"Thank God Bush is President" Did God Want Bush to be President?

"Thank God George W. Bush is President." As a political satirist, I have a special license to spout utter nonsense like this. After all, saying something patently ridiculous can inspire laughter at the pompous fools that govern us. There are however, a small number of congenitally serious people who really do thank God that Bush is in the Oval Office. Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, for instance, recently wrote a tribute to Bush’s tenacity, which he claims will be the saving grace of his presidency. When a democratic Iraq finally takes root in the Middle East, and madrassahs are replaced by American style malls (minus the serial shooters, of course), then history will vindicate Bush’s obstinacy.

Iraq may or may not muddle through to a tolerable outcome, but given Bush’s extraordinary incompetent handling of the invasion and occupation there is little reason he should get credit if Iraq manages to turn out OK thirty years from now. Future administrations and the Iraqi people may manage turn Iraq into a success, if so the credit should be theirs not Bush’s.

We are seven years into the Bush administration, and virtually all the evidence indicates that Bush’s tenure has been a catastrophe. First and foremost, Bush has no credibility. The American people do not believe what Bush tells them, nor do they think he is up to the job.

Second, Bush surrounded himself with some of the most incompetent public officials that ever staffed an administration, i.e., Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Condoleezza and Michael Brown, to name just a few.

Third, Bush’s clueless, lackadaisical, and inept response to Katrina revealed what a shallow character he really is.

Fourth, to date Iraq is greatest strategic blunder in American foreign policy since the Vietnam War. Put simply, it has empowered our adversaries – most notably Iran and al-Qaeda – while leaving the U.S. isolated and drained.

Fifth, the torture and abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have decimated America’s moral authority, which has led to an unprecedented decline in American power and prestige.

Sixth, the Bush administration’s decision to scrap the Kyoto treaty and ignore global warming is proving to one of the most fateful and unwise decisions it ever made (and that is saying a lot). Put simply, pouring blood and treasure into Iraq (while America’s infrastructure is crumbling at home) is going to look awful foolish if the scientists in the reality-based community are right about the ecological challenges we’re going to face in the future as a result of climate change.

Seventh, Bush’s fiscal stewardship – until recently Bush’s handling of the economy was considered to be one of the few bright spots of his presidency – appears poised to sink the American ship of state in a sea of bad debt. The sinking dollar, high oil prices, the credit crunch, inflation, and ballooning mortgage rates are going to leave Americans feeling a lot poorer in what shaping up as an election year recession.

Cutting taxes while greatly increasing the size of the federal government have put the United State behind the economic eight ball. Dick Cheney famously declared "deficits don’t matter," but many warned that all the Bush administration’s red ink would inevitably mean less credit available for private borrowers, higher interest rates, and inflationary pressures. Presently, we are approaching a perfect storm where the Fed will be caught in a double bind: forced to lower interests rates to avoid a recession, but lowering interest rates will feed inflation.

Of course, with all the bad debt out there, foreign lenders will eventually insist on higher interest rates, which will only increases the chances of a severe economic downturn. America is boxed in, with little margin for error when it comes to avoiding a rather nasty recession.

Bush’s policies have led directly and indirectly to the free fall of the dollar, higher oil prices, and the credit crisis. The value of the dollar is a reflection of investor confidence in the United States, which at the moment isn’t high. Rising energy prices, of course, are a function of supply and demand, but the Bush administration has done nothing to prepare the United States for the twilight of the hydrocarbon era. It may seem harder to pin the credit crisis on the Bush, but credit markets require an atmosphere of trust, which is not a quality the president and his administration has engendered.

Most controversial presidents have at least one significant foreign or domestic achievement. Bush has nada. Iraq is looking better, but chances are the various factions are just waiting us out till the surge has run its course and America is forced to draw down its forces next year. The way things are shaping up Bush will be forever associated with America’s precipitous economic, moral, and national decline. Sorry Dinesh, but the next time God wants someone to be president He (or She) should register to vote just like everyone else.

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