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10/22/08

New York Press - -The Lame Duckling - by JAMAAL YOUNG

For the complete report from the New York Press click on this link

The Lame Duckling - by JAMAAL YOUNG

"As the United States focuses their attention on the next would-be president, it’s not quite time to forget the one that’s screwed everything up.There once was a governor who, despite all the odds (including losing the popular vote), was elected President of the United States. He was never described as intelligent—or wise, or thoughtful, or even moderately clever—but, boy was he ever charming. He had a way of making everyone around him—including some of the nation’s most experienced public servants—feel all warm inside about policies and practices that were directly in opposition to their own beliefs and self-interests. He convinced millions of middle-class Americans that a tax cut that provided them only $300 in extra dough was enough to jumpstart the American economy—those taxpayers all went out and bought new televisions made in Asia. He bribed Senator Kennedy with the promise of copious amounts of money for public education in return for Uncle Teddy’s support of the No Child Left Behind Bill. That bill became law, but the promised cash never appeared, creating a national school system that focused on math and reading to the exclusion of art, music, physical education and even recess. The result: Cuba still had a higher literacy rate than the United States.

Yes, George W. Bush’s faux-Texan charm served him well as a first-term President; and if he would have called it quits in 2004, history might have remembered him as one of the nation’s more effectively persuasive politicians. Unfortunately for him, he stuck around for a second term, during which every new initiative he pursued ended in defeat.And that brings us to today, with less than two weeks until Election Day and our national attention squarely focused on Barack Hussein Obama and John Sidney McCain. But through all the talk of pigs and plumbers, terrorists and Tina Fey, let us not forget about the US current commander-in-chief who still pursues policies that will continue to contravene the interests of this nation long after he leaves.

Look, it’s not like the US expected a fairytale ending to eight years of Bush rule; but at least the US population expected the president of the United States to act with an awareness of the situation the country finds itself in and with an eye on the consequences his decisions would have on the world as we move forward."

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