Decision points

(Lalo Alcaraz)

If George W. Bush was good for anything at all - which is certainly debatable - it was in providing fodder for comics and comedians. Certainly, political cartoonists have embraced his return to the limelight, now that he's emerged to peddle his self-serving book.

(Cam Cardow)

It's no wonder Bush has returned to public view now, after nearly two years in relative seclusion. Clearly, as the recent election demonstrated, the American people have forgotten all about the Bush years, so I'm sure he thinks it's time to re-write history.

(Stuart Carlson)

Well, he's a Texan, and they know about rewriting history down there. I suppose that, in Texas alternate history, he's already joined George Washington and Ronald Reagan as one of America's most important Founding Fathers. (Thomas Jefferson owned a Koran and promoted freedom of religion, while Abraham Lincoln - though a Republican - waged that tragic War of Northern Aggression on an innocent South.)

(John Sherffius)

Less than two years ago, George W. Bush left office with one of the worst approval ratings in American history, having started two wars (including one against a completely innocent - though oil-rich - country), created record-breaking deficits, politicized the U.S. Department of Justice, presided over the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, tortured prisoners of war, grew income inequality to banana republic levels, mismanaged the government response to Hurricane Katrina, and left America in such a horrible mess that we're still struggling to clean it up.

(David Fitzsimmons)

Almost worse than what he did was what he didn't do. He didn't do anything to combat global warming. He didn't do anything to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. He didn't promote research into alternate energy and other 21st Century technologies. Indeed, he cut spending on scientific research, and he let politicians and lobbyists rewrite existing research findings. And he left the EPA and the SEC poorly funded and poorly led, under the control of right-wing zealots and lobbyists. At the very least, we wasted eight years when we could have been attempting to solve our many problems.

(Jeff Danziger)

In many ways, Bush was the Republican ideal - incurious and unimaginative, suspicious of science, and indeed of education in general, loving war as a spectator sport, though staying well clear of any danger himself, and bored with the nuts and bolts of government, letting lobbyists and right-wing ideologues take the reins.

(Clay Bennett)

I wouldn't call him an evil man, but he was an absolute disaster as president. And that was our fault, at least in 2004, when we were dumb enough to re-elect him after we already knew what a disaster he was. OK, the economy hadn't completely collapsed by then, but the evidence was abundant that this guy should not have been in charge of anything more important than a tollbooth on the highway.

(Chris Britt)

Of course, a president can't do anything on his own. The "loyal Bushies" in the White House and the Republicans in Congress were equally at fault. And the Democrats in Congress who were too cowardly to do the right thing when Bush was still popular are also to blame. In fact, there's so much blame to go around, that almost no one want to even think about what happened, let alone investigate it so it doesn't happen again.

(Joel Pett)

And fundamentally, all this is the fault of the American people. We (collectively) voted for all these people (or even worse, couldn't be bothered to vote at all). We didn't roar with outrage over tax cuts for the rich, two unpaid wars, or even - to our undying shame - torturing prisoners of war. There was no draft, so college kids didn't care. We borrowed the money to pay for both wars, so taxpayers didn't care. We sat on the couch and watched bombs explode in Baghdad and thought it great fun, despite the fact that Iraq hadn't attacked us and was no danger to us at all.

(Clay Bennett)

Now, with the Tea Party and the GOP newly triumphant, it seems that we've forgotten all that. What better time for "Dubya," for "Shrub," for "Junior," to attempt his rehabilitation? In less than two years, most of us have forgotten just what a disaster the Republicans were, even while we're still struggling out of the hole they dug. The right-wing has already rewritten history in their own minds, deciding that they just weren't loony enough. And the left can't be bothered to work for what they believe in - or even to vote, often enough - because it's just too much effort...

Welcome to George W. Bush's America!

(Jim Morin)