"…the only achievements of his presidency"?

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:01 PM Permalink

From Dan Froomkin's WaPo column comes this interesting take from Richard Clarke regarding bush:

Richard A. Clarke writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed that Bush's fear-mongering continued in his State of the Union address: "Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts. . . .

"For this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise. With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional protections. . . .

"While he has failed in spreading democracy, stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better off than when he took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully perpetuating fear for political gain.

"Sadly, it may be one of the only achievements of his presidency."

With only one caveat I agree.

I think successfully perpetuating fear for political gain has been the ONLY achievement of the bush presidency.

Labels: bush as chimp, corruption, Crime, cronyism, fear mongering, foreign policy