Ben Stein: Bush Is Not All Bad

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

(CBS)  Sunday Morning commentator Ben Stein says that the war in Iraq may be a mess, but President Bush has presided over some very positive things.

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After the State Of The Union speech a few days ago, a muttering chorus of media critics told us endlessly that Bush was irrelevant, a loser, out of touch, even pitiful. NPR actually had Merle Haggard, the Okie from Muskogee, claim that the state of the nation had never been worse. And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush, just the way they did against LBJ and Nixon and tried to do against Reagan. They cannot impeach Bush because only Congress can do that. But the media is doing what it can to basically oust Mr. Bush while still leaving him lifting weights in the White House. Look, Merle Haggard is a great singer. But he knows nothing of what's up in America right now.

The truth is that we are in a huge economic boom. We are coming off a mammoth real estate explosion that put the most Americans in history in their own homes. We have totally full employment. After decades of stagnation, real wages are rising. The nation is wealthier than it has ever been (although this is very unevenly distributed). Most important of all, there has not been one major or even minor successful terrorist incident against the U.S. homeland in over five years. Bush may not have done it by himself, but he had something to do with it.

True, we are mired in a war without end, costing us far too many great young and old Americans and too many limbs and wrecked families and vastly too much money. But we all know we're getting out soon.

It was a huge mistake, but I'd like to see a President who did not make immense mistakes. What about Vietnam? What about Korea?

True, the rich often get away with murder in the executive suite. Bush is partly to blame, but all politicians cater to the rich. What America's high degree thieves suck out of the system is nauseating and I fight it constantly, but that's life.

Let's be honest. Let's admit that Bush has presided over a lot of success in addition to some serious failures.

But no one elected the media to anything. In the TV studios and newsrooms, there is a lynch mob at work. Let's see it for what it is. Mr. Bush is the only President we have, and, with all his faults, I trust him a lot more than I trust the unelected princes and princesses of the newsroom.

[whelmed29]

Ben will always cherish the original misconceptions he had about President Bush. GWB was reared in a vacuum - and then placed into the White House as a Bubble Boy.

[coldtruth]

It makes me ill that the people of this country can be so consumed by hate for a group of people that they become totally blinded to proven information that is documented by many different groups and government agencies showing how well the economy is doing. Let alone the fact that our country has been safe for the last 5 years against terrorist attack. That alone is impressive considering the efforts by the far left to tie President Bush%u2019s hands with legal loopholes and filibusters and any other thing they can think up. The foolish are lead easily by lies and smooth talk. Take my advice and research the information and quit believing every thing you read that is written by a high school drop out one a democratic blog! If you don%u2019t then you will see this nation fall apart. You want the rich to take care of the poor and give them all of their money, what then is their motivation to build a business if they can%u2019t reap the rewards. No motivation, kiss your job good bye. You want a hand out instead of working yourself, and the promise that the democrats give you of the Robin Hood plan to keep you happy and healthy by milking the rich%u2026 it%u2019s a lie. Yeah they will milk the rich all right, and you to. The press haven%u2019t said anything about the good things that have been completed by this administration. If a demarcate becomes Pres. in the next term you will hear how strong the economy really is%u2026 and they will give the democrats the credit.

[mlrusa]

Ben suffers from a preponderance of good sense: A patriot who can count: 24-million freed in Afghanistan,26-million freed in Iraq (tho they don't appreciate being told they shall be secularists), Qaddafi in his place outof the nuke business, 5 years without a terrorist hit in the U.S., lower taxes for the MIDDLE CLASS as well as for those who create jobs for all of us.historic job creation levels, low unemployment. It is the economy, stupid, once said, always true -- except when it's Bush's economy. But Ben's problem is that his worldview has some religious accountability in it, and that offends the senses of 95% of the media managers who mislead America to discredit Bush on everything. They cannot stand his Judaeo-Christian ethic. Everything I know about God I got from Jewish minds. I have issues with Bush, too: WTO, NAFTA, declining U.S. sovereignty, borders. But a few exist - like Ben -- who can disagree with each other with character- maiming their opponents. Another such is Joe Lieberman, and I'll bet none of Ben's critics will support Good Man Joe, either. - MLR

[candyz7760]

to point the finger at the media is very narrow minded. there are scholars, numerous politicians (republican and democrat), military officers and many other non-media indiviuals that continually reiterate the misguided leadership of the country by mr bush.

[duckswill]

The unabomber and the Boston strangler made huge mistakes also and got a lot of bad press,I'm sure some demented mind saw some good in their actions to. Stein, you are as delusional as president Cheeney.

[[e-mail]]

Mr. Stein,
Your analysis of the economics of the Bush years is outrageously dishonest! Bush who started with surplus has spent the comiong generations into oblivion. I Think the kind of idiocy you talked about last sunday belongs on Fox news and insults CBS news. It was all too dumb to be broadcast.

denny abrams

[abbullard]

The only valid statement you gave in your piece was "No one elected the media to anything." Otherwise Bush is a cocky little, smirking ****** who has done very little for diplomacy, environment or population in the World, USA or the Great State of Texas. I can not believe that he was ever elected to a second term. Thank goodness for term limits as President. Just wish the Texas Governor had limits. His goal is to serve more consecitive terms than any one else has done in Texas. He was Bush's protege. Stupid is as stupid does.

[gfinley11]

Ben Stein: Your commentary on our President was very fair and timely. I would like to see you on the David Letterman show!
It strikes me that a man of your intellect could write an excellent comparison between the harm that Nixon did to our Nation (an overt act that was punishable); and, the harm that Clinton did to our Nation (a series of actions that subtlely - and forever - weakened the moral fiber of our nation).

Excuse my spelling.

Gordon L. Finley
Arizona

[karlimhof]

Hey Benny - why don't you and your AIPAC friends discuss this:

U.S.: Israel may have violated cluster bomb use
The United States said on Monday Israel may have violated an agreement with Washington in its use of U.S.-made cluster bombs during last July's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16
870496/from/ET/

Why doesn't veryone check this out - don't think it's even mentioned on CBS - lots of kids playing in their yards now are either dead or without arms, legs, eyes, hands. IDF ers are real humanitarians - if you're a Jew, anyone else is just a "human shield". Right.

[adian1-2009]

Having made such an exhaustive list of "his" positives, now start the list of negatives and see if you are able to finish it. That is, assuming that those positives are traceable to Bush and not in spite of Bush-Cheney. How much are worth to you our civil liberties? How do you measure in economic terms that our country is rightfully deemed to be a human rights violator instead of a defender of such rights? Now give us an economic figure by means of which you measure the negative financial value of the hatred felt against us worldwide? And what about lack of not only medical insurance for 47M Americans, but also of medical services? Now go to the traditional allies we have alienated during this administration? If you have time, tell us how much Bush has done to prevent global warming, or for the environment, for that matter. What about torture and secret jails in foreign countries? What about the killing of innocents in Irak? What about limiting the tax burden on the few rich and letting the middle class unprotected? How come that we need two jobs to merely survive? YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!

[j0hnwi11iams]

I really dispise the way the con artists hide behind their numbers. Hide the variance by talking only about averages. You WISH people stupid.

[j0hnwi11iams]

Everything Bush has touched has turned to ***.

[j0hnwi11iams]

Bush is ALL BAD. He is all marketing, no product. All advertising, no program. Shills like Stein were defending the Oil Companies when they were collecting subsidies while making record profits. This country is in BIG trouble because of several critical factors:

1) The HUGE federal deficit
2) The HUGE trade imbalance
3) The HUGE split between haves and have nots.
4) The HUGE greed displayed by major corporations and the executives who run them.
5) The HUGE number of uninsured.

This country is being driven into the ground. You and people like you hide behind averages. It is like this country is being run by organized crime.

[j0hnwi11iams]

So where is your money RIDING?

[j0hnwi11iams]

Ben you ignorant ***. Bush has waged a war against science since he was appointed POTUS. You call yourself a man of reason, but you can not be a man of reason AND reject science. It is THAT simple.

****.

[chiefjakedad]

Thanks Ben, for your perspective. You%u2019re a voice of reason in a difficult, cynical, but mostly uninformed world.
Keep up the fight, anyway%u2026

[jssecy]

Ben Stein needs to reveal himself as a life long Republican who was a speech writer for several administrations before he gives 'opinions'. His opinion of George W Bush is so biased by his Republican ties that he's blinded to what George W has done. This president has done more harm to our country in 6 years that the previous 4 presidents combined. We're mired in a hopeless, unsubstantiated war, deeper in debt than ever with more animosity toward us than has ever existed. The jobs Ben toted so famously are mostly low paying, part time without benefits & the reason there are more of them is because everybody is working 2 or 3 jobs to pay for their overpriced houses. This is one time Ben is wrong & should stick to financial advice rather than praise presidents like George W.

[bandit630203]

Ben Stein...Thank you! Finally a voice of reason from a network about President Bush.

[maplierbag]

You always reflect my thoughts which help me to realize I am not crazy. I sometimes wonder what are people thinking. Is there another era they would have preferred to live? Another country? Why all the pessimism? There have always been good and bad in the world, we just know more about it now. Why do others want so desperately to come to the US if it is such a horrible place? And no one has been able to tell me what will happen to Iraq when/if we leave and the terrorists are allowed free reign. How long until this danger spreads to neighboring countries and once again our security is threatened.

[swingalong]

Nice article. Thousands and thousands dead for nothing, the treasury gutted, our name dirt, our power lost but oh, the real estate market is doing well -- as if Bush had anything to do with it. If he had, it would be in ruins just like everything else that good-for-nothing touches. Oh, pray look at the bright side of this maniac. We have secret prisons where we torture and murder people without trial. We don't know who or what or where or why -- but think of all the GOOD Bush has done. Such talk turns the stomach.