Good riddance

He stole at least one election, and quite possibly two. He prosecuted a war that cost over 4000 American lives, who knows how many Iraqi ones (we don't count them), and is estimated to wind up costing us $3 trillion before it ends. He stood and watched as a major American city drowned. His cowboy capitalist buddies looted the Treasury, leaving the next President little leeway as he attempts to deal with the worst economy in 75 years. Now, some of this was going on before George W. Bush's muddy boots soiled the White House carpet, and other parties can shoulder their share of the blame, but Captain Dubya's attitude that the public welfare is none of government's business didn't help matters much. It is not for nothing that he earned the scorn of historians as the worst president ever.

At Salon, Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant assess the damage.

Hilzoy: He's a small, small man, who ought to have spent his life in some honorary position without responsibilities at a firm run by one of his father's friends. Instead, he ruined our country, and several others besides. He wasted eight years in which we could have been shoring up our economy, laying the groundwork for energy independence, making America a fairer and better country, and truly working to help people around the world become more free. Instead, he debased words that ought to mean something: words like honor, decency, freedom, and compassion.

Thanks, George. Now leave.

(Portrait H/T: Darkblack via SteveAudio.)