The President Most Maligned By the Left?

Is George Bush the United States president that was most maligned by the left?  I must admit that I did not pay close attention to politics until the late 70's/early 80's.  I will futher admit that I feared Reagan as president during the 70's.  I was brainwashed by my educators that Reagan was going to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

Albeit, the left did attack Reagan.  Reagan (using the 20/20 vision of hindsight) was a masterful tactican in using his rhetorical skills to build public pressure against the left Congress and institutions and get his policies passed.  Bush lacked that ability.

And yes, because of his inablity to harness negative rhetoric, he was forced to cave in to the spending pleasures or the Caligula Congress in order to get funding for the troops overseas.  That, ultimately, was his greatest fault.

That said, I will not join the chorus in labeling George W. Bush as a bad president.  Let's not forget that only a few months into his first year as president, the United States was subject to acts of terrorism and war within its own sovereign boundaries.  Blame Bush?  Idiotic.  The terrorist cells had been developing for almost a decade under Bill Clinton's administration.  The 9/11 terrorists did not arrive here in 2001.  They were here for quite a while and allowed to take flying lessons on our own soil, case out airport security, and do whatever they needed to do to plan out such a bold endeavor.

IMHO, I tend to judge people by what they do and how they react in times of great crisis.  And the 9/11 attacks culminated in the worst crisis I had ever faced....attacked on our own soil, more than 3,000 dead in one blow, and hundreds of others saved by some brave souls that forced a hijacked plane to crash in rural Pennsylvania in the greatest gift of self-sacrifice, their lives.

To this day, I remember George Bush's words that stated we would be "open for business tomorrow".  And that is exactly what happened.  Under George Bush's stewardship, that is exactly what happened.  Although the mental and emotional wounds of what happened on 9/11 took quite some time to heal, our nation was NEVER crippled, hobbled, handicapped, or hindered in proceeding business as usual.  It is also obvious that we felt quite safe, quite soon.  The media, the lefts in Congress, the anti-Bush leagues, basically kept quiet for some time after 9/11 for fear of being labeled anti-American.  Yet, as soon as they knew we were safe, the risk was nulled, they started on the road to crucify Bush once again. 

The attacks of 9/11 were planned to paralyze us, create social disorder, and create conflict within our societies factions.  Yet, under the leadership of George Bush, this did not occur.  Had Bush not had the country up and running the very next day, social disorder and factions warfare would have occured.  His resolve, however, created the effect opposite our enemies wanted.  Almost all Americans, whatever color, race, creed, age or sex, came together to stand united as Americans, as patriots.  The sensation was brief, as our commander in chief brought quick silence to the groups that trained and funded the terrorists in Afghanistan.  Had he been more of a politician than commander, he could have dragged out the conflict to favor his political interests.  That did not happen.  We quickly struck at the heart of the nucleus that those that wished us harm.

For that I salute George W. Bush for a job well done.

If you forgot tha fateful day, this will remind you: