To the editor:
Regarding the letter of Thursday, Sept. 2 headlined, "Obama is judged by a different standard than Bush":
The writer refers to a two-trillion number. The federal deficit for Bush's final fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2009 was $1.5 trillion, or 75 percent of that number. As far as leadership skills, Bush didn't need them — Vice President Cheney told him what to do.
I wonder if the writer was out of the country while Bush and Cheney lied to get us into an unnecessary war in Iraq, deserted the real war against bin Laden in Afghanistan, had the worst decade of job growth since the Great Depression, and turned a budget surplus into a monstrous deficit which cost 8 million jobs.
Katrina: Bush ignored New Orleans for days while he called Congress into session and flew back to Washington to coddle the religious right over poor Terri Schiavo, who had been brain dead for 15 years.
Rather than posing for photo-ops on the spill, Obama was consulting with experts at the White House.
A couple of other differences: Obama opposed the war in Iraq; Bush started the war in Iraq, which is still going on.
Obama was elected in spite of his name; Bush was elected because of his name.
Obama was demonized by the conservative press and unable to speak to schoolchildren; Bush continued his photo-op, reading "The Pet Goat," till long after both towers were attacked on 9/11. Bush refused to testify under oath to the 9/11 Commission, and finally under pressure met informally with Cheney who was there to advise him on what to say.
They refused to provide the commission with any notes, discussions, meetings, or e-mails by the White House prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Obama's administration is open.
Yes, there clearly is a different standard and a big difference.
Erik Brown
Marblehead
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