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This weekend, I decided to give myself a treat. I, for once, left campus to have dinner with friends and see the new film “W.” The dinner was awesome at the Asian Grille but the film was pretty bad. Not only was the movie not funny but it distorted the truth and presented at best a one-sided viewpoint of Bush’s story. I don’t want to focus the main part of my article on the poor quality of this film but would rather like to comment upon the phenomenon on which it is profiteering. It seems that everyone these days is swept up in the “Bush Bashing” craze. Professors take the opportunity to make jokes in class, people have posters of “Bushisms” on their doors and other activities are evident of this fad. By and large, these actions are stupid and wrong. People are generally swept away without giving it more thought. Many are short-sided and deluded at best as they spout off pre-fabricated points on the topic. Today I’d like to reprimand all you “Bush bashers” and say that those who participate in it are more stupid than you report Bush to be.

So many bash Bush for a variety of reasons. I’d like to take issue with all that I can think of and you can write letters to the editor if you disagree. Some say he’s stupid, that he can’t talk. This is ridiculous. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to speak in public as much as Bush has to? Of course he is going to make mistakes, and profiteers take out the one in a thousand comments and blow them way out of proportion, when most of the time President Bush does fine. Furthermore, he is not stupid. Even if his dad got him into Yale, that didn’t keep him there. And people say he did poorly on the SATs, maybe like around 1230 or something. Now you’re being the stupid one. From what I understand, ETS have a major scoring shift in the 90s of 150 points or more. Bush’s score is in fact on par with Al Gore (I’m pretty sure) and other prominent people who attended elite schools at the time.

Many say that he is the worst President of all time, which is totally ridiculous and shows a complete ignorance of history. Buchannan, Harding, Grant and a variety of other Presidents did much worse than our current Commander-in-Chief and were extremely unpopular in their own times. Furthermore, such a statement totally looks past his first term where he had nearly 80 percent approval ratings and passed the only rating that really matters: reelection. I also hate how people criticize Bush’s crazy activities in college. Good for him! He got the demons out early and we don’t hear of any sex scandals coming from this White House like we did with Clinton. Finally, I hate it when people say “Bush hates Black people.” That’s so offensive. Both his Secretary of States were of color and he has done nothing directly negative to any particular race.

I really think that people are just swept up in the “Bush bashing” movement without really analyzing it. They see funny “Bushisms,” are pissed off at the war in Iraq, and just follow the flow like sheep to hate Bush. Some even see him as evil and say he’s tyrannical (though the fact that they can so publically criticize our leader is good evidence that he is not despotic indeed!). Some even make disrespectful jokes about him on t-shirts and in other mediums. Others call him “your President” even though he was elected by the time-honored practices of our country. I find it all extremely offensive. Please see both sides before you make an ass of yourself and superficially criticize our President. Don’t base your opinions on the beliefs of the masses while superficially analyzing our Commander-in-Chief.

I am sure if you take a deeper look that you will then see Bush is not a bad guy after all. A bit misguided, perhaps, but certainly passionate and more intelligent than people give him credit for. I don’t think that history has already been written about the Bush presidency and it is unfair to make a judgment based on his fallacies rather than his triumphs. This was the President who rallied us after 9/11, blunted the following recession and caught Saddam Hussein. Truthfully, I am indifferent about Bush. Nevertheless, I plead with you to see both sides of the story and not just go along with the ignorant masses. There is one thing, though, that I really did like about “W.” Richard Dreyfus plays a pretty good Dick Cheney.