From lame duck to bad memory: the ending of an era
04 November 2008 à 23h22
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He’s still the President of the most powerful country in the world. And he is the great absentee of the electoral campaign. On January 20th, George Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States, will finally leave the White House. After an electoral campaign that was highly detrimental to him.
He got 72% of negative opinions in a recent Gallup/CNN poll. Only Harry Truman during the Korean War and Richard Nixon, when he was forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal, were so low in the polls. The New York Times recently wrote that his 8-year-mandate was the worst of American history. It seems quite unavoidable that George W. Bush joins the worst presidents' gallery.
Unable to run in for the 2008 election, as he already went through two mandates, and politically useless for his party, he became a lame duck two years ago, when the Iraq War defeat looked unavoidable. Two long years, during which a regular president is considered a lame duck while he waits for his successor to come into office.
But, frequently criticized by the Obama supporters, challenged by the McCain crew, this election campaign put an end to Bush political career. As a Republican party figure.
As a consequence, Bush hardly campaigned for his Party candidate and he was only seen three times with McCain. Last Saturday, he called all Americans to go and vote for the next president, but didn’t say whom they should vote for. But let’s not forget than in 2000, McCain and Bush harshly fought to get the presidential nomination from the Republican Party.
Now, he has only 80 days of his 3,000 day mandate. A mandate that at first seemed to be an easy journey. But with the 9-11 attacks, the ill-elected former Texas governor became the President of a nation in war. An overwhelming majority of American people offered him their full support, terrified and mesmerized by this man who pledged to spread democracy and liberty all over the world.
But from Abu Ghraib to hurricane Katrina, the cow-boy who gave a reward for a living or dead Bin Laden lost his appeal. With more than 4,000 American deaths in the Iraq War, the financial and economic crisis with about 2 million people evicted from their house, fulfilling his “mission from God” never seemed so far.
Anyway, no need to fight for Bush’s ballot. He already cast his ballot, thanks to early voting, with his wife Laura on the October 24th. For John McCain.
He got 72% of negative opinions in a recent Gallup/CNN poll. Only Harry Truman during the Korean War and Richard Nixon, when he was forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal, were so low in the polls. The New York Times recently wrote that his 8-year-mandate was the worst of American history. It seems quite unavoidable that George W. Bush joins the worst presidents' gallery.
Unable to run in for the 2008 election, as he already went through two mandates, and politically useless for his party, he became a lame duck two years ago, when the Iraq War defeat looked unavoidable. Two long years, during which a regular president is considered a lame duck while he waits for his successor to come into office.
But, frequently criticized by the Obama supporters, challenged by the McCain crew, this election campaign put an end to Bush political career. As a Republican party figure.
As a consequence, Bush hardly campaigned for his Party candidate and he was only seen three times with McCain. Last Saturday, he called all Americans to go and vote for the next president, but didn’t say whom they should vote for. But let’s not forget than in 2000, McCain and Bush harshly fought to get the presidential nomination from the Republican Party.
Now, he has only 80 days of his 3,000 day mandate. A mandate that at first seemed to be an easy journey. But with the 9-11 attacks, the ill-elected former Texas governor became the President of a nation in war. An overwhelming majority of American people offered him their full support, terrified and mesmerized by this man who pledged to spread democracy and liberty all over the world.
But from Abu Ghraib to hurricane Katrina, the cow-boy who gave a reward for a living or dead Bin Laden lost his appeal. With more than 4,000 American deaths in the Iraq War, the financial and economic crisis with about 2 million people evicted from their house, fulfilling his “mission from God” never seemed so far.
Anyway, no need to fight for Bush’s ballot. He already cast his ballot, thanks to early voting, with his wife Laura on the October 24th. For John McCain.
