Bush's Close Call Symbolic of His Legacy

CLEVELAND - President George W. Bush made his final visit to Iraq as U.S. commander-in-chief this past weekend and actually cemented his legacy.

It wasn't in the way he expected though.

The lame-duck president, increasingly unpopular in the United States was standing at a podium in Baghdad having just finished a speech in front of a group of reporters. When he was about to field questions, reporter Muntadher al-Zeidi suddenly hurled a shoe at Bush, and then another. 

Bush masterfully dodged both attempts with a smirk.

As hilarious as the incident was to me and I'm sure to many others across the country, the whole incident happened because al-Zeidi was frustrated at Bush and all of the blood shed in the Iraq war that he feels Bush is largely responsible for. He felt that the shoe throwing episode was a way to humiliate the man who has served as the 43rd U.S. president since January 2001.

Fascinating.

Since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, Bush has consistently been on a slippery slope of descending popularity. Between the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the awful mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle and the trashed beyond belief economy, our president has been seen as maybe the worst in history.

Recently, Bush has expressed concern over what his legacy will be, given the fact that he has been so unpopular. He was elected in 2000 after a highly controversial election during which Al Gore was thought to be the winner. He won re-election in 2004 when Democrat John Kerry was seen as the likely victor. Through it all, he has been ridiculed by talk show hosts in a way that a president never has and reviled by private citizens like myself for being so inept.

My belief is simple: the shoe throwing incident represents what many of us Americans think about the man. Not only is he a joke, he's also a contemptible bastard who destroyed our country. He's ducked and dodged responsibility for it for nearly a decade and he keeps doing it all with a smirk.

Just like at the podium in Baghdad.

Here's Bush's take on the incident:

 

"Let me talk about the guy throwing his shoe. It's one way to gain attention. It's like going to a political rally and having people yell at you. It's like driving down the street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers."

The guy is nothing if not totally clueless. He behaves as though he hasn't brought any of this on himself. He is an embarrassment and should never have ran this country in the first place.

But then again, he never actually "ran" our country. More like ran from blame. Good riddance ya bum!