Many United States presidents have been viewed as good or bad based on the global and economic events that occur during their time in office. However, these events are not always the presidents’ faults. Most recently seen as an inadequate president is George W. Bush, and I blame the media’s portrayal of it all.
As President George W. Bush came in to office, many things terrible things occurred on a global scale. There was the economic downturn in 2007 occurred, The world went haywire. Who did the people immediately blame? President George W. Bush. The American citizens blamed him by not questioning the media’s portrayal of him. In fact, the downturn occurred when the housing market began to plummet. The price of houses skyrocketed. Then, America whet in to debt due to the stimulus package, but that is not in the time of President W. Bush. As the stocks fell, and the people panicked, the world was going downhill. This crash in the stocks was due to speculation and theft committed by Wall Street workers. The people blamed Bush when he couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. Another economic aspect that caused anger to the American people was an increase in taxes, again, due to the government representatives increasing their salary! What gives them that right, anyways!?! How could Bush stop this? The economic problems are due to lack of moral responsibility by the government representatives.
Many other events occurred during the W. Bush administration that made it look bad. I shall begin with the basics. 9/11 was the first of them. His response to this was to send troops to the Middle East and put a stop to the terrorism. He also passed the patriot act to protect Americans. Some say this act is against the constitution, but they don’t realize it is for America’s safety. Just because Bush couldn’t put a stop to a 60 year old conflict in the Middle East, should he be considered a bad president? No, he focused on the safety of country, and we should be glad that he did. Many of the techniques used by this administration were inhumane, however, Bush was told by a lawyer that they were legal.
There was also Hurricane Katrina that occurred during his time as president. This was something no one could control. There was a critical moment where some may say that he did not care, and that was when he was flying over New Orleans and he didn’t land to see the people. He had a reason for this. He was thinking ahead, and if he would have landed, attention and resources would be taken from the rescue attempt. They would be focused on the president and not what was the main goal in that area.
George W. Bush was a good president with a massive amount of challenges he had to face as president. Some presidents are considered good presidents, but they may not have faced the challenges that many others have faced. In the end, due to the American’s people ignorance to the exaggeration of the media, the success of a president should be measured in the amount of challenges he faces and how that president reacts to the problem. I think that George W. Bush was a good president, with many overwhelming challenges.
