of course he would care…any normal person would hate to be labeled the worst at anything if it were to go down in history. No one would seek out to be the worst.

I don’t think he’ll go down in history like that….maybe just an average president, who was president at the wrong time.

He believes that history will be kind to him. But so does every deluded war criminal.

Why wouldn’t he care about his legacy??

@critter1982 – if you got a better question ask it. If not move on.

@critter1982 welll one would assume if he cared about his legacy he wouldnt have been such a crappy president.

If he’s labeled the “worst” president, that would make him the “best” worst president in his mind.

@critter1982 – don’t know why you edited your answer.

He and his people have been on this “legacy tour” telling any reporter that will listen how wonderful he “was.” I think he’s scared and is acting like I do when I get a 5 minute warning that someone is coming to visit. I run around the house picking things up, throwing stuff in closets and trying to make things look “presentable.” He wouldn’t be doing that if he wasn’t worried about his legacy.

Perhaps Bush is looking at the Nixon legacy with hope.

History has been kinder to Nixon than I thought he deserved at the time.

How is “Well, he did open up China” any kind of offset for “First president to resign in disgrace”.

@Gambit: I edited my answer because I realized I shouldn’t have labeled your question retarded, as I’m sure I’ve asked plenty of retarded questions myself.

@uberbatman: Being a good President is not intuitive if it was, every President would be great!! If good answers to bad questions were easy, anybody could do it. Unfortunately some resolutions that Bush made turned out to be wrong, and some turned out to be right. IMO the fact that we haven’t had another terrorist attack on US soil is because of decisions Bush and Congress have made. Sure argue about “his” war in Iraq, but in all honesty whether you agree with his decision and those of congress and much of the US at that point, the fact that we brought “The war on Terror” to other nations has kept it out of the US. If we would have had another attack here in the US people would be b!tching just as much about how the president wasn’t proactive and he was only reactive, blah, blah, blah. Sure the war hasn’t been handled that well I agree with that but everyone acts as if everything Bush has done is so damn terrible. Bush was setup with one of the worst 2 presidential terms in US history, including 9/11 and a huge economic downturn (not directly caused by any of his policies)at the end of his 8 years. So maybe he will go down as a bad president but he was also handed one of the worst terms in history as well.

@critter1982 – I didn’t know that you were the person to say if a question was worthy of fluther or not. It seems that other people did not find this question retarded and took the time to answer it in kind.

@Gambit: I apologize I shouldn’t have mislabeled your question, and is the reason I edited my answer.

@critter1982 – apology accepted. Thank you

No he doesn’t care about that. What’s done is done and now he’s done. Exit stage left. Oh yea he also will be paid thousands of dollars to talk about his past political career, he should donate that money to the dead soldiers families but he won’t. What a BUMmer.

Yes, he’ll care.

He’ll care right up until he becomes a member of the board of directors of The Carlyle Group or he’s stashed away with a bit of cash and a fake “job,” and wheeled out at BBQs and parties where he shakes hands with and gives preppy nicknames to cash-bloated lobbyists.

@srtlhill: In 2007 he donated 25% of his money to charities. Not sure which ones but it doesn’t seem to me as if he is disingenuous. On the other hand I can name some future WH members who gave less than $1000 in 2007.

As Jon Stewart pointed out, Bush has been going to great lengths taking multiple media opportunities to tell us that he doesn’t care what we think. He is a war criminal, he has dismantled our constitution, and he has disgraced our reputation in the eyes of the world. If he doesn’t care what history will think, perhaps he should care if we send him to prison for what he has done.

The tragedy of the whole thing is that I think Bush was the best president he could be. I don’t think he did what he did because he wanted to be wicked and to enrich his cronies; I think he did what he did because in his skewed world view, advised by his cronies (who knew how to manipulate him), he genuinely thought he was doing the right thing.

That doesn’t excuse any of his decisions—it just makes his sudden concern over how he’s going to be perceived by historians understandable. I think the mid-term election of 2006 and the election of Obama have made him realize just how badly he screwed up—where his victory over Kerry made him think that he actually had the country’s support for what he had been doing—and I get the sense that he’s regretting that now that he’s actually realized it.

Honestly, more than anything else, I feel sorry for him. He was put in a job he was completely unqualified for, misled by people who were considerably more evil than he was, and the best job he could do was just not good enough.

He captured a large sector of the voters with his folksy, droppin’ his g’s attitude. He was never a thoughtful guy, never pretended to be introspective and has been unable to disguise his affect (or lack therein) in spite of all his coaches. I had to turn off the TV last night during his last message.

And he did surround himself with a pack of thugs. In the sheen of Rove, Cheney, Ashford, Rumsfeld, we forget the poor suckers like Albert Gonzales.

@gailcalled That sure didn’t work for Palin, did it? (The droppin’ the ‘g’ thing).

@cwilbur: perfect.

President, even Governor: he knew these jobs were bought for him. He was placed in them to benefit the overclass. His “nice qualities” – friendly, physically healthy, strangely sincere – didn’t qualify him; he was a stooge.

Like Gail says, the down-home thing is essentially a tactic to make people think he, the hyper-rich son of a hyper-rich family, was not superior to the rest of us. Uh… not really necessary.

“History will prove me right” is a dodge. I’m going to use that too whenever I make a mistake. “You burned the coffee, susanc”. “Well fuck you, history will prove me right”.

It IS true that we haven’t had another attack. But who knows whether attacks have been foiled (and “they” can’t tell us because national security demands secrecy about their info) or whether “the terrists” haven’t thought the time was ripe.

If I were a “terrist” I would wait till Obama had settled in before I struck again, because it would divert the wave of hope. 911 called forth foolish responses from our government; we’ve weakened ourselves; all they’ve had to do was stand by and smile.

@Gail: yes, “thugs”. Word.

Based on his actions, I think he’d be nonchalant about the whole thing. He doesn’t seem to be bright enough to really understand what that title suggests. He didn’t seem very moved by the shoes thrown at him. I respect him as the President because I am an American but past that, he’s a sad case. He doesn’t understand much of anything so I think we’re asking too much of him to understand enough to care about what his legacy is.

Well, now that some time has passed since he left the office, I think that I can securely say that yes, he was the worst president ever.