Believe me, I know there a many, many Americans who don't like him to say the least. My folks HATE him. (And this the first time on site I've used all caps for something other than an acronym.) And my dad is libertarian who almost voted for Carter out of social concerns, and my mom used to be a Soviet Marxist.

And, as a liberal/green libertarian myself, Bush drove me nuts. He was both a massive spender, and a social conservative. (A less flattering term would be fascist. But he was president during a rough time in American history.) And the Wall St. crisis happened on his watch. (Though Obama did as much to bailout and shore up those criminals as Bush.) So, to me, almost anyone is an improvement.

But I get it. I really do. Yet I think he deserves more credit than he's gotten for turning around, or at least not failing, the economy after the worst crisis since 1929. As much as TARP was a betrayal to the American public,

And I can't really blame him for not securing a status of forcea agreement with Iraq. He didn't really want it, but Iran wouldn't have al Maliki get accept it and get a third term. And the invasion of Iraq, moreover CPA 1, 2 and the installation of al Maliki, were colossal failured on the part of the Bush 43 administration.

In short, I believe in an America where a married lesbian couple can defend their for-profit recreational pot farm with weapons that a fully automatic. Where we make smart choices on spending, even when at times when it has to be temporally excessive given certain circumstances. And where we make smart, nasty choices when it comes to the war on terror.

So 2016 scares the shit out me, regardless.

TL;DR: I like Ike.