AH Challenge: George W Bush is the best US President

yourworstnightmare

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Not as tough as most seem to think. Seeing as he had the most eventfull(IMO, and most would probably agree) Presidency since FDR. Most of the events he had nothing to do with in terms of cause, but as a Conservative Republican I can say he failed at almost all of them. But with the Dotcom/911 Recession, 911 itself, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, the Global Financial Crisis, ect, he had many chances to turn himself into something great.

Here is, IMO, a basic(but opinionated seeing as this is as much a political question as it is a history question) idea of how he could have handled most of the problems that have occured under him.


Dotcom Recession: Honestly, this one ended relatively fast. His response was not bad. Remember, most Neocons were saying in 05 and 06 that even if Bush had screwed up in the Middle East that the economy was going well. Though, this recession would likely be worse if the current economic crisis is to be avoided. If the Dotcom recession ends quickly he can take credit for the recovery while being able to claim he inherited it(similar to Obama's current situation on a much smaller scale).


911/Afghanistan: Handle 911 in a similar way(he was extremely popular after it, so he can still score political points off of it as OTL). Go in to Afghanistan with more force and capture Bin Laden one way or another. Work with Iran(he can start to build a reputation as someone willing to listen to the "other side") and if at all possible gain more cooperation from Pakistan. Turn Afghanistan into a relatively functioning Middle Eastern Democracy.


Iraq: Avoid it. Have information come out saying Iraq has no WMDs.


Katrina: Have someone, Federal, State, or Local, build decent levees. Have 3 levels of government simply work better(It doesn't take much to have that happen). Maybe without so many resources overseas(no Iraq) Bush could send in more national guard units. Maybe he could do something that appears brave, like going in to the city himself(in the safest place in the city of course) during the storm.


Current Economic Crisis: Don't have the Federal Reserve Artificially Lower Interest Rates during the recession earlier in the decade. You can blame deregulation, bad regulations, ect, all you want, but IMO the Fed caused it. If the Fed doesn't lower interest rates so greatly then the Dotcom recession will be worse, but still not severe, and the current crisis is going to be butterflied away.


Fiscal Responsibility: No Iraq is a good place to start. But he still needs to cut spending(IMO). Getting SS reform through Congress is a good place to go besides that. No Medicare Part D is also a potential cut(or rather something not created) that could occur.


Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Maybe, just maybe, he could use the US's influence to bring a long term solution to the conflict. He could perhaps find some sort of compromise. If he works with Iran(and some other "enemy" states) then he could perhaps be trusted much more around the globe.


If all of this happens, and I don't think any single thing listed is ASB, then maybe he could be seen as one of the best ever.

Wrong, your mentioning of Afghanistan becoming a democracy is totally ASB. You can't have Afghanistan and Democracy in the same sentence.
 

Deleted member 5719

Wrong, your mentioning of Afghanistan becoming a democracy is totally ASB. You can't have Afghanistan and Democracy in the same sentence.

Doesn't need to be a democracy for the proposal to work, just stable and relatively conflict free, with occasional cosmetic elections (so like now but not violent).
 

yourworstnightmare

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Donor
Afghanistan is a clan based feudal warlord society. Democracy has a slight chance in Iraq, but none in Afghanistan. For stability you need a tyrant that can oppress everyone with an iron fist.
 
That really sounds like the gambit Stalin ran in the 50s when he said they should unite Germany and make it neutral (not a member of either the Warsaw Pact or NATO).
It was plainly obvious to everyone in who knew about the politics of the time that he was just dangling the prospect of a united Germany out there to throw a speedbump in front of NATO. He never wanted it. A united Germany would've been terribly dangerous to the Soviets, even if it was a Swiss-style neutral state.

The idea of Bush (and in 2001, it would've been NATO in a broad front) working with Iran to invade Afghanistan may seem great, but I don't think it was feasible. I think was just something Iran put out there because they knew that when the Bush Administration didn't run with it, they could say the Americans weren't playing ball.

Remember, reformers were in power at that time...
 
Afghanistan is a clan based feudal warlord society. Democracy has a slight chance in Iraq, but none in Afghanistan. For stability you need a tyrant that can oppress everyone with an iron fist.

In the 1960s, Afghanistan was plenty stable and could have become a democracy within a few years...
 
(1) The FBI finds proof that the Gore people were stuffing ballot boxes in Florida. This removes the "Bush stole the election" canard.
(2) US Navy Seals capture a working nuclear device being prepped and readied for launch near Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom. That removes the "Bush lied people died" canard.
(3) Katrina hits Florida instead of New Orleons. The state and local officials in Florida are competent.
(4) The Community Investment Act is repealed in 2006, thus forestalling the current economic crisis.
 

Hendryk

Banned
(1) The FBI finds proof that the Gore people were stuffing ballot boxes in Florida. This removes the "Bush stole the election" canard.
You say that like it really took place.

(2) US Navy Seals capture a working nuclear device being prepped and readied for launch near Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom. That removes the "Bush lied people died" canard.
So the POD is that Iraq's WMD program was never cancelled? That creates a lot of butterflies. For one, with actual WMDs to oppose an invasion with rather than empty threats, Saddam Hussein could cause higher casualties among US forces.

Of course, one of the many, many problems of the Bush presidency in OTL, was that he did in fact lie, and people did in fact die. To call it a "canard" implies pretty blatant ideological bias, or maybe a refusal to admit the facts. Then again, it was also Bush who coined the phrase "reality-based community", as though being reality-based was a bad thing.
 
Well, two things happen...

Bush pushes harder on his suggested financial sector reforms during the first six years of his term avoiding the bailouts and economic absurdities of his latter two years.

Secondly, a Coalition raid on a house in or near Bagdad late in the summer of 2006 leads to the capture (or execution) of Osama bin Laden who had apparently been hiding there since 2002 :p

If both happened, an impossibility mind you, Republicans win the 2006 midterm elections in a landslide, and the president has the necessary political capital to reform the outdated U.S. entitlements.

John McCain and Mitt Romney trounce John Edwards and Bill Richardson in the biggest presidential landslide election since 1988.
 

JJohnson

Banned
President Bush would need to:
*have decisively won in 2001 to prevent the undercurrents of illegitimacy that stewed on the political left, so a larger margin that would eliminate Algore's claims for vote-counting
*McCain has some health issue taking him out, and preventing McCain-Feingold (which angered his own base)
*not attempt to grant amnesty in secret with the Senate (this also angered the conservatives, leading to the 2006 defeat of the Republicans)
*step up deportations and prosecutions of businesses that violate immigration laws (his base and large numbers of citizens were against amnesty and the massive illegal alien rallies in 2006; prosecutions of businesses were lower under President Bush than President Clinton regarding immigration violation)
*take out Iran before Iraq, removing the double possibility of N. Korea getting nuclear weapons as well.
*have a less partisan media that does not vote/contribute over 90% Democrat.
*be less interested in getting along with his political enemies and work to getting his agenda through.
*push his judicial candidates through instead of letting them sit languishing in the Senate
*dismantle and prosecute ACORN due to voter fraud - e.g. "Mickey Mouse" getting registered to vote?
*fight back when his political enemies attack, such as 'arsenic in the water'
*open up domestic drilling, which would have reduced gas prices between 2006-2008, and not use ethanol, which has not shown positive effects for gas mileage or the environment.
*make "permanent tax cuts" part of his 2004 campaign
*succeed in overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, preventing much of today's economic slump.

I could list more, but suffice it to say, there were many small things that would have added up. His base simply got tired of him constantly trying to be nice to his political enemies, where they called him 'Democrat Lite.'
 
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Hendryk

Banned
This thread seems to have opened a gate to an ATL, it sure is attracting posters who don't seem to be from the same TL as the rest of us. Case in point:
*take out Iran before Iraq, removing the double possibility of N. Korea getting nuclear weapons as well.
"Take out Iran". Just like that. And what would he do in the afternoon? After all, that would be done in a single morning, right?
*have a less partisan media that does not vote/contribute over 90% Democrat.
Yeah, FOX News is shamelessly pro-Democrat, and let's not even mention talk radio.
*be less interested in getting along with his political enemies and work to getting his agenda through.
Bipartisanship, that was the name of the name between 2001 and 2008 :rolleyes:
**push his judicial candidates through
Like that would have helped :rolleyes::rolleyes:
*dismantle and prosecute ACORN due to voter fraud.
Evidence, please?
*fight back when his political enemies attack, such as 'arsenic in the water'
That's the thing about Bush, he always turned the other cheek. Karl Rove was famous for never resorting to dirty tricks, just remember how congenial the 2000 primaries were.
*open up domestic drilling, which would have reduced gas prices between 2006-2008, and not use ethanol, which has not shown positive effects for gas mileage or the environment.
Some people should have been dentists, they think the answer to everything is to drill.
*make "permanent tax cuts" part of his 2004 campaign
I'm running out of rolleyes smileys...

If this is all you guys can come up with, let's cut the pretense of this being AH and move this thread to Chat.
 
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