George W. Bush's Transformation

[Professor Emeritus]

However, yes, George W. Bush was the fukk up in his family for the longest and he wanted to prove his entire family wrong and so he ran for Texas Governor and then eventually President to step out of his father and Jeb's shadow.

Just imagine what kind of alternate family life that is where you're forced to run for US president to get out of your brother's shadow and it's actually a reasonable goal.

 

[mastermind]

I met him and Donald Rumsfeld in 2006 by chance (I was working at a restaurant where they happened to be dining at). Cheney is the epitome of terrible human and a charisma vacuum. He made Rumsfeld come off as likable and a great guy. I 100% believe that he's as miserable as the myth makes him out to be.

tbf, Rumsfeld is a charismatic person.

 

[Dave24]

Just imagine what kind of alternate family life that is where you're forced to run for US president to get out of your brother's shadow and it's actually a reasonable goal.

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

Even during his terms I didn't get the impression he was ambitious or power hungry. And that certainly wasn't the prevailing narrative about him at the time.

Well yeah, of course, dikk Cheney is an evil scumbag. No doubt about it.

That's not what I was saying. The myth for the last 20 years has been that Bush 43 was a "puppet" for Cheney. That simply isn't true.

Breh, we're talking about a president who most likely was wearing a earpiece and receiver during a debate because he was too dimwitted to keep up. Puppet, perhaps not. But he wasn't the prime mover. I'm interested in checking out this PBS doc you mentioned. The doc on the lead up to the Iraq War that Bill Moyers did during his second term defintely didn't suggest that.

 

[King Static X]

Breh, we're talking about a president who most likely was wearing a earpiece and receiver during a debate because he was too dimwitted to keep up. Puppet, perhaps not. But he wasn't the prime mover. I'm interested in checking out this PBS doc you mentioned. The doc on the lead up to the Iraq War that Bill Moyers did during his second term defintely didn't suggest that.

Bush 43 was goofy but he wasn't dimwitted. The thing about Bush 43 was that he was inexperienced and surrounded himself with a corrupt cabal (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, etc). He delegated a lot of power earlier on in his presidency on certain issues to his cabinet and subordinates and that ended up backfiring on him. However, he wasn't a puppet and at the end of the day, he was usually the person that made the final decision on something.

Also, the PBS documentary I'm talking about is the one that came out last year. LINK to it here: George W. Bush | American Experience | PBS