Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due -- George Bush

Conservative talking head Michelle Malkin was in Livingston County Wednesday whining that George Bush hasn't been given enough credit for things that President Obama has done.

OK. Let's give him more credit.

Let's give George Bush full credit for the economic meltdown that started in 2008 and from which the nation has had to recover during the first two years of President Obama's administration. Every single ounce of credit. Would that make Malkin happy? We'll give him credit for the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, the near death of Michigan's auto industry, the millions of homes foreclosed on, the billions of dollars of wealth Americans lost in the values of their homes and their retirement plants, and the shrinking of not just the U.S. economy, but the entire world economy.

George Bush, I hereby promise that I will always give you 100 percent credit for that. Not "joint credit," which is what Malkin wants for the successful raid authorized by Obama that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden.

No, I will give George Bush 100 percent pure and unadulterated credit.

Feel better?

I doubt it. People like Malkin and the Bush administration minions that appeared on Sunday talk shows demanding that George Bush get credit for bin Laden's death only want credit for things that go right after they leave office. They want credit, not responsibility, which means accepting blame when things go wrong.

Here's what I mean.

Suppose information that was key to Obama's decision to launch the raid that killed bin Laden had actually been developed under Bush's administration. (It wasn't, but let's pretend that it was.) And let's pretend that President Obama authorized the raid, knowing that there was only a 55 percent chance that the information was correct. (Which there was.)

And let's say that the intelligence turned out to be wrong. It wasn't bin Laden in that compound at all. It was some Saudi prince who had the compound built as a hide-away. And instead of killing bin Laden, the Navy SEALS killed the Saudi prince and a huge international incident resulted that threatened U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and our oil supplies.

The nation would be in crisis.President Obama would be in major trouble. But since the faulty intelligence that led to the raid was developed under Bush's administration, George Bush and members of his administration would step forward to claim "joint credit" with President Obama for the fiasco.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they would. I'm pretty sure Malkin would come to Livingston County and demand, yes demand, that George Bush be given "joint credit" for the fiasco.

I'd pay money to see that.

Yi-ha Turd Blossom!

So Karl Rove is coming to Livingston County to talk to Republicans. Welcome, Karl!

I'm glad to hear you are coming to remind Michigan of all the good times under George Bush. You know, how he read the memo about Al Qaeda planning to attack the U.S. and ignored it a month before 9/11. Yeah, those were the days. Then there was the U.S. Attorney scandal, when federal prosecutors were fired because they didn't prosecute Democrats with significant zeal. What a great moment in American democracy! Oh yes, then there was the Valerie Plame scandal. Who could forget that triumph over tyranny? Leaking the name of a CIA agent to the media so that her mission was destroyed and the lives of all her contacts put in jeopardy. Boy, we haven't seen leadership like that lately.

That's just the domestic side. My gosh, I hope Americans never forget The Bush-Rove administration's accomplishments in foreign affairs. Those phony claims about Iraq's WMD's were absolutely essential to starting an unnecessary, unfunded war in Iraq that we're still paying the price (read that "borrowing the money") for. And the way you guys turned Gen. Colin Powell into a pimp for the big lie, what great TV that is for future generations.

And saving the best for last, how about that September 2008 financial scandal? Absolutely fantastic! Not very many presidents can claim to have presided over the near collapse of the world's financial system. I'll bet you have some great "fly-on-the-wall" memories from those heady days that I hope you'll share with the audience. Be sure to remind everybody that the multi-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout that everybody is so upset about happened under Bush. Those tea-baggers have such short memories, don't they?

Wow, I almost forgot. One other thing I really hope you'll do, Karl, is remind everybody about how the deficit really exploded under George. A lot of people forget how he inherited a budget surplus from Democratic President Bill Clinton and then proceded to turn it into
a $5 trillion dollar deficit. Let's not give all the credit to that Kenyan in the White House.

With so much to talk about and so many great memories to re-live, I really think Michigan residents are going to need more than just a little after dinner speech. So I think it's great that they'll get a free copy of your book just for showing up. That way, you can claim phony book sale figures that are lots higher than if people had to actually shell out money for it.

I do hope you'll come back real soon! Like in October 2012, just so people won't forget how great things were in the Golden Age of George.

300 People for a President--Now That's a 'Small' Crowd!

When Livingston County Democrats attracted about 75 people on a weeknight to see former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, the Livingston Press and Argus labeled it a "small" crowd, in its otherwise balanced account of the event.

Today (June 26, 2008), the Detroit Free Press reports that George Bush attracted "more than 300 people" to a fund-raiser in Livonia.

Generally, readers are better served with the Free Press approach -- just stating the number of people who attended and letting the readers decide for themselves how to characterize the size -- small, medium, large, or just right. Or the news organization might provide some sort of comparative information, such as the number at a similar event recently, to help the readers form their own judgments.

But since I write for a blog and not a newspaper, I'll go ahead and characterize the Bush crowd -- 300 is a mighty small crowd for a sitting president in a community the size of metro Detroit and its suburbs.

Regardless of Livingston GOP Chair Allan Filip's comment in the article that there "are a lot of people out here who support him," there apparently weren't a lot willing to plunk down serious money for the privilege of listening to him.

And that can only be good news for Democrats this fall.

A Question for George and Dick?

We were told that Dick Cheney had his pacemaker battery changed a coujple of days ago. A week previously, George Bush had a colonoscopy and polyps removed.

Now both of these procedures are fairly common but they are expensive. They require a sterile environment, expensive equipment and specialists.
There have been plenty of jokes about both men (Did they actually find a heart in Cheney’s chest? Did they find George’s head?) My question about their procedures is not a joke. I want to know who paid.

So George and Dick, did you have these procedures done under the health insurance plan for Federal employees? It’s one of the best plans in the United States and since it’s paid for by the government and covers just about everything one would want in a health care plan with no worries about pre-existing conditions and co-pays, I classify it as socialized medicine as most people would.

Since both the President and Vice-President can easily pay their own bills for these procedures, did they do so or did they take advantage of the socialized medicine plan extended to Federal employees? If they did, they are hypocrites who are taking advantage of a socialized health insurance plan while preaching the virtues of privatized insurance to the rest of us.

I’m willing to bet a twenty that both George and Dick took advantage of the taxpayers. Any takers? Come up with proof that these two rich fellows paid their own medical bills and I’ll send you a twenty dollar bill.