DBWI-Your opinion of Paul Wellstone's presidency

Former president Paul Wellstone was found dead this morning in his home in rural Minnesota at the age of 71. Wellstone, the 44th President of the United States from 2005-2009, had been mostly absent from the public eye ever since leaving the presidency, mainly due to the stroke he suffered in 2008 that led to him declining to run for reelection. Wellstone was best known for ending the occupations of Irag and Afghanistan, fulfilling his promises for "an honorable end" to the War On Terror.

What do you think about the man and his presidency?
 
Between the utter clusterfuck of how he handled Katrina and having to watch the economy go to hell because our President had a stroke as the stock markets plunged, he left President Allen with a huge mess to clean up at home.
 
And given Vice President Clark had little interest or understanding of economics, he was of no help during the crisis as Acting President when Wellstone was recovering from his stroke.
 
It was frustrating to see the GOP House and Senate block Wellstone at every path and become deficit hawks again the moment he came into office.

You can't say President Clark didn't try on the economy. TARP never stood much of a chance after the House and Senate nuked it on a straight party vote and refused to ever pass a relief bill.

I know he had a huge mess, but Allen's austerity plan hasn't exactly been gangbusters.

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What POD are we talking (besides, um, the obvious one)? Because after the MS diagnosis, Wellstone ruled out running for President in 2000.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Over here in the UK he's still interesting. I mean, no one chewed out Tony Blair like that, and it's still kinda amazing, I mean, I know that him forcing Tony to resign in 2007 is a myth and all, but it speaks testimony to his power.

His Presidency was a mess, no doubt, but still.
 
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I think it's the whiplash that was the hardest thing - the same Republicans who wanted budget busting tax cuts in 2002 turned into deficit hawks in 2004; and then reacted to the crash by wanting taxes cut again! The same GOP who wanted us waterboarding half of Iraq in Gitmo in 2003 became ACLU members in 2004 and then supported President Allen's plan to deport every minor US citizen born to non-citizen parents in 2011.

In particular, describing every plan Wellstone had as socialism - and then handing the bankers a trillion dollars and decreeing that the bonuses they paid with them were the "will of the free market" really sunk them in 2012.

OOC: Think the deportation plan is bonkers? Just look at the GOP frontrunner.
 
Over here in the UK he's still interesting. I mean, no one chewed out Tony Blair like that, and it's still kinda amazing, I mean, I know that him forcing Tony to resign in 2007 is a myth and all, but it speaks testimony to his power.

His Presidency was a mess, no doubt, but still.

IIRC, said chewing out was supposed to be private. Brown was forced to spend (likely too much) time denying rumours that he had anything to do with it - eventually proven to be true statements from him. All of which almost cost Labour dear.


I think it's the whiplash that was the hardest thing - the same Republicans who wanted budget busting tax cuts in 2002 turned into deficit hawks in 2004; and then reacted to the crash by wanting taxes cut again! The same GOP who wanted us waterboarding half of Iraq in Gitmo in 2003 became ACLU members in 2004 and then supported President Allen's plan to deport every minor US citizen born to non-citizen parents in 2011.

In particular, describing every plan Wellstone had as socialism - and then handing the bankers a trillion dollars and decreeing that the bonuses they paid with them were the "will of the free market" really sunk them in 2012.

OOC: Earlier posts have made clear that the GOP House & Senate went Austerity with not even relief funds made available, so, I'm not sure how this can fit into it.
 
OOC: Earlier posts have made clear that the GOP House & Senate went Austerity with not even relief funds made available, so, I'm not sure how this can fit into it.

OOC: They said they blocked everything Wellstone did, yes. Look at Europe and the UK though - "austerity" and "bailouts" often went hand and hand. Austerity's for the genpop, not the financial sector.
 
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