Is GWB a better/worse president than you imagined back in 2000?

[theHandpuppet]

I'll admit that the very notion of George W. Bush-for-Brains becoming president was a truly frightening prospect back in 2000. I thought I knew what to expect. Yet in my wildest dreams I never imagined we'd go from Clinton to Caligula in one fell swoop.

Perhaps there are those of you out there who either feel differently about the Chimpster or were more prescient in your visions of his presidency. What say you? How does GWB size up to your 2000 vision of his imperial rule?

[leftofthedial]

1. My worst nightmare was horrific

and he has been even worse than that.

I never expected the Democrats to just play dead for five full years.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. for me, it was far worse.

I foolishly, naively, and hopefully thought that they would be rational and effective.
after 6 months, I realized that I forgot the "ir" and the "in"

[aquart]

Why not? They played dead in 2000.

After the trumped-up impeachment, they just should not have been so naive.

[ikojo]

25. I did expect the Dems to roll over....all in the name of

"healing and bi-partisanship." My hope is that they have learned what the pugs are really all about.

[aquart]

3. I said that the Florida 2000 decision would get Americans killed.

I was told I was being melodramatic.

Bush has performed as I expected him to: heartlessly with no concern for human pain or suffering.

[Monkeyman]

4. Bush can give anyone PTSD

[IndyOp]

5. Better. And I am not a freeper...

By "better" I mean that the asshole has done every damned thing he intended to do when he entered office. Every damned thing. He is NOT incompetent. He is pushing his poison ideology.

:grr:

[libnnc]

6. I knew he was a dumbass but...

I had no idea he was a fucking nut case, blood thirsty psycho devoid of all empathy and human warmth.

[Alamom]

7. I knew it would be bad, but who would have believed some of the

shit these people have pulled. My nightmares were never so bad as real life is now.

[Megahurtz]

15. Hell, I look forward to going to sleep at night

because my nightmares are better that the one's I wake up to!

[motocicleta]

8. I reluctantly must say not as bad as my worst nightmare

solely because a) no nukes have been dropped (yet), and b) we are still on the internets, not rounded up in some camp.

Way to go, *!

[rebel with a cause]

9. I was afraid of bush in 2000

and I was warning everyone that I knew who were voting for him or Nader that it was a bad move. For the next four years I reminded them that everything that happened was their fault. I don't know anyone who voted for him or Nader in 2006, except maybe relatives and I don't talk politics with them.

[Xipe Totec]

10. Nothing you say can diminish my impression of him

and I mean that literally.

So far, he has done everything I expected he would do.




God help us.

[bananas]

11. Bush has been as bad as I expected, what surprised me was ...

that the Republicans in Congress actually held him back quite a bit,
also the military told him "NO!" when he wanted to nuke Iran,
so things have gone a lot better than I expected.

So I'm not sure how to vote on this question - Bush was as bad as I expected, but things went better than I expected because the Republicans were a lot better than I expected.

[mvd]

12. Always knew he was bad news, and when he..

picked Cheney, I knew he'd be a right wing extremist with no intentions of working with Democrats. So that means just a little worse than I thought.

[ProgressiveFool]

13. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach

When Florida first was called for Bush - I knew it would be bad, but I had no idea it would be like this. 9/11, though, made it clear that we'd go to some damn-fool war.

[mark414]

14. "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over"

the onion hit the nail on the head, dated Jan. 17, 2001:

WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Still more prescient than any 'serious' commentator

and that's truly worrying. They even predicted the attempt to relax lead levels. About the only thing they got wrong was saying Bush would end up having to raise taxes - silly, he doesn't care how much of a deficit he produces.

[Initech]

16. WORSE!!! MUCH MUCH WORSE!!!!

Sorry to use all caps, but I had to get my point across!

[etherealtruth]

20. I didn't think it was even possible for him to be this bad.

I knew he was bad, I just could not have imagined him unleashing so much hell and havoc.

I think, in a very sick sad way, 9-11 emboldened him and the cabal; in the aftermath of 9-11 even some reasonable and sane people threw their support behind him ... it turned out to be wishful thinking on their part. I don't think he would have been allowed his reign of terror w/out 9-11

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. Well from having him as my gov., I knew he would be bad, I figured he'd get us into a war.

I knew he would screw the economy and wouldn't give a rat's ass about the environment, wouldn't care about workers' rights and screw raising the minimum wage........yep, he didn't disappoint me, one iota! He pretty much lived up to all my expectations of him..........:-(

[tom_paine]

18. Bushler has not yet exceeded my NEW worst nightmare

Yes, his blatant and unashamed criminality took me by surprise, even though I thought him a VERY bad person.

Now my new worst nightmare is the roundups and mass murders in those shiny new Halliburton Concentration Camps, and a nation even more indistinguishable from the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany than it is now (actually, it is still quite distinguishable even now, but so much close than on 12/12/2000).

Thus far, Bushler has not yet exceeded THAT one, but the sad possibility still exists, especially if there's a second 9/11 with NBC weapons.

(if Bushler and/or Cheney get anywhere close to actual trial and imprisonment, you can expect it will come soon)

[bunkerbuster1]

19. My nightmares are too surrealistically awful to resemble real life

So I picked the merely awful "worse than I imagined."

I can't say I didn't see a lot of this coming; I knew it was going to suck under this Preznit, but let's face facts--this country permitted this crap to happen, and they've been very, very slow to correct this horrible mistake.

[MrSlayer]

21. Worse. I expected a war and a recession.

I did not expect him to attempt to create a dictatorship and piss all over the Constitution.

[Ladyhawk]

22. I didn't have the foggiest notion of what * was in 2000.

I guess I can thank him for the political wake-up call, but my health has suffered because of it.

[Raster]

24. I am the lone "Other" vote. I have followed the life and times of George W. bush*

for just about 20 years. I am not shocked. All things considered, the outcome was predictable.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. He has surpassed my expectations and is even worse than Reagan.

A feat I thought impossible.

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. Really anyone who didn't imagined back in 2000 that he wouldn't be the worst pResident ever,

wasn't paying attention to the BFEE and george's term as Texas gov. :shrug: It was all out there for the viewing, his corporate cronyism, his giveaway to the rich, his blatant disregard for environmental issues, his disdain for the working class and poor and his horrible record per education...........it was all right there.

[Marr]

28. FAR worse. GW Bush has completely demolished several of the

more comforting delusions I once lived under.

I used to think we lived in some form of meritocracy. I certainly don't any longer.

I used to think we were all devoted to ideals like equality, open government, individual rights, etc. I now see that there are powerful political and religious movements in this country that despise those ideals.

If someone had asked me 7 years ago what would happen if a president lied us into a mess like our present mess in Iraq... I would've told them that he'd be lynched.

I used to think Orwell wrote fiction.

[Arkansas Granny]

29. I expected it to be bad, but if I was writing wildly impossible fiction

I could never have imagined a scenario that would be even a close match for the reality that we have endured. At best I looked forward to 4 years of bumbling ineptitude. No one could have convinced me that we would have 8 years of willful destruction of American ideals and freedoms that Bush has brought about with the almost unanimous support of the Republican party.

[NRaleighLiberal]

30. Exactly what I expected. Utter failure before, during, after. no surprises.