Everyone Who Dislikes/Likes George W. Bush, Tell Us Why In Your Own Words
I like the fact that he is not swayed by opinion polls. While he may be dead wrong, he undoubtedly has more information than any of us could possibly possess. The down side to this is that he has trouble recognizing when his ideas don't work and doesn't change when it is required.
Sandman, this sums it up for me. The real problem is he won't listen to those who are "in the know" and give him advice. He is like Rehoboam who only listened to advice he wanted to hear and refused to those who were wise; then was shocked when the people rebelled against him.
Unfortunately, there are
many examples of this, but the biggest one for me is 3 Star Lt. Gen. John Riggs who was demoted 1 star and forced to retire within a 24 hour period shortly after he had publicly declared that the Army was overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq and needed more troops immediately to stabilize both countries enough to effect a peace that could lead to permenant withdrawal. He was the first (and only) high ranking official to publicly disagree with Donald Rumsfeld about the state of things in Iraq and Afghanistan and say that the current plan was a losing one. For this, he was demoted and forced to retire. Then, nearly three years later, Bush finally realizes Iraq can't be won with the current plan and calls for more troops and money to pump up the Iraqi economy - something that should have been in done in the summer of 2003. Four years too late, Bush sees what should have been done despite the fact he was advised about it (remember that General Tommy Franks threatened to fire General William Wallace when he stated the enemy they faced in Iraq was not the one they'd prepared for and they would need to change their tactics to defeat this enemy [that being the Fedayeen fighters and other religious militant groups]).
That's why I think G.W. has run a bad White House (much the same reason I felt the former president ran a poor White House: he, too, had a long list of "retirements" among his advisors who disagreed with him on certain policies). I can respect trying to do what is right despite prevailing public opinion (see my many posts on Rudi Giuliani and how he cleaned up NYC, both physically and fiscally, despite strong protests from some corners), but when one refuses to listen to advice from those who are "in the know" on particular situations, choosing instead to push ahead one's own agenda despite the informed warnings of impending failure, the crash that follows is completely on that person's own head.
EDIT: I also despise his fiscal policy. It's a bizarre irony that the three "conservative" icons of the Republican Party (Nixon, Reagan, and GW) were all irresponsible in their fiscal policies. I have a hard time calling any of them "conservative" because of that.