Jan. 19, 2009
President Bush By The Numbers
CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller Offers A Numerical Assessment of the Bush Presidency
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Play CBS Video Video The Legacy Of George W. Bush CBS News' Bob Schieffer walks us through the highs and lows of President Bush's eight years in the White House.
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Video Pres. Bush's Farewell Adress "CBS News RAW:" President George W. Bush delivered a farewell address to the nation from the East Room of the White House, as he discussed his last 8 years in office.
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Video The Cunning Environmentalist One of the last minute acts of the Bush Administration was to auction off land for oil drilling. But, As Bill Whitaker reports, one environmentalist found a way to foil these plans to sell the land.
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President George W. Bush (CBS/APTV)
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Section The Bush Legacy As President Bush leaves office, the nation takes a look at his record.
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Photo Essay Bush's Final Trip To Iraq The president made a surprise visit (his last) to Baghdad.
As President Bush leaves office, we take a look back at the legacy he leaves behind.
- Saudi Prince Assails Bush's Mideast Legacy
- President Bush By The Numbers
- Two Last Pardons
- Final Hours As President
- President Bush's Last Day
- Bids Goodbye To World Leaders
- Final Poll: 22% Approval
- In Farewell, Bush Defends Record
- Video Of Final Speech | Transcript
- Bob Schieffer On Bush's Legacy
- Bush Rating Hits Historic Lows
- Presidency In Pictures
- Polls: Overall Job Ratings
Complete Coverage of The Bush Legacy
There are many ways to assess President Bush’s eight years in office. Countless hours of broadcast time and tons of newsprint are being consumed in that pursuit these days.
And you can agree or not with what’s being said and written.
It’s difficult for any of us to convey an objective assessment of the Bush presidency - but numbers come close to offering a bit of unbiased insight.
So here - in no particular order - are some of the numbers that mark the record of the 43rd President of the United States. When no source is cited, the numbers are from the tallies I maintained during day-to-day coverage of President Bush.
National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion
Debt when Mr. Bush took office: $5.7 trillion
(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)
(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)
(Including Game 3 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, 2001)
(Counting the Beijing Olympics as one)
(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)
(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)
(The last one was Dec 12, 2008, at Texas A&M)
(That's not counting Camp David visits or bike riding outings)
(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)
(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)
By Comparison:
Bill Clinton: 396
George H.W. Bush: 74
Ronald Reagan: 393
Jimmy Carter: 534
Gerald Ford: 382
Richard Nixon: 863
Lyndon Johnson: 960
John Kennedy: 472
Dwight Eisenhower: 1110
Harry S. Truman: 1913
(Source: Senate Historian)
Democrats blocked the practice in the fall of 2007 by keeping the Senate in session even during holiday periods.
(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)
(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)
Pres. Vicente Fox of Mexico
Pres. Alexander Krasniewski of Poland
Pres. Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines
Pres. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya
Queen Elizabeth II of UK
Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana
(Last of the other 49 to be visited: Rhode Island, June 28, 2007.)
(President Bush did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office - a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)
By comparison:
Bill Clinton cast 37 (not counting line item vetoes)
George H.W. Bush: 44
Reagan: 78
Carter: 31
Ford: 66
FDR: 635
H.R. 1495 - the Water Resources Development Act of 2007
H.R. 2419 - the $289-billion "Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008”
H.R. 6124 - The “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.”
H.R. 6331 - the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.”
(Source: Presidential Airlift Group)
(Presidential Airlift Group)
By Mark Knoller
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Add a Comment See all 174 Comments
- Dear superfan_54,
Your comment:
"tell me how many times convicted pedophiles have been christians. then tell me how many convicted pedophiles have been homosexuals. The number is many more homosexuals to little to no chiristians."...
is extremely offensive and not based on fact. There are plenty of male (& female) sex offenders that are heterosexual. (Yes...female heterosexuals that sleep with underage boys count.) From what I remember of those new reports those women were all Christian.
Go ahead...take the time from your ignorant, narrow schedule to look it up...there are more heterosexual pedophiles that prey on underage girls. I feel sorry for you. I hope you stop with the hateful comments and get an education. - Reply to this comment
tell me how many times convicted pedophiles have been christians. then tell me how many convicted pedophiles have been homosexuals. The number is many more homosexuals to little to no chiristians.
you people make comments based on ignorance.
Posted by superfan_54
How about those many, many priests having *** with boys....not ignorance, fact.- Reply to this comment
487-Camp David
490-Ranch in Texas
43-Parents house
___________________
1020 days = 2.79 years ON VACATION!- Reply to this comment
- Bush will be remembered as the worst president in US history.
Foreign policy: Iraq, diplomacy - failure
Domestic policy: Katrina, economy - failure - Reply to this comment
- All of these posts make you people sound like a bunch of 13 year old CHILDREN.
- Reply to this comment
- To Matrix,
That stat is not accurate in describing this legacy at all. No person, especially not Barrack Obama, could have handled 9/11 as well and as calm as President Bush did.
To the rest,
One more question, I thought him being elected was not supposed to be focus on skin color. Well then why is everything that is going on focusing on skin color. For example, at the inauguration celebration on Sunday many artists came to sing. If it is not about skin color then why did they have to make it equal by bringing out a country singer and then bringing out a rapper? The black Americans are the real racists. Garth Brooks was singing songs that are meant to be sung by someone black. They did not sound right coming out of a country singer. And what is this about the so called "Change" that he said was going to take place right away now not happening until after the first year and a half? Is he going to compromise on every decision he makes? He needs to learn real quick if you people think that he will be "the best president ever" as some people say. Hopefully there is not a big crisis because he is way to inexperienced to handle anything big.
"If we pray...God will heal our land"
-2 Chronicles 7:14 - Reply to this comment
- I read all the Stats and they forgot the most important fugure.
George W. Bush will be ranked # 1 as the Worst President in US HISTORY.
Please add that Stat its the most important stat of all ! - Reply to this comment
- My personal favourite description of Bush was in last weeks Daily Mirror (UK) Headlin
''THE WORLDS LOCAL VILLAGE IDIOT.'' - Reply to this comment
- Bush''s Legacy:
Editorials worldwide pillory Bush one final time
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) %u2013 Editorial writers around the world have been taking their final printed whacks at George W. Bush, accusing the president of tarnishing America''s standing with what many saw as arrogant and incompetent leadership.
"A weak leader, Bush was just overwhelmed in the job," said Germany''s Sueddeutsche Zeitung under a headline: "The Failure." "He confused stubbornness with principles. America has become intolerant and it will take a long time to repair that damage."
Editorials hit out at Bush for two unfinished wars, for plunging the economy into recession, turning a budget surplus into a pile of debt, for his environment policies and tarnishing America''s reputation with the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Bush was given credit in some editorials for defending the United States against terror attacks after September 11, 2001.
Canada''s Toronto Star was categorical in its condemnation.
"Goodbye to the worst president ever," it declared. "Bush was an unmitigated disaster, failing on the big issues from the invasion of Iraq to global warming, Hurricane Katrina and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."
cont - Reply to this comment
- cont
"Bush leaves a country and an economy in tatters," wrote the Sunday Times in London. It said America''s national debt and unemployment nearly doubled on his watch.
Britain''s Daily Mail said he entered office with a budget surplus of $128 billion but exits with a $482 billion deficit.
"He leaves the world facing its biggest crisis since the Depression, the Middle East in flames and U.S. standing at an all-time low.
LEGACY OF WARS
The Scottish Daily Record observed: "America is now hated in many parts of the world. Bush leaves a legacy of wars and the world economy in meltdown. He has been dismissed as a buffoon and a war-monger, a man who made the world a more dangerous place while sending it to the brink of economic collapse."
cont - Reply to this comment
- cont
The Sydney Morning Herald complained about Bush''s "singular lack of curiosity in international matters" in an editorial titled "Farewell to a flawed and unpopular commander-in-chief."
Germany, ridiculed as "old Europe" by Bush''s former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld for opposing the Iraq invasion, took aim at Bush.
"Bush brought great misery to the world with his ''friend-or-foe'' mentality," wrote Die Zeit.
Stern magazine said: "Bush led the world''s most powerful nation to ruin. He lied to the world, tortured in the name of freedom and caused lasting damage to America''s standing."
Austria''s Wiener Zeitung wrote Iran''s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even ranked higher in one international opinion poll than Bush:
"The United States was once the symbol of justice in the world but that has been damaged by Bush. A web of manipulation has cost America $900 billion and the lives of 4,000 soldiers -- along with at least 500,000 Iraqis." - Reply to this comment
- The reign of error (and terror for many in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and America) is finally coming to an end. Hard to believe we survived such a white trash killer for 8 years. You can''t make up that level of incompetence and pure hatred for America. Hopefully that will be the end of the Republican party as any kind of player in government.
- Reply to this comment
- "Poor, poor D Cheney appareently has "wrenched" his back, "lifting boxes." The man is obviously stealing evidence that proves his crimes in office.......thank GOD the Bush years are OVER....what a disgrace to America they were...."
Posted by raflin0010
Perhaps nobody else would volunteer to destroy evidence. - Reply to this comment
- I think Obama is probably the smartest president that this country has had in decades.
- Reply to this comment
- You know, Fahren451, it''s like expert witness in a court room, you can get anyone to defend your position. Well, if you pay them enough.
But, we know the truth. - Reply to this comment
- Thanks Fahren451, I didn''t state that by opinion, I stated that by fact, and you know, I''m not going to get caught up in a useless debate with you.
- Reply to this comment
- Cheney will be in a wheel chair tomorrow! - ROFL
- Reply to this comment
- Hey, we have a celebration to watch tomorrow morning. I''m retired, so I can do that. And, I''m sure looking forward to it.
- Reply to this comment
- Under President Clinton the growth in debt ceased, but note the radical change in direction since George W. Bush entered office.
There is no question and a lot of mathematical proof that the steepest upward rises in debt since the end of World War II, started with President Reagan and continued with other so called Neo-Conservatives.
Posted by FLSunJnky at 10:54 PM : Jan 19, 2009
Here is a visual aid to augment your hypothesis.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2678226 - Reply to this comment
- This downturn is going to be a lot longer than we want. The recovery will come, but I think it will take at least a year.
After all, how long did it take us to get to this point? We have to stand tall and work with it, but it will come. - Reply to this comment
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