This is an impressive crowd: The "Haves" and the "Have Mores." Some people call you "The Elite." I call you "My Base." -- Former President George W. Bush, October 19th, 2000
I can’t think of a time when I felt it was more important for us to defeat an incumbent president today with respect to Barack Obama. I think he has been an unmitigated disaster to the country. -- Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, April 14th, 2012
Richard Bruce Cheney pronounces the Obama Administration an
"unmitigated disaster"...
Wow!
No president is perfect, but President Obama an "unmitigated disaster"?!
Mister Cheney: I do not think that phrase means what you think it means. You want "unmitigated disaster"? I'll give you "unmitigated disaster."
The partial tally of what this nation lost under President Bush so far:
• The World Trade Center
• A piece of the Pentagon
• Five or six trillion dollars--again, so far
• A doubled national debt
• Over six-thousand dead American soldiers and over forty-seven-thousand wounded (not to mention billions of dollars in weapons, supplies, and equipment blown up, wasted, or stolen)
• Untold numbers of Iraqis, Afghanis, and Pakistanis dead and wounded, and thousands of refugees
• The sympathy and the cooperation of almost every nation on the planet
• A big chunk of New Orleans
• The housing market
• Every amendment in the Bill Of Rights except the second
• A valuable CIA agent specializing in nuclear counter-proliferation
• Safe airline travel
• Safe food
• Safe water
• Safe, regulated exploration for and extraction of coal, oil, and gas
• Impartial climate science
• The integrity of the Justice and Interior departments
• Years of government research on climate change
• Eight years of stem cell research
• The nation's moral standing on war crimes and torture
• Two million jobs
• Fair elections
• The integrity of the private property system
• Trillions of dollars swindled from Americans by banks you refused to regulate
• The Kyoto Treaty
• Three-thousand points off the Dow
(I would list the American automobile industry but President Obama mitigated that one…)
You two--entrusted with all of the might and with the unalloyed support of the most powerful nation on earth--failed to send enough troops into Afghanistan to kill Osama bin Laden in December of 2001 which has allowed death and destruction to metastasize throughout that region in a war that has yet to end ten years later. You have caused those brave men and women to be re-deployed again and again, leaving them and their families strained under the weight of duty.
That is just the partial tally, Mr. Cheney. But the biggest blow? I include President Bush's quote above because it foreshadows your most egregious sin: It is illegal for citizens to plot the overthrow of the government, but what are we to do when a government overthrows its people? You were a disaster for almost everyone else, but you guys delivered big-time for your base. Sixty-five percent of the American economy's growth during your tenure went to your base. As the banking and financial sectors were cleaning out the Treasury at the end of your administration (had to cover those bad bets they made in Iraq and Afghanistan (.pdf) and the housing market and unregulated financial products while there was still time), the Supreme Court undertook one final insult on your behalf: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. We went from government "of the people, by the people, for the people," to "corporations are the people."
You and President Bush broke faith with the most basic tenets of our nation. You failed to uphold your oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution Of The United States." You paved the way for the subversion of our electoral system by and for "your base." The American People are saddled with the shame of a president and a vice-president who dare not travel to certain countries for fear of arrest for war crimes. You created a presidency that can declare itself judge, jury, and executioner of American citizens in foreign lands just on the president's say-so. You left this nation poverty-stricken, fractured, and rudderless.
"Unmitigated disaster"?
President Obama has a long way to go to match your record, Mr. Cheney. George W. Bush is the worst president in United States history, and your role in that obscenity is indelible.
