Earlier in the week outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush graced us with his final White House Press Conference.
Last night he addressed the nation with his Farewell Speech.
The speech lasting just 13 minute was Bush's way of thanking the American people and the U.S. Military for allowing him the opportunity to play "Russian Roulette" with our Economy and National Security.
He of course defended all of his Presidential decisions and even looked a little sad while speaking.
As it relates to his High Disapproval Ratings he responded with this statement:
"You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."
Bush also gave a "thumbs up" for Barack Obama's election, calling his upcoming Inauguration a "moment of hope and pride" for America.
All hoopla aside now comes the "Fact Checking" as it relates to the 43rd President's Legacy.
These are comments he made during his last Presidential Press Conference at the White House on January 12Th.
Let's compare what President Bush said about his Legacy versus what REALLY happened.
On the Economy Bush said:
"Look, I inherited a recession, I'm ending on a recession. In the meantime, there were 52 months of uninterrupted job growth."
Fact Check:
There have been two recessions during Bush's time in office. The first was a relatively mild downturn that began in March 2001 and lasted eight months, ending in November 2001. Since the first one did not begin until after he took office in January 2001, it is not strictly accurate to say he "inherited" it.
The second downturn began in December 2007 and has already lasted longer than any recession in a quarter century.
A staggering 2.6 million jobs disappeared in 2008, the most since World War II, and unemployment hit a 16-year high of 7.2 percent in December.
Overall, during Bush's eight years in office, a net total of 3 million jobs were created. In the two terms of his predecessor, President Clinton, roughly 21 million jobs were generated
On Hurricane Katrina and FEMA Bush said:
"You know, people said, well, the federal response was slow. Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. ... That's a pretty quick response."
Fact Check:
The president's defense is based on one very narrow measure in the 2005 storm's immediate aftermath. He ignored numerous other facets that depict a more sober picture.
There were 9,000 Louisiana families still living in trailers as of Sept. 1, 2007, and more than 30,000 residents of Gulf states receiving disaster housing assistance. Five of 23 acute-care hospitals in the New Orleans area remain closed.
Bush noted that $121 billion in federal aid was approved. But much of that went to rescue operations and other short-term needs. The Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates that about $15 billion has been spent on rebuilding in the state.
Bush said New Orleans schools have improved, which is true. But of 125 public schools in New Orleans before Katrina, only about 85 remain.
On Peace in the Middle East Bush said:
"In 2002 ... I gave a speech about a two-state solution -- two states, two democracies living side by side in peace. And we have worked hard to advance that idea. ... Most people in the Middle East now accept the two-state solution as the best way for peace."
Fact Check:
Bush's 2002 speech calling for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel did mark a surprisingly explicit and detailed endorsement of that idea by an American president. But he didn't mention that in those early years his administration put active peacemaking in a deep freeze and only tried to restart negotiations late in his term.
By the time the U.S. made Mideast peace a diplomatic priority, conditions were changing.
Hamas is now in control of the Gaza Strip, splitting the territory and people Abbas theoretically governs.
Bush sponsored a high-level peace conference in late 2007, and visited Israel and the West Bank in early 2008. current U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped by often to check on secret negotiations between Abbas' West Bank leadership and Israel.
Hamas is now at war with Israel in Gaza.
Israel may succeed in wounding Hamas leadership and its ability to fire rockets into Israel, but it probably cannot defeat the well-organized group outright. In the meantime, civilian deaths in Gaza erode Palestinian support for negotiations.
On the War in Iraq Bush said:
"Putting a 'Mission Accomplished' on an aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message."
"... Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment ... Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment. I don't know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were; things didn't go according to plan, let's put it that way."
Fact Check:
The "Mission Accomplished" banner incident happened in May 2003, less than two months after Saddam Hussein was ousted.
The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was blamed by administration officials on low-level soldiers. But a Senate report last December concluded that such abuse "cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own.
The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."
The accusation that Saddam had and was pursuing weapons of mass destruction was Bush's main initial justification for going to war. The administration used intelligence that later was found to be false.
On Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Bush said:
"I understand that Gitmo has created controversies. But when it came time for those countries that were criticizing America to take some of those -- some of those detainees, they weren't willing to help out."
Fact Check:
At Guantanamo, the administration defied international treaties governing the treatment of war criminals to indefinitely detain, and without charges, terror suspects captured overseas.
The suspects won the right to challenge their detention in a Supreme Court ruling last June. In November 2007, federal courts began ordering some suspects released after ruling that the U.S. had no right to hold them.
Officials from France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland have all recently said they are looking into accepting detainees from the U.S. prison. Australia has refused.
On Security and Personal Freedoms Bush said:
"In terms of the decisions that I had made to protect the homeland, I wouldn't worry about popularity. ... All these debates will matter not if there's another attack on the homeland. The question won't be, you know, 'Were you critical of this plan or not?' The question is going to be, 'Why didn't you do something?'"
Fact Check:
The administration authorized a secret surveillance program to let investigators eavesdrop on terror suspects in the U.S. without first obtaining a court warrant. A federal judge in Detroit ruled the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program unconstitutional and the Justice Department scaled it back to bring it under the review of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
He signed an executive order in 2007 deeming it compliant with a law requiring all detainees to be treated humanely, and in March 2007 vetoed an intelligence authorization bill that would have limited the CIA's interrogations to only those methods approved by the U.S. military.
Terrorists have not struck the U.S. since 2001. Bush's central promise to get al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" remains unfulfilled.
On Climate Change Bush said:
"I guess I could have been popular by accepting Kyoto, which I felt was a flawed treaty, and (instead I) proposed something different and more constructive."
Fact Check:
Most developed countries signed the 1997 Kyoto accord on climate change, which requires signatories to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases tied to warming.
Bush was not alone in his criticism of Kyoto -- Senate Republicans and Democrats unanimously refused to endorse it because China and India were not required to cut emissions. But over the years many Democrats came to see the Kyoto process as worthy of pursuing, and they urged the Bush administration to rejoin international talks.
Bush instead argued for voluntary steps by nations and companies, and started a separate series of climate talks.
President George W. Bush giving his farewell speech from the White House before a small crowd of 200 carefully chosen attendees and the Press.
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Sources: MSNBC, AP, CBS News, Gothamist
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