United States Worse President In the Past

[clancyphile]

He would have been a decent peace-time POTUS, but he let his friendships and loyalty get in the way of facts.

The problem I have with George W. Bush is not what he did as President - for the most part, I think his reaction to 9/11 and the plan for the War on Terror was on point.

The problems were what he FAILED to do.
1. He failed to ask for a larger force structure to handle not just he War, but to keep a qualitative edge on China and Russia.
2. He failed to fight back against the "Bush lied" claims until 2007.
3. He failed to deal with the treasonous "Gitmo bar" that ultimately allowed entities that America was at war access to our courts. Hanoi Jane is a piker compared to these folks.
4. He also refused to let our troops go all-out to win. We could have taken down bin Laden in 2001 at Tora Bora had we used GATOR mines to cut off his escape route to Pakistan. That request was refused.

Short version, right plan, right ideas, but poor execution. Even then, he had things largely on the right track. His errors of omission made Obama possible - and Obama undid a lot of the good thsat was done.