Comments on: Ben Stein: Bush Is Not All Bad

Iraq Is A Mess, But There Is A Lot Of Good In the U.S.

[diamtool]

So Merle Haggard "knows nothing of what's up in America right now." But elitist Ben does.. OK! Then I'm sure Bush will be fondly regarded by history as the president who made the stock market climb and had no terrorist attacks for five years. Sure he will...
Is anyone in America still buying this ***???

God Bless our Troops
God forgive George Bush

[chagres-2009]

Mr Stein, are you saying the media is wrong? I read your article a little quickly, so perhaps I missed out on the part about spending the surplus he inherited, digging the country into a bigger debt hole, damaging the environment by watering laws, etc. ad infinitum. You do not fault, but casually brush off Bush for starting a war he cannot finish & openly plans to leave to the next president (of either party), yet he will reap all the bennies of an ex-president (Secret Svc, exotic commo system, etc). And to top it off there's conflict over the location of his library. LIBRARY? This most secretive of administrations destroys things before reading & Bush brags that he doesn't read, so what's going to be in it? Perhaps jobs for his daughters, I guess.

Mr. Stein, congratulations --- you're near the top for the Champion Apologist title.

Chagres
Panama City, Panama

[dirtydog55]

Ben Stein is the puking dog of right-wing BS. And his BORING monotone is enough to make me puke.

AARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! BAAARRRRRFFFFF! OORROOOAAARRRKK!!!

I can't believe he actually gets paid for this boring krap.

AARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! BAAARRRRRFFFFF! OORROOOAAARRRKK!!!

[beebopareebo]

It is easy to say that the instances of home ownership has risen and then ignore that so have foreclosures. It is easy to talk about full employment and not recognize that service sector jobs do not pay nearly as well as those they replaced .... After all, if losing your job were so terrific, why were so many Republicans feeling sorry for the way Rumsfield was dumped? Real wages rising? How is that possible when the States have to take the initiative to raise the minimum wage? No progress on health care. No progress on global warming (unless you want to call finally recognizing it progress). Kowtowing to the special interests in the energy industry. Tax cuts for the very wealthy. Shrinking middle class. Higher education nearly out of reach for all but the most intellectually gifted or upper middle class. Gee. How did we miss so many fine signs? And let's see. A uniter not a divider as well. What we wouldn't do for a man who enjoys a little skirt chasing!

[cstrano]

Ben is right. The ruination of this country is the MEDIA!

[sharncedar]

"The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush, just the way they did against LBJ and Nixon and tried to do against Reagan"

What about ol' saxophone-playing Clinton? The press didn't go after him, no sir, they didn't spend three years talking about one incident of trivial commonplace DC s*x, the same kind Newt "betray your wife" Gingrich was gettin' up there in DC, and ignoring any other topic night and day, no, they didn't do that. They didn't create an issue out of nothing, running Clinton into the ground night and day and night and day over one incident, one actual s*x act in a city with 100's of politicians commiting s*x acts often against minors all day and night every day all week long. no, they didn't do that.

Butthey did report that George Bush started a war, and that it has no plan he can state in words. They revelaed that 4 yearsd after the war started, they mentioned that he is losing the war 3 years after everyone knew he was losing, oh yes, that liberal bias press. Oh yes, such bias.

[blahblahbla5]

Stein being fair to Bush in the essay? You got to be kidding. The media, if it is, is turning no Bush because for years the administration has been clubbing them over the head like a baby seal. Spying on reporters, blacklisting those that print the 'wrong' information, planting stories, etc.

Stein says "Bush has presided over some very positive things" but the only thing he names is the economy, which is actually doing well... for *rich* people, and at the cost of war profiteering and borrowing against our future. Your 'economy' does really well by buying a bunch of stuff on credit. Get a nice 46" tv, digital cable, new car, etc. But once you start having to pay (out the nose) it's a different story. Bush has bankrupted U.S., and that's the *only* good thing to say about him? This is really scary that his approval rating is more than 20%.

[thewildness-2009]

Ben Stein you are blinded by the same light that has blinded all the religious bigots that kill for %u201Cpeace.%u201D I mean %u201Cnational interests.%u201D We are in Iraq because Detroit auto-makers refuse to put an engin in our cars that will run on a variety of fuels. Like a diesel.
This country is being run by the %u201Cmilitary industrial complex%u201D as Eisenhower said in the 50's and ALL in congress are on the take as well. Along with the .1% of the population that have and or control 90+% of the wealth and the rest of us are just a pain in their butts. Thank god for religion as a mans to give the population %u201Chope%u201D and gives them something to do other than question the elites right to send our young to die so as to further their bottom lines and greed for power.
Hay %u201CBeen Stein%u201D, you are just that.
BEEN.
Now get a new life and join the 99.95% of the planet and start working on how to eliminate the%u201Delitist pigs%u201D who %u201Cknow better.%u201D

[grazinggoat]

sandycat2,
You must be blind and deaf to post such a reality-disconnected observation. The only other possibility: the Bushes have a cat called Sandy.

[tonywikrent]

Conservatives, sit up and take note: the U.S. economy was originally NOT based on the ideas of Adam Smith, but on the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury.
In his Report on Manufactures, Hamilton argued that the U.S. could not become fully independent until it was self-sufficient in all necessary economic products. Hamilton%u2019s policies became known as the American System, after a series of speeches by Senator Henry Clay in the 1820s. There were three three principal policy components:

1. Support industry: The advocacy of protectionism, and opposition to free trade - particularly for the protection of infant industries
2. Create physical infrastructure: Government finance of Internal improvements to speed commerce and develop industry. This involved the regulation of privately held infrastructure, to ensure that it meets the nation's needs.
3. Create financial infrastructure: A government sponsored National Bank to issue currency and encourage commerce. This involved the use of sovereign powers for the regulation of credit to encourage the development of the economy, and to deter speculation.