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I'm still amazed how much I thought I generally agreed with Bush II back when, and how I look back at his presidency now and dislike so much of it. 

Part of that is I didn't pay close attention to politics back then like I do now.  As you know, I was too busy chasing good-looking women in Austin.  But the other part is I'm less "Team Elephant!" now and have tried to work out my own opinions in the context of my worldview, which has evolved itself as I studied critical thinking and theology over the years. 

I don't dislike everything about his presidency, but I dislike a fair bit of it.  And especially his last one or two years in office.  At this point, I feel like he basically did everything wrong on his way out the door. 

W. Bush was also my red pilling political administration.  I defended that guy like he was my own father.  Boy, did he make me look stupid.

I now have no 'team'.

I'm still amazed how much I thought I generally agreed with Bush II back when, and how I look back at his presidency now and dislike so much of it. 

Part of that is I didn't pay close attention to politics back then like I do now.  As you know, I was too busy chasing good-looking women in Austin.  But the other part is I'm less "Team Elephant!" now and have tried to work out my own opinions in the context of my worldview, which has evolved itself as I studied critical thinking and theology over the years. 

I don't dislike everything about his presidency, but I dislike a fair bit of it.  And especially his last one or two years in office.  At this point, I feel like he basically did everything wrong on his way out the door. 

I never cared for Bush II, not when he was governor or President.  I never voted for him.  Maybe I did for Governor, I don't quite remember.  But I did go to a speech he gave at A&M about 1998 at GHWB Library.  I was really impressed with his speech and personality, although I can't really tell you what he said.  I regret the fact that I had a brief chance to meet him, he was talking to RC Slocum and maybe one or two people were present and they were casually chatting it up.  I thought about coming up and shaking their hands but I didn't want to intrude.  I had no idea he would be USA President two years later.  I think about it often, if I would have had a camera that would have been an all-timer.  The best coach in A&M's history (debatable) vs a future US President and sitting Governor.  I managed to get on the front page of the A&M newspaper about the same time, those two pictures would have looked great sitting in my den.  

I remember being disgusted by the fact that they put Obama's face on those HOPE posters


https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1938053287535616085

It's funny that South Park made fun of the fact that we had two horrible options in 2004, and yet either Bush or Kerry would have won in a landslide given the 2016, 2020, 2024 options

What I remember about the 2004 Bush/Kerry election cycle was that the next year Texas and USC played for the NC, and I thought Bush vaguely favored Mack Brown and that Kerry vaguely favored Pete Carroll.  So the whole leadup to the game I kept thinking "I just did a whole news cycle with competitors who looked like this."  

I thought the consensus on W. was that those were the good ole days when he was more incompetent than unethical, unlike today's options. 
Not better, but preferred.

his administration knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction- their intelligence agencies told them this- and he ignored all the actual experts and ordered said evidence fabricated by yes men in order to get the authorization for military force to invade Iraq in a war of aggression in which that country was destroyed and millions of people were displaced and as many as 1 million Iraqis died. Not to mention his administration approved and executed all kinds of highly illegal torture and rendition programs. his administration gave billions of dollars worth of no-bid non-compete contracts to defense contractors during the occupation of Iraq & Afghanistan- including contracts worth over $1 billion to the company his Vice President used to be the CEO of. wtf are you smoking here. that was not incompetence, that was outright lies, corruption, and lawlessness.

his administration knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction- their intelligence agencies told them this- and he ignored all the actual experts and ordered said evidence fabricated by yes men in order to get the authorization for military force to invade Iraq in a war of aggression in which that country was destroyed and millions of people were displaced and as many as 1 million Iraqis died. Not to mention his administration approved and executed all kinds of highly illegal torture and rendition programs. his administration gave billions of dollars worth of no-bid non-compete contracts to defense contractors during the occupation of Iraq & Afghanistan- including contracts worth over $1 billion to the company his Vice President used to be the CEO of. wtf are you smoking here. that was not incompetence, that was outright lies, corruption, and lawlessness.

Yes, that unethical......and yet still more incompetent.  Maybe I attribute much of the above with Cheney.  I'm not going to pretend to know.  

similar to confirmation bias