Bush: 2005

2005 was a political disaster for Bush and a natural disaster for New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans. The City was basically destroyed. The Bush Administration got blamed. They were very slow to respond to the crisis. However, the city and state governments were ultimately responsible for the dead. They failed to evacuate those that could not escape. They did not even try. If there was a villain in Katrina, it was Mayor Ray Nagin.

Before Katrina, Bush had blown almost all his political capital on social security reform. His plan went down like Clintoncare in 1994. Democrats attacked it and scared seniors. Seniors refuse to allow any changes to the program. Bush should have sent out trial balloons and then abandoned his reform efforts instead of trying to explain it to people unwilling to listen.

Another blunder was the attempt at putting Harriet Myers on the Supreme Court. She was not qualified and conservatives stood up to Bush. As a result, he placed John Roberts on the court as Chief Justice.

Unlike social security reform, bankruptcy reform passed. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Reform Act made it more difficult to declare bankruptcy. Many people were intentionally running up their credit cards and then declaring bankruptcy knowing they’d just get credit again. Then, they’d do it again. This act was designed to stop the abuse.

In the foreign arena, Kyoto went into effect. Wisely, the Bush Administration refused to participate. It did not make much sense to participate. The biggest polluters were exempted from the protocols. Unless something could be done to address China and India, then Kyoto and Kyoto-like agreements make no sense.

In the former Soviet Union, a would be assassin tossed a live grenade at Bush. It did not go off.

While that grenade did not go off, the CIA leak case exploded. This was a Washington scandal. However, Bush was wounded. He had been attacked for over a year for “lying” about WMD, was slow to react to Katrina, and had blown all his political capital on Harriet Myers and Social Security Reform. The press jumped on it as hard as they have ignored the ties between Obama and the Illinois Governor.

Lastly, the Republicans in Congress decided to place themselves into the Terry Shiavo case. House Leader Tom Delay decided that Shiavo’s husband had tried to murder her and wanted to block efforts to end her life. She was in a coma. The government had no business in this affair. However, Delay was a social con. Social cons are simply liberals who are simply arch conservatives on social issues. Delay attempted to use the government to intervene. This hurt the GOP more so than anything Bush did during his first five years in office. Between Katrina, Bush’s blunders, Iraq, and Shiavo, the GOP was on the road to defeat in 2006.