Like most Americans, I get my news from the Daily Show. And so I was interested to learn that the whitehouse had posted "100 Things Americans Might Not Know About the Bush Administration Record"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
The very first bullet point is:
Kept America Safe
For more than 7 years after 9/11 2001, prevented another attack on our homeland
Now, this kind of glosses over the fact that he kind of failed to prevent 9/11 in the first place, which is not really something that I personally would be bragging about if I were the departing president.
But it did occur to me that he was very, very effective in keeping America safe in many other ways, which, with typical modesty, he fails to cite.
Here are a few I've thought of. Perhaps others can contribute their thoughts.
But under "Kept America Safe," if I had been assembling this document, I might have skipped the section on terrorist attacks (it's a little bit like saying you haven't been imprisoned since the last time I was in jail). But I would definitely have included some of the following:
For the entire 8 years of his presidency, kept meteors from striking the earth and eliminating all life
and
For the entire 8 years of his presidency, prevented major metropolitan areas from being attacked by radioactive monsters
again, I might not include this section, "Provided Unprecedented Resources for Veterans" -- Or, at the very least, I would have used language that did not, lead the reader to consider, that one of the "unprecedented" resources President Bush provided was our most protracted unnecessary war! So one of the resources he provided was a method by which we could create new veterans! yep, I would definitely have phrased that differently. hmmmm. Probably would have employed the word "bolstered" in some way.
Let's see, what's next?
"Reduced Crime...Helped Make America A More Equitable Country" there's this interesting snippet:
Protected the right to vote for generations to come by reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and advanced civil rights
It is absolutely correct that without George W. Bush's presidency, I think we would not be seeing the first black president. So in that way, this particular excerpt is absolutely accurate.