I want to preface this by saying George Bush is the worst president America has ever had. I believe there is little debate about that. But bush being a horrible president helped bring to the surface many of the hidden problems our country was facing. Fundamental problems with how this country is run but also political problems. And thats why Bush was good for America in the long term.
FEMA and the federal governments poor response to hurricane Katrina exposed the incompetence and disorganization of America's disaster relief efforts. A flaw that may not have been exposed by a more capable president.
The swift and amazingly disinterested review of the Patriot Act by congress exposed the dangers of granting broad authority to the president in times of war and of passing a bill without exhaustive legislative debate.
Bush's downright butchering of the English language in his speeches and discourse with foreign leaders exposed the dire necessity of a well-spoken commander in chief that helps bring credibility to the united states government.
The failure to implement and fund proper infracture investment that led to the collapse of the Minnesota bridge and the investigations that followed exposed the true decay of our infrastructure countrywide.
Bush's failure to properly regulate the financial industry and the running wild of oil companies under his watch, will likely lead to greater investment in alternative fuels and much needed financial regulation.
While I certainly believe Gore and Kerry would have been better presidents than Bush, I wonder whether they would have just sought bandaids for the above mentioned problems or fundamental fixes that President Obama will certainly pursue.
How about American politics?
Presidential politics has been ugly as far as back as at least the election of Thomas Jefferson. In 1800 supporters of Jefferson said John Adams had a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." Adams' backers branded Jefferson as a "mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." Supporters of Adams claimed Jefferson, never mind the rumored relationship the widower had with slavehand Sally Hemings, would remove religion from everything. Jefferson's supporters said Adams would make himself king.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/...
So it was no suprise when in 2000, George Bush's team slandered John McCain in South Carolina primary by suggesting via robocall that McCain fathered a black baby out of wedlock. It worked. George Bush won the primary and the election.
In 2004, George Bush's team turned a war hero turned war critic John Kerry into a cry baby and flip flopper. It worked. George Bush won the election and declared a mandate to fulfill his policy objectives.
In 2008, prior to the general election starting, both John McCain and Barack Obama pledge to run a clean campaign. Both candidates, as well as Hillary Clinton in the primaries, vowed to bring an end to Rovian politics. Obama fulfilled his pledge, John McCain did not. This time, Rovian politics lost and Obama won. The people had had enough of slander politics and hopefully this election is where they died.
In 2000, George Bush told the american people that God wanted him to run for president. That he had given up alcohol thanks to the divine intervention of Jesus. It worked.
In 2004, George Bush painted John Kerry as an elitist windsurfer while painting himself as the "guy you wanted to have a beer with". It worked.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton and John McCain tried to paint Obama has an elitist and themselves as populists. Despite Obama's verbal gaffe about guns and religion, Obama ended up winning more working white class voters than Kerry or Gore.
After 8 years of Bush politics, America decided that ideology no longer trumps ability and intelligence.
George Bush helped expose the problems facing america in not only the governmental oversight of the country as a whole but the politics that helped create the ideological divide that has kept us a divided nation for so long.