Favorite US President since 1960

Nice to see a lot of healthy debate on the subject. Just to clarify a few things.

1) Trickle down economics was designed to help the small and medium business owner to be competitive. Major corporations in the U.S. account for less than a quarter of the employment. The real movers of the economy is and always will be the small entrepreneur.

2) The dot.com meltdown was definitely a factor in the economic recession. All you have to do is refer to the capital flight from banks (savings accounts) towards mutual funds as well as the Dow surpassing 14,000 in 1999 to understand this. Investors flocked to buy up technology shares without understanding the economics of the internet. The fact that Google commands the price it has today is a clear example that people never learn. 

As a matter of fact, we are probably due another meltdown in the mortgage market (specifically on either coasts) due to speculation. Consumers are purchasing homes as an investment alternative to the stock market (it's like drugs, once you get used to double digit returns you can't quit). 

3) 9/11 cannot be downplayed enough for the economic and psychological effect it had over this nation. The fact that we have recovered in such a short time is nothing short of amazing.

Someone mentioned Bush's tunnel vision concerning the war on terrorism and his lack of focus concerning the plight of his own citizens.

Fact number one:

We face a greater danger today than during the cold war. At least then, we operated under the premise of mutually assured destruction. Neither the U.S. or Russia wanted that so it never came to be. Today however we face a highly organized and determined terrorist organization that uses religious zeal as it's source of motivation. The U.S. can fully expect a nuclear device to be detonated in a major metropolis within the next five years (ie. New York). To think that this won't happen is unrealistic. With that in mind, I think it's our business to meddle into any country.  

Fact number two

President Bush addressed the nation two nights ago to discuss revamping Social Security, which by the way will be bankrupt by 2042. His plan is simple and based upon in part by the same social security plan Chile instituted back in the late eighties. Today Chileans have a robust pension plan which actually provides a rate of return of 19% (try getting that at the bank) to secondary market investors. 

Fact number three

The economic downturn began during the Clinton administration, to be more precise check out the Dow Jones indices for April 2000. Thats seven months prior to the election and nine months prior to Bush's inauguration.

Sweetnighter wrote: Shame on both of you! You may not like Bush, and I may not like Bush either, but Bush is not to blame for the recession, at all... not its inception anyway... if his actions in office during the recession resulted in prolonging it, well thats another story, but Bush is not to blame for the recession. Should Clinton have somehow magically been able to hold a third term in office, the economic situation would be just as it is now. The Dot Com bubble grew and grew, and popped just in time to make Clinton appear to be a hero and Bush an evil villain. Oh, and lets not forget terrorists blowing buildings up.

Actually thats an article put out by the republicans.. don't believe it.!  And the dot coms had nothing to do with it... if that were so, Bush would be looking pretty good now.. have you seen the cost per share for Google lately....

valravennz wrote: threefates wrote: gdub411 wrote: Almost Always, one can thank the previous administration for the current economy. The economy was starting to go into an upswing when Bill Clinton went into office....Walaa!...He's an economic genius. When Bill Clinton left office, the economy was slowing down for months already and in came George W. to recieve all the blame. Sorry Gdub.. the economy started going down after Bush's first term.. not after Clinton's.  He started the roll and now he's having to deal with it his second term... G.W. earns his blames.. all by himself.  - well said Linda. That is fairly obvious even from our corner of the world!

"One definition of recession is two consecutive quarters with a declining gross domestic product. By this measure, the economy was explicitly not in recession when Bush took the oath of office on Jan. 20.

According to the Commerce Department, the economy grew (albeit slowly) in both the third quarter and the fourth quarter of 2000, by 0.6 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. GDP did decline in the first three quarters of 2001. So Bush would have been accurate in saying that "when I was inaugurated, the economy was three weeks into the first of three consecutive quarters in which GDP declined."

So technically the recession started under Bush, but the recession was not of his doing, since GDP started to decline before he was inaugurated. Just don't be ignorant people: no president or prime minister controls the economy single-handedly... he/she can influence the economy, but that takes a long time to happen.

If you're interested, here is the US' GDP growth since 1990:

gdub411 wrote: Almost Always, one can thank the previous administration for the current economy. The economy was starting to go into an upswing when Bill Clinton went into office....Walaa!...He's an economic genius. When Bill Clinton left office, the economy was slowing down for months already and in came George W. to recieve all the blame.

Sorry Gdub.. the economy started going down after Bush's first term.. not after Clinton's.  He started the roll and now he's having to deal with it his second term... G.W. earns his blames.. all by himself.

Half of that post is absolutely true. so /...

All I know about Kennedy is well after the fact...except that, along with the pope, criticizing him was the best way to get lynched at my Irish family's get-togethers...

Johnson is vetoed for repeatedly pledging not to send any more US troops to Vietnam.

Nixon is vetoed for numerous obvious conspiracies against freedom in America. That and holding his dog by the ears.

Gerald Ford? He was president? I thought he was a cast member on the first few seasons of Saturday Night Live, eventually disappearing about the same time as Garrett Morris.

Jimmy Carter - okay, decent choice, if a little bland. The first president in decades who used the phrase "peace process" with any sort of authenticity.

Ronald Reagan is vetoed for claiming ignorance of Iran-Contra (whether true or not). Plus, trickle-down economics didn't work...in fact, it pretty much economically destroyed the part of the country where I was born, and it hasn't yet recovered. 

Bush Sr. would be vetoed, but the American public did that already after one pathetic term.

Bill Clinton - I'd like to stand up for him, but apart from his amiability and sax skills, I have no real esteem for the man.

GWB is vetoed for the Patriot Act alone, but also for opposing almost a century's worth of progress in civil rights and the environment. And that's just what he did when he was concerned about re-election...