Spring Break
Bush is the Worst, Period
George Henson, ghenson@smu.edu
Issue date: 3/9/07 Section: Opinion
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One of my students, after reading John Jose's column, jokingly commented that I hadn't been fired. I told her to stick around.
I have to admit, though, I laughed at Mr. Jose's headline. I liked it even more than the time I wrote it.
Mr. Jose, however, wasn't the only person upset by my last column. In a way, I judge the success of what I've written by the degree of incoherence of the people who criticize me. Some people seem to forget, amid their desire to be pedantic or their eagerness to hurl electronic epithets, that I write opinion columns - emphasis on opinion. I don't even get paid for it. I guess that makes me an amateur.
Although opinion writers should follow certain guidelines, they are not required to be balanced - or even fair. Nor are they required to offer a solution to whatever problem they might be bitching about at the time.
As Mr. Jose said of himself in a recent column, "I certainly don't have all the answers." I don't even pretend to. In my last column, I quoted heavily a CEO who had written a column arguing that if Bush were a CEO, he should be fired. I didn't claim to come up with the idea. I simply repeated it.
Whether my analogy (actually Warren Hellman's analogy) is apt or not for a freshman rhetoric paper is irrelevant. The point was, and still is, that Bush, the first president to have an MBA (from Harvard, no less) is neither a good president nor a good CEO. But if it will make anyone sleep better, I'll explain how the analogy is, in fact, apt.
One of the principle tenets of conservatism (read: Republicanism) is that the private sector can do everything better than the government. During the last six years, George W. Bush, the Harvard-trained MBA whose only success in business was trading on inside information, has attempted to prove that assumption - and failed.
If you're surprised, don't be. Bush is, after all, the country's first C-student president, whom the academic counselor at Phillips Academy told to apply to multiple colleges because he feared the academically incurious George wouldn't get into Yale. He's the man who was turned down by UT Law School and was later accepted to Harvard Business School thanks to a white elite version of affirmative action.
I have to admit, though, I laughed at Mr. Jose's headline. I liked it even more than the time I wrote it.
Mr. Jose, however, wasn't the only person upset by my last column. In a way, I judge the success of what I've written by the degree of incoherence of the people who criticize me. Some people seem to forget, amid their desire to be pedantic or their eagerness to hurl electronic epithets, that I write opinion columns - emphasis on opinion. I don't even get paid for it. I guess that makes me an amateur.
Although opinion writers should follow certain guidelines, they are not required to be balanced - or even fair. Nor are they required to offer a solution to whatever problem they might be bitching about at the time.
As Mr. Jose said of himself in a recent column, "I certainly don't have all the answers." I don't even pretend to. In my last column, I quoted heavily a CEO who had written a column arguing that if Bush were a CEO, he should be fired. I didn't claim to come up with the idea. I simply repeated it.
Whether my analogy (actually Warren Hellman's analogy) is apt or not for a freshman rhetoric paper is irrelevant. The point was, and still is, that Bush, the first president to have an MBA (from Harvard, no less) is neither a good president nor a good CEO. But if it will make anyone sleep better, I'll explain how the analogy is, in fact, apt.
One of the principle tenets of conservatism (read: Republicanism) is that the private sector can do everything better than the government. During the last six years, George W. Bush, the Harvard-trained MBA whose only success in business was trading on inside information, has attempted to prove that assumption - and failed.
If you're surprised, don't be. Bush is, after all, the country's first C-student president, whom the academic counselor at Phillips Academy told to apply to multiple colleges because he feared the academically incurious George wouldn't get into Yale. He's the man who was turned down by UT Law School and was later accepted to Harvard Business School thanks to a white elite version of affirmative action.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
bcotting
Britt
posted 3/09/07 @ 7:56 AM CST
Wow. Fantastically well said.
Michael Dorff
posted 3/14/07 @ 1:01 PM CST
Poor George Hanson.
No one even bothers to comment on his columns these days.
Betina
posted 3/19/07 @ 4:18 PM CST
It's a shame that most people are too dogmatic to even consider the possibility that Bush isn't a very good president at all or better yet: the worst. (Continued…)
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