The Great-Big-Bush-Count-Down-Deal started today as those of us who have Bush countdown clocks on our websites noticed the number is 365.
I wondered how many other people were with me on this. So I did a Google search on "one year from today bush presidential term is up"; the search turned up 184,000 hits. "One year left in Bush presidency" turned up 367,000 hits. It is apparent there is a lot of interest in this new reality. Today's post is a little digest of a few of the items found in these searches.
"Mark the Date: One Year Left of Bush."was noted today by Steve Benen at The Huffington Post. Benen begins,
You may have noticed, on bumpers or t-shirts, the "1.20.09" slogan. It denotes, of course, Inauguration Day for Bush's successor.
For some unknown reason the numbers idea really caught on. A Google search on "01/20/09" turned up 424,000 hits. In fact 1.20.09 turned out to be a money making idea. CBS News headlined "One More Year To Sell '01.20.09' A Vermonter's Cottage Industry."
Out of my head's "01.20.09!!" turned me on to another website. To quote:
In case you haven’t seen the site that’s made the date 01-20-09 into a passionate campaign (and, more power to them, successful business):Amen to that.
Bush's last day sells countdown clocks, Bush's last day buttons, magnets, decals, hats and mugs. Naturally, the site is white-on-black with big letters.
Favorite Bushisms are the focus of Progress Ohio Average Jane's enjoyable blog "1*20*09."
Bloggers with countdown clocks like the one here at S/SW are anxiously marking the days -- TXsharon wrote "It's almost over," giving me the idea for my own post here, by the way. Liberal Citizen posted "January 20th 2008-2009: One Year Left in Bush's Presidency." ReBelle Nation penned "Bush's Last Day."
Serious analytical journalism also looked at the Bush legacy.The Economist published "The Presidency - George Bush's last year." Julie Mason at the Houston Chronicle authored "With a year to go, Bush focuses on his legacy". It is a "soft-ball" pitch by Bush 41's hometown paper. To quote:
But it's not always easy for presidents to control events. Every two-term president from Eisenhower to Bush has been saddled with a Congress controlled by the opposition during their final years in office.Ike faced a deep recession. Richard Nixon was brought down by Watergate. Ronald Reagan struggled with staff turmoil and the Iran-Contra scandal. And Bill Clinton was impeached by House Republicans.
That's why Bush, like other second-term presidents facing a hostile Congress, is planning to spend much of his final year traveling the world.
Other bloggers tackled the legacy question -- Texas Fred's headlined, With a year to go, Bush focuses on his legacy. Sharoncobb discussed many ways to begin anew "One Year from Today." The Onion posted this very clever piece titled, "Bush Begins Preparations For Nation's Final Year."
Mike Garibaldi Frick at the Huffington Post " One Year Left - Looking to the Future..." 11/17/07. He closes his post with these questions:
Asked for your answer -- Ask.com ( a Yahoo! site) posed this question: "How are you going to react when George W. Bush Presidency is over one year from now?" In 4 hours it produced 20 answers. There are 3 days left to answer, if you would like to participate.It's time to look beyond the Bush disaster. Can our institutions be salvaged? How can we put the country back on track again? Will electing a democrat take care of our worries?
Where do we go from here?
View my current slide show about the Bush years, "Millennium," at the bottom of this column.
(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)
Technorati tags: news news and politics politics 2008 elections bush
4 comments:
Terrific post. Great compilation of countdown-related posts from all over. And thanks for picking up the link from my blog to the bushslastday.com website. I just found it myself yesterday when I realized how close we were to the big day. Like you, something stirred inside. Could it be actual hope???
Warm regards from chilly Brooklyn!
Ronnie Ann
Ronnie Ann, thanks for your kind words.
I like it that you are hopeful. A blogger where I had cross-posted this wondered "if" rather than "when" (Bush would actually leave office, I assume he meant). I told him I still believed in my country.
Warm regards to you, from chilly (but dry)Texas. Come by any time.
Oh! Now you've done it! I need one of those Bush's last day t-shirts!
Re: 12-step program. I think we need one for our whole country to get off this addictive, abusive cycle. It's predicted that the presidential election this year will cost $1 BILLION!
It takes money to get elected to make change but you can't make change because then you won't get money to get reelected and you need to get reelected so you can make that change you promised last time and you're really going to do it this time if only you get enough money to get elected.
I want off!
txsharon, I had no idea the election could cost that much. Spending for war, and for ambition is an addiction, as you say, that brings out the worst of angels in the decision makers.
With rusting bridges, ailing railways and homeless people in below freezing weather, it is sinfully wasteful.
Thanks for your comment. Have a good week.
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