I don't think you can say the first part. If i make an anti-tiger attack spray, it isn't proven to be effective simply because there haven't been any tiger attacks since i've made it. The current policy on terrorism likewise hasn't necessarily protected us simply because there hasn't been a large scale terrorist attack since the WTC/Pentagon attack.
For the WMD's, im not so sure. If anything we made them leave Irak and end up in Syria or Jordan.
We've made leaps and bounds in environment protection... as opposed perhaps to what we had been doing, which is barely anything. I don't really know what you're talking about in this respect, but no good example of great leaps and bounds in ecological conservation hit me at the moment...
I also don't know what scientific research has been developed exactly. I do know that this administration has made it so that scientists realized more of the vast potential of adult stem cells (which are thought to be able to cure over 70 diseases) instead of blindly going for embryonic cells. That's been a good consistent policy.
The economy, i dunno about. I mean, it looks great over here, but the dollar is losing SO much value, it doesn't look great for foreign investors to do business in dollars. But it has also done a lot of peaking, so i'd say it's a bit of pro/con.
All i know is that this current government has shown itself in the worst light than i ever remember for any other government. I mean, Watergate was something, but it seems like cover-up after cover-up is essentially what we enjoy daily with our current government.
Never has there been more power concentrated in the executive branch, with checks and balances being undermined, the constitution being ignored, and overall bullying by the president and his cronies. The whole debacle is also partly due to the democrats doing absolutely jack shit to prevent it, but yeah...
George Bush is not the worst president ever, we can't hand that award out until the end of time. So far, yeah, i wouldn't say he's been the best. I mean, the track record is looking pretty bad at the end of his tenure as prez...
_ Irak ended up being the quagmire everyone had foreseen in the 90s. It was founded on outright lies and an unwillingness to question iffy information. We got rid of a dictator, sure, but trying to instill democracy in a region culturally opposed to the idea thanks to centuries and seemingly an eternity of foreseeable of theocracy wasn't exactly a smart thing. Oh, and not realizing the dynamic necessary to keep waring factions of Islam from killing each other. That wasn't so smart. So now Irak is in a civil war.
_ Katrina debacle... Taking two extra days of vacation after a disaster of that magnitude really isn't that big of a deal (well, sorta), but it is extremely insulting and damning for someone who already seems like a person who could care less about working and trying to improve on his track record. New Orleans is still in ruins. Eh...
_ The current situation with Alberto Gonzales... That one's a doozy, and we also get to bask in the warrant less wiretapping happiness. So much of that situation is messed up...
_ Also, the failure to correctly assess the danger that was Osama Bin Laden leading up to the fateful day he managed to get by us when we had fair warning. Really, if someone wants to kill you that bad, there isn't much you COULD have done, but the fact that since that day the government keeps trying to emphasize that it has been fully competent since, thumping the fact that "9/11 changed the world!" to justify making another huge judgment error in invading Irak, squandering all the support we had in the world, and acting against any form of logic in a region so outside of the governments understanding, when the reason we were so vulnerable in the first place is because we didn't think through the threat, leaves a bit to wonder about the hands that we trust to protect us.
They think we're safer because nothing has happened since... If anything, we've pissed our enemies off more, shown obvious weakness in planning and foresight. Since they want to follow us home anyway, we've only given them more reason to.
George Bush isn't the worst president ever, but he is far from the best. He hasn't made the world any safer, he hasn't made the government any more efficient, and he certainly hasn't been holding to the constitution as well as he should have, using the fact that everyone was afraid after the attack to undermine essential freedoms which haven't yielded any results on the mainland, and have only emboldened the terrorists, seeing as they want us afraid...
Also, George Bush is NOT his cabinet. If anyone is malevolent, i wouldn't think the president has the ability to be the ringmaster. Karl Rove, Cheney, sure. Don't blame Bush for everything.
But yeah, he isn't exactly the best... Even the Magna Carta got redesigned under this administration... That ain't good news.
