What one thing/event most influenced your opinion of the president?

Question

If you're a lib I'd like to know what led you to finally decide the president was evil. Was it the 2000 election? Prior to the election? The war in Iraq?

If you're a con I'd like to know why you don't think the president is a good man. Or why you think the libs are right. What made you decide you could trust the president. What made you decide to stop trusting him if that's the case.

doh...sentence above should read "why do you think he IS a good man"

That is all...

Answer 1

I think that the election debacle in 2000 made everyone look terrible. Both sides were childish, the Supreme Court decision was odd (Not that it was incorrect, just the rationale each justice used seemed slightly out of line with their typical temperaments), and the fact that Florida was the battleground state did not reflect well. Regardless of the truth, it would take a fool to say that a narrow decision in a state where one candidate's brother was governor didn't at least look bad in some ways.

Still, a questionable election didn't always mean a questionable president. I gave both Bushes the benefit of the doubt on that one. No, it was the backing of Bush and the Republicans of the USA PATRIOT Act that really left me incensed. This, combined with other restrictions on privacy and civil liberties, in the name of a "war on terror", has been unforgivable. Real conservatives who respect a person's right to privacy and believe in small government regarding citizens and not just corporations, they have been usurped by cowards who would gladly give up liberty for safety. There's a popular quote attributed to Ben Franklin about that little matter.

So, yeah. The USA PATRIOT Act, and other such infringements on private freedoms such as the wiretapping, those are the reasons I dislike Bush, the vast majority of Republicans, and a good number of Democrats. These populist fear politics on both sides of the aisle have been disgusting.

Answer 2

The lies and manipulation of information to start a bogus war in Iraq was the beginning. We were attacked by terrorists on 9-11. The next thing you know we are attacking and invading a country that had nothing to do with Iraq. They were also not a threat to the U.S. They had no military left to speak of. They had no air force and they had no navy. What few missiles, if any, that they had could only go a couple hundred miles. They were not a threat, imminent or otherwise.

The fact that he has added a note to nearly every law that he has signed indicating that he doesn't have to follow those laws hasn't helped.

He has preached fear over and over to the citizens of the U.S. Many have believed him and they live in constant fear of an attack.

I don't trust him even a little.

Answer 3

The horrors I read about when he was an oil man, arbusto, spectrum 7, harken energy, they all lost money and folded, while George was making millions. The horrors of when he was Governor of Texas. Pollution be damned, nothing was getting in the way of business and money. I research the candidates before I vote. As President, his not capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden, is that enough?

Answer 4

When he sent troops into Iraq; then made a speech to the public saying "Bring it on" really made me angry! This man who avoided his duty in Vietnam through his Father's influence has the audacity to stand up & act as though he knew anything about what war was & was willing to taunt the terrorists with those words while others died was crass to say the least! How dare he!

Answer 5

What got my attention was a live press conference after immediately after 9/11. He was asked why he had ordered Vice-President Cheney to remain physically separated from him at all times.

His response was: "Continuity of government."

That was when I realized that President Bush did not expect to survive his term as President. He was a man doing a job that in his own mind - carried a death sentence.

Another thing I have done is pay close attention to the accounts of people who have actually worked with President Bush. Everybody who has actually spent time working with him seems to be very impressed by his intelligence and depth of character. His detractors tend to be people who do not know him personally.

Of course, I regard anybody who equates public-speaking skills with intelligence as an idiot.

Answer 6

My opinion of George W. has always been poor. Even before the 2000 elections, I found him vulgar and too common. Next, he only proved my original hypothesis by being completely oblivious to the real concerns and issues facing the United States. Of course, there was 9/11, and no president could be fully prepared for that kind of attack; however, he used it as a scapegoat to invade a non-related sovereign country.

Shall I continue?

Answer 7

Liberal and Conservative are two nice sounding words with no meaning.

Being caught short on resources when Katrina hit this country hard is the biggest blunder of them all.

Poking your nose into other peoples' business gets you in a precarious position when emergencies come about due to the changing earth climate and the need to regroup and adjust to it's foreseeable dangers.

The election of 2000 was a farce in that the popular vote didn't count, which demonstrated a serious flaw in the democratic system.

Since then, we've bred a high volume of simple minded people with narrow vision. (Where the h+++ did they all come from???!!!).

Resolution to the causes and the perpetrators of 911 hasn't been clarified, so the presumptive attitude of the populace leads me to believe we have numb brains.

Answer 8

Of many I would say the Iraq war.

Had he actually gone after Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the perps of 9/11 I would think more highly of him today. Not much more highly because of other things he's done or lied about but a little better.

Answer 9

no longer very actually. some issues have been instilled in my on account that i replaced right into a youngin. My stable values and whatnot. those can never be replaced. yet I even have an exceedingly stable equilibrium whilst it includes some issues so if somebody can provide me info and stable reasoning, they are able to alter my concepts.

Answer 10

It started with the 2000 'election', then it was his tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% in the country that happened twice. Then it was his huge tax give aways as subsidies to the already enormously profitable oil corporations. In doing this, we as tax payers are paying for our gas twice. This is insult to injury. And, then it was ignoring intelligence and warnings from the Clinton administration and the committee to prevent terrorism in this country (in the senate) headed by Joe Biden of Delaware who gave explicit warnings in April of 2001 along with the state department that OBL planned on attacking us. They recommended securing our borders, which Bush still hasn't done. Then it was 9/11 and "my pet goat." And, then it was the fact that he used this and the victims of 9/11 as an excuse to lie and go to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, Iraq. All the while, the Royal Saudi's, who supplied most of the hijackers, are profitting enormously off this war in the form of tax give aways for arms and through their investments in Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Kellog Brown and Root, and Bechtel corporation. And, now they are supplying the Sunni's and Al queda with weapons and munitions to attack our soldiers in Iraq. Just who is the enemy here, one has to wonder. And, then there is this Abramoff, Skooter Libby, Delay corruption tied to the White House. And, there is this cutting the funding to our VA hospitals by the Bush administration at a time when our men and women in the military need those medical attentions the most. And then there is the bungling of the aftermath of Katrina and his lack of care at all.
With moves like this and behaviour like this, You really have to ask yourself who the enemy is here.
Sorry, I couldn't narrow it down to just one event. There are so many lies, acts of corruption, treasonist acts and stealing that it is difficult to mention only one.