In my opinion, George W. Bush was an absolute disaster as a president. We will be trying to dig out of his executive decisions and policies for generations to come. Listing them here is pointless. We can just go to the Middle East and turn from there in any particular direction you choose. I firmly believe, however, that as wrong on so many levels and on so many issues that George W. Bush was, he was at heart an honorable man, who was only doing what he thought was right. I do not believe he was a malicious person at all. His post-presidency has proven that. I cannot say the same about the current nominee from Mr. Bush's party.
George W. Bush never bragged in public about groping women.
George W. Bush never shamed the looks of a woman in public because that woman opposed any position he took or asked him a question he had trouble answering.
George W. Bush began a war against the wrong enemy in the wrong country at the wrong time, but even in invading Iraq and then Afghanistan, never said that all Muslims are evil and should be banned from entering the United States.
George W. Bush never even hinted that Muslim-Americans should not be allowed to peacefully practice their faith in the United States.
George W. Bush, while he never attended a funeral for any fallen soldier, never publicly denigrated the family of a fallen hero simply because they disagreed with him politically, and then never doubled down on that, claiming that the mother of the fallen hero stood by her husband silently, obviously agreeing with every word he said, claiming that she did not speak simply because she was not allowed to as a Muslim.
George W. Bush never mocked the disabled under any circumstances I am aware of, even when one happened to be a journalist who had written something he disagreed with.
While I believe his campaign to this day owes an apology to John McCain, George W. Bush never denigrated his service to this country simply because his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese.
George W. Bush never stayed up at the wee hours to twitter nonsense about his perceived enemies.
George W. Bush never demanded that all Mexicans be sent home, simply because they came to this country seeking a better life, something that applies to just about every single one of us, regardless of our ethnic origin, unless we are pureblood Native Americans.
George W. Bush never called all Mexicans rapist or murderers, and then fell back for a second conceding that some of them may be honorable and decent people.
George W. Bush never accused a federal judge of bias simply because the man is of Mexican heritage.
As I recall, George W. Bush speaks at least some Spanish.
George W. Bush never refused to pay people who worked for him.
George W. Bush never avoided paying income taxes and then claimed it was the fault of people who could have changed the laws in order to make him pay taxes.
George W. Bush never claimed a bankruptcy filing was simply taking advantage of the laws of this country, and then claimed it was the fault of people who could have changed the laws to prevent him from doing so.
George W. Bush released his income tax returns for public scrutiny, and then never had his children claim that the tax returns were too complicated for anyone else to understand, as if there are no accountants and tax professionals in the world who could not read the returns and tell the rest of us what was in them.
George W. Bush released his health records for public scrutiny.
George W. Bush never caused an entire professional sports league to go out of business.
George W. Bush never publicly called on a foreign power to hack into his opposition in order to discover something, anything, he could then use against them in a campaign.
George W. Bush never encouraged people attending his rallies to beat up a person in the audience for disagreeing with him.
George W. Bush never called for his political opponents to be jailed simply for being his political opponents.
George W. Bush never even suggested that a way to get rid of his political opponents was to have somebody kill them.
George W. Bush never claimed the United States electoral system was rigged, unless, of course, he wins.
George W. Bush never publicly called upon his supporters to go to the polls, not to vote, but to intimidate others from doing so.
George W. Bush never stated that he would not accept the will of the American people if they did not vote in his favor, and then followed up by suggesting to his followers that they take to the streets if he did, in fact, lose the election.
No, George W. Bush never said or did any of the above. As I said, I believe at heart that George W. Bush is an honorable and decent, though entirely misguided man. The present presidential nominee of the republican party, however, has done each and every one of these things, and most likely much more that I could not think of off the top of my head while writing this. Honor and decency are not only traits that I do not believe him to be capable of, but are traits I believe he would view as weaknesses.
As such, I owe and hereby give George W. Bush an apology.
I probably owe the average third grader an apology as well.
