Thread: 1,174 More Bush-Bashing Days Left

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1,174 more Bush-bashing days left

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye columnist
Published November 4, 2005


If you despise President Bush, as I do, and can't wait for the day he's out of office, not to worry. There are only 1,174 days remaining on his term.

That's 28,176 hours, 1,690,560 minutes and, give or take, 101,433,600 seconds.

That's all.

So, if you view

Jan. 20, 2009, the day Bush's successor as president will be sworn in, as a national day of celebration, just realize that it won't be here for quite a while. A lot more damage can be done.

I find it comforting, but in a grotesque sort of way, that Bush can't do any worse over the next three years than he did the past three, when he destroyed America's reputation around the globe by starting, supporting and refusing to end a war brought forth on false pretenses, leading to the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers. So far.

I'm encouraged that a majority of Americans now disapproves of the job Bush is doing. An Associated Press poll released Thursday put his approval rating at 37 percent, and his disapproval rating at 59 percent. Just how many see him as an incompetent boob, as I do, isn't clear.

Yeah, I know those are harsh words for a president, but that's how I see it. If you disagree, look at the Rita RedEye box below.

President Bush was clueless in handling Hurricane Katrina; one of his administration's highest-ranking officials has been indicted for perjury and making false statements [a topic he refuses to discuss]; and he recently nominated to the Supreme Court a woman universally panned as unqualified. This was after Bush had described her as the "most qualified" person in the country.

After getting a free pass for the years following Sept. 11, Bush still expects Americans to listen to whatever he says and believe it. Those days are over. What ended this was not the malarkey that Harriet Miers was most qualified for the court. It was that memorable moment when, with the country looking to him for leadership, he told us, well, at least FEMA director Mike Brown was on the job.

This is the same Brown who we now know received an update on how thousands of people in New Orleans were without food or water and patients were dying everywhere.

His response, revealed in e-mails released Wednesday: "Thanks for update. Anything specific I can do or tweak?"

Soon after that e-mail, Bush told Brown he was doing "a heckuva job." This is our president, folks. He doesn't know what's going on in his own administration.

It's really anybody's guess who is really running the country. Maybe it's Vice President Dick Cheney, maybe it's White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Maybe it's Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who is under scrutiny in the investigation over the leaking of a CIA agent's name.

If indicted, Rove will be gone and we'll all really be in trouble. He's known as being "Bush's brain," which is probably why Bush has gone back on his promise to fire anybody involved in leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. It's smart of him. He needs his brain.

Many of you have known from the beginning that Bush was no president. Yet he got elected, so we have to go along with it until the 1,174 days are up. Unlike most of the first five years, when Bush could bask in his base and savor two election victories, he now knows most of us don't want him.

That smug look he had on his face the day after last year's election, when he said he now had "political capital" and intended to spend it, has been wiped off.

Watching him blink, stutter and stammer when asked simple questions--during the few times he actually takes a question--is pure joy. I'm glad he's got three years left.

The more time there is to kick Bush around, the better.

E-mail Jimmy Greenfield at jgreenfield@tribune.com

WOW Now i feel better. NOT

That seems a long time. I think how much more damage can be done in that time.

Originally Posted by Scubayons

WOW Now i feel better. NOT

That seems a long time. I think how much more damage can be done in that time.

Its WAY TOO LONG! By the time he is gone, a large percentgage of newly elected officials will be hispanic. Its really not that far-fetched if you think about the situation we are in. We are being literally eaten up by OTA's-other than Americans. Illegal immigration is redistributing how people vote, and who they vote for. The GOP wanted the latino votes. Well now they have it, and more!