2008 Woodie Awards
Staff Editorial: Lincoln gets a monument; Bush gets a poop plant
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Notions
At the end of his presidency, Harry S. Truman most likely didn't expect that he would be sitting with what was at the time the lowest approval rating ever recorded. He led us to a victorious end of World War II, he was the Democratic champion of the little guy, and he was a defender of civil rights. Why was the nation turning on him?
To quote the great and late Rodney Dangerfield, "No respect. No respect at all!"
So, too, has President George W. Bush led us during a troubled time of war and hardship, but in recent memory he has been less than appreciated. In point of fact, he has the record for the highest approval rating of all time, but he also now holds the record for the lowest.
Perhaps some of the more talked-about problems of his presidency are his handling of the Iraqi war and more recently, the economy. Do those issues amount to a justifiable cause to, among other things, honor him by renaming a sewage water treatment plant after him?
Will he always be remembered as a man whose presidency should be compared to a place that refines poop? Before a final determination is made, perhaps we should ask why the perception of Bush is so bad.
Many say President Bush took us to Iraq under false pretenses. The claim that we are there only because of weapons of mass destruction is not a true assessment, nor is it true that nuclear material was not found in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein and the then-Iraqi government was in non-compliance with several United Nations resolutions that were deemed a threat to American and U.N. assets, and Saddam was actively committing what were deemed as war crimes. Among the many charges was a failure "to end repression of its civilian population and to provide access by international humanitarian organizations to all those in need of assistance in Iraq, return or cooperate in accounting for Kuwait and third country nationals wrongly detained by Iraq, or to return Kuwaiti property wrongfully seized by Iraq, and it failed to comply with its commitments with regard to terrorism."
To quote the great and late Rodney Dangerfield, "No respect. No respect at all!"
So, too, has President George W. Bush led us during a troubled time of war and hardship, but in recent memory he has been less than appreciated. In point of fact, he has the record for the highest approval rating of all time, but he also now holds the record for the lowest.
Perhaps some of the more talked-about problems of his presidency are his handling of the Iraqi war and more recently, the economy. Do those issues amount to a justifiable cause to, among other things, honor him by renaming a sewage water treatment plant after him?
Will he always be remembered as a man whose presidency should be compared to a place that refines poop? Before a final determination is made, perhaps we should ask why the perception of Bush is so bad.
Many say President Bush took us to Iraq under false pretenses. The claim that we are there only because of weapons of mass destruction is not a true assessment, nor is it true that nuclear material was not found in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein and the then-Iraqi government was in non-compliance with several United Nations resolutions that were deemed a threat to American and U.N. assets, and Saddam was actively committing what were deemed as war crimes. Among the many charges was a failure "to end repression of its civilian population and to provide access by international humanitarian organizations to all those in need of assistance in Iraq, return or cooperate in accounting for Kuwait and third country nationals wrongly detained by Iraq, or to return Kuwaiti property wrongfully seized by Iraq, and it failed to comply with its commitments with regard to terrorism."
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