Idealogical issues aside, the one overriding thing about this administration that must be considered is the poor, poor job of "administration" itself.
This boils down to simple management skill, the ability to keep the country running, and the ability to identify issues and respond to them.
This is where Clinton kills Bush hands down, it's not even close.
There are Michael Browns (the former FEMA director) at every level of our bueuracracy, even at the Pentagon, and even at the Inspector General's office, which is supposed to be independent to keep the government in check.
Cronyism is a part of every administration, but in this case, heads of departments have been overwhelmingly chosen based on their connections and abilty to "play along nicely" rathar than their competent skill in the subject matter at hand. The Pentagon, for example, has basically been gutted.
This more than anything is alarming and has been demonstrated firstly in the Iraq debacle (both in the runup to the war but mostly the actual war itself), and secondly in the poor Hurricane Katrina response.
This Time article spells out the details with lots of examples:
This boils down to simple management skill, the ability to keep the country running, and the ability to identify issues and respond to them.
This is where Clinton kills Bush hands down, it's not even close.
There are Michael Browns (the former FEMA director) at every level of our bueuracracy, even at the Pentagon, and even at the Inspector General's office, which is supposed to be independent to keep the government in check.
Cronyism is a part of every administration, but in this case, heads of departments have been overwhelmingly chosen based on their connections and abilty to "play along nicely" rathar than their competent skill in the subject matter at hand. The Pentagon, for example, has basically been gutted.
This more than anything is alarming and has been demonstrated firstly in the Iraq debacle (both in the runup to the war but mostly the actual war itself), and secondly in the poor Hurricane Katrina response.
This Time article spells out the details with lots of examples:
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