously]

55. That's a great pic

It is now my desktop background.

Thanks!

[driver8]

56. You are welcome!

I wish I could take credit for it...I found it on the internets.

[fishwax]

24. I remember listening to his post 9/11 address in a bowling alley in

central oklahoma. Our company's bowling league was on Thursday night, and they played his speech over the PA instead of the usual music. I did not approve of him before 9/11, and his handling of the situation did nothing to improve my impression of him.

That said, I wasn't quite as bold as one of my teammates, who was engaging in an argument with bush, quite vocally taking issue with the points our president made. At times, he expressed this disagreement in rather profane and aggressive terms.

I pretty much agreed with everything my friend said that night, though I confess I tried to hush him, as I thought swearing at our president in an Oklahoma bar/bowling alley a few days after 9/11 might jeopardize our physical well-being :)

[FrenchieCat]

25. I think many DUers were part of the 10% that opposed Bush even then....

I certainly was.

My BS meter is calibrated to the highest degree.

[FiveGoodMen]

26. I blamed Bush immediately.

The same week I told (former) friends that there were champagne corks popping among the Bushies when the towers went down.

My opinion hasn't changed in the least since then.

[Redstone]

27. Not me, cool. I got screamed at because I told people "This is NOT

going to make him any smarter."

Redstone

[ismnotwasm]

28. I was still lurking here at that time

Or maybe it was Bartcop (that's how I found DU) I don't remember.
I was at work, it was early in the morning and my husband called me to tell me what happened. I will never forget that day of course. I remember cursing bush without knowing all the facts. I figured his incompetence, or agenda had something to do with it. I bought in the the MIHOP for a minute or so.

I had told some friends if bush got elected we'd go to war with somebody, a glance a history told me that.
I thought he was an incompetent dickhead before he was elected and nothing he's ever done changed my mind. He pissed me off immediately.

In fact, I was a third party voter (usually the Socialist party, except in local politics and sometimes then.) until the FIRST time bush ran for president and I KNEW I had to throw in with the Dems, or the world would go to hell in a shit basket.

I was right. I'm getting me one of those shirts with the dem donkey giving the finger and caption "Told you so" (Saw it here somewhere)

[Rocknrule]

30. The first thing I said to my dad when I got home that day was

"Well, NOW are you sorry you voted for Bush?"

[WePurrsevere]

31. On and after 9-11 I have remained convinced that....

the SOB's at the very least knew and LIHOP. Actually my DH, my DD's, and parents were also "10%ers".

I tend to wonder if Bush's high post 9-11 approval ratings weren't more of the "rally around the President" thing that happens in times of great crisis then a reflection of REAL feelings. Many folks don't want to seem "unpatriotic" so only say in public (or to strangers) what they think would be "patriotic" and supportive.

[blues90]

32. I never felt good about him , ever never , no way !

I knew right off just by looking at his face he was a criminal and a liar . Well before he soiled the whitehouse . I could and still cannot understand what it is that anyone sees in him that emmits confidence or trust or even a good old boy to have a beer with . Does the term blockhead mean anything to anyone ?

[dave502d]

33. After 2000 how could i.

I hated him in 2000 and i hate him now.

[guinivere]

34. You know, I never liked the guy. He's a goofy, spoiled yahoo.

On 9/11 I was waiting for * to step up and say something. I had the tiniest, tiniest hope that the guy would inspire some confidence at a very horrifying time. He couldn't be bothered.

Any pollster calling me would have gotten a negative rating from me before 9/11. After 9/11, they would really have gotten an earful.

[Malikshah]

35. I remember talking w/ my father that day-- we both agreed-- it was

the death of dissent in this country.

[NRaleighLiberal]

36. His voice and appearance induced severe nausea from day 1.

My biggest complaint, prior to destroying the world, was his attack on anything intellectual. Boy, did I misunderestimate him!

[Hekate]

61. Indeed. I've never been able to listen to his smug, ignorant...

...Well, why go on? Nothing has changed.

On 9/11 all I could do was pray that God would somehow strike Bush with a lightning-bolt of wisdom and enable him, against all expectations, to lead us out of this horror.

Well, maybe God tried and Bush just ignored the lightning-bolt the way he ignores everything else he doesn't want to see or hear.

Hekate

[musical_soul]

38. I approved of his ability to make me laugh with that redneck talk.

That's about it. Otherwise, he was scary.

[undeterred]

39. He hugged firemen. I can hug firemen, I expect more

from the friggin president of the united states.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. As soon as I saw the Booker School footage, I was LIHOP

::grr:

[ikojo]

41. I don't live in NYC so I think my views of Bush after

9/11/01 were shaped by my distance from the center of events. I knew he and the Republicans would use that day's events for political gain and my feelings were borne out.

I also had the view that Malcolm X had following the assassination of JFK...the chickens had come home to roost. The WTC and Pentagon were selected for their symbolism of American capitalism and the military that fights for the capitalists.


I didn't trust Bush before 9/11 nor after.

I wonder if one's proximity to the events of 9/11/01 affected how one felt about Bush on that day.

Did the New Yorkers and those in DC have a different more positive view of Bush at that time?

[Kahuna]

42. Not me! I knew on 9/11 his sorry ass was somehow responsible

for it.

[Pithy Cherub]

43. Nope thought he was pathetic since his appointment AND

when he ran away running away on his airplane to secret locations while America was attacked. He hasn't gone up in my estimation of his abilities at any time since 2000. :puke:

[City Lights]

44. I have never ever approved of the chimp.

Right after 9-11 I thought MIHOP or LIHOP. I've hated all things Bush since I started following politics during Regan's tenure.

[file83]

45. The only thing I approved of was the idea that we'd hunt down

the terrorists that were responsible.

Keep in mind, this was RIGHT AFTER 9/11. As soon as he/they passed the Patriot Act - I no longer approved of him and I never have since.

[tyedyeto]

47. My immediate thought was...

what is our gov't doing to us, it's citizens. I knew that al-Queda was a CIA OP and wondered..."What's OUR CIA doing to us now?"

[Cobalt Violet]

48. I wasn't a DUer back then but ...

I have never approved of him.

[whathappened]

49. never had any use for this

lieing sack of shit from day one , and when i saw him standing on top of the dead with that bull horn , i would like to shove it right up his ass , dam fool , why don't he take his money and go home

[Rowdyboy]

50. The ONLY Bush speech I ever watched was on 9/12/2001....He sucked

I was totally unimpressed. Pledging vengeance amidst the rubble of the twin towers didn't show leadership-it showed the public relations skills of Kkkarl Rove.

[WildEyedLiberal]

51. I don't really believe the results of this poll

I didn't think well of him prior to 9/11 but right after 9/11 it was too early to judge how he would respond to it. I thought maybe a crisis of that magnitude would force him to stop being a dumbass and actually lead. I don't know why everyone on this thread is trying to "out-progressive" the others and brag about how long and hard they've hated Bush.

"Not me! I hated him since the selection of 2000!"

"Oh yeah?? Well I hated him when he was governor of Texas!"

"You think that's hate? I hated him when he was Bush Sr.'s drunk frat-boy fuckup kid!"

"Well I can top you ALL. I hated him IN UTERO. Beat that, n00BS!"

Jesus, I do not like the man, but right after 9/11 my primary overriding thought was not one of hatred for Bush.

[EFerrari]

52. Really? Without any theories about the event itself, my first

thought was, oh shit and THIS is who we have to lead us right now.

And that scared me more than any threat of terrorism ever could.

[WildEyedLiberal]

53. I hoped he would dig into himself and commit to leading us

I mean, I knew he was an idiot, but I thought he at least, you know, liked America. I grossly overestimated him, obviously.

[Richard Steele]

54. Support BUSH? No. I felt we needed to act as ONE, no matter what our...

...personal opinions of the current Oval Office RESIDENT
might be.
I thought that we were in a dire situation which TRANSCENDED
politics, a situation where we would all set our petty differences aside
and bust our asses to defend the basic ideals we all share.

Of course, I based that opinion on the notion that B*sh was just
a dumbassed idiot, not a deliberately, maliciously EVIL sociopath.

I was wrong.

[Raksha]

60. You were under the illusion that Bush shared your ideals.

The rude awakening must have been terrible. I too was under the impression that there were certain ideals all Americans shared, regardless of political party. I don't believe that any more and it's highly unlikely that I ever will again.

[Richard Steele]

63. I sure was. And it was the RUDEST "rude awakening" of my life.

I "awoke" to a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from,
because it was REAL.

I always liked that guy in the Bible who wrote
that "the scales fell from his eyes"... it's such
an awesomely vivid and poetic metaphor.

Would have been nicer, though, if he had taken an extra 20 seconds
to mention that IT HURTS LIKE HELL!

[bunkerbuster1]

57. I was in such complete shock, I wasn't capable of thinking about politics

It took a few days for me to come back to earth and start connecting some dots.

So I admit, had a pollster called me on 9/12 or 9/13, I probably would've answered "yeah, sure" if asked if I approved of the President. More from shock and default response to stimuli than anything.

And let's never forget--that's ALL that overhyped 91% approval ever was.

[jayfish]

58. I've Never Given ShrubCo Any Positives

For me though, the wheels really came off when they apologized to the Chinese for downing one of our surveillance planes. All the while claiming they hadn't done so. That was well before 9/11 and that event did little to change my mind.

Jay

[Raksha]

59. I can't answer the poll because I honestly don't remember.

I just wasn't thinking much about Bush one way or the other at the time. I'm a lifelong Democrat and I've never had a good opinion of any Republican president, but would I have called Jr the Worst President Ever? Probably not at that point in time.

When I found out al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11 and that they were holed up in Afghanistan being protected by the Taliban, I was all for taking them out because I totally HATED the Taliban! For months I'd been reading about their appalling treatment of women, and I was frustrated no end that the US couldn't do something to help the women of Afghanistan.

I believed we were going to "liberate" Afghanistan and take down those bloodthirsty woman-hating Islamic fundies and I was all for it.

It was when Bush started linking Saddam Hussein with 9/11 every time he opened his mouth that I realized what his real motives were. That was when I truly began to hate him. He never provided any evidence, just kept repeating the assertion over and over again. Before that, I simply thought he was stupid and incompetent, but it was then that I realized he was evil. He wanted to get us into an imperialistic war of aggression (the ultimate war crime) and he succeeded.

[sandnsea]

64. How hard could rebuilding Afghanistan be

Go in, clean out the Taliban, rebuild the country and show the majority of Islamists they have nothing to fear from us. That's what we do for chrissake, it's what we're absolutely best at. Of course I thought that's what he'd do. Even if just for the pipeline, if you want to build a pipeline across a country, much easier to do it in a peaceful country. I had no idea one group of people could be such complete fuck-ups. He had my moderate support for a couple of months, but I'd say by Tora Bora I figured he wasn't going to get much of anything right. Even so, I still didn't believe he'd be so stupid as to go into Iraq but the depths of their incompetence and disregard is beyond anything most anybody could have predicted. I don't think even Molly Ivins could have predicted how badly they would screw everything up.