George W. Bush is a bad president.

For all intensive purposes, I will define bad as: of poor quality; deficient; inadequate or below standard; not satisfactory; liable to cause harm; disreputable or dishonorable; displaying a lack of skill, talent, proficiency or judgment; causing distress; unfavorable; not suitable; disagreeable; not profitable or worth the price paid; disappointing -- These words and definitions were taken from Dictionary.com, and please, I don't want this debate to be about semantics. So I would prefer if someone who accepted this debate did so based on conetent and not on the definition of 'bad' that I have provided if they disagree with it.

With that said, my position in this debate is that George W. Bush was and still is a bad president throughout his tenure in office. My reasoning is based on these factors:

- His broken promises regarding healthcare, the enviornment, higher education, free trade, and welfare;

- Lies he told to the American public (probably to promote his own agenda);

- His extremely low approval rating;

- Facts about negative occurences during GWB's presidency, that are directly attributed to and/or are a result of his actions such as: the record for biggest annual deficit in history, he presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed, he is he dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history, etc...

Because I am the instigator (Pro), the burden of proof is on me to prove that George W. Bush was/is a bad President. I believe that the facts and statistics speak volumes, so I will give my opponent the first opportunity to make his or her case against the topic of debate. Good luck!

Since my opponent failed to respond in Round 1, I will take this opportunity to elaborate on some of my previous points. I agree with the resolution that George W. Bush is a bad president. I support this for several reasons, including:

his broken campaign and State of the Union promises; his failure to take action in appropriate situations (9/11 warnings); the lies he told to the American public (Remember those WMDs in Iraq? Saddam's link to al Qaeda? Oh that's right - they don't exist); the numerous accusations of conspiracy theories and scandal; his horrible decisions as president that have hurt the economy (he spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury, not to mention he acquired the biggest annual deficit in history), gave the U.S. a bad reputation worldwide and went through with an illegal and unsupported war; dissolved treaties, unnecesarilly led us into a situation that has killed thousands and cost hundreds of billions; gone against fiscal conservative policies; his extremely low approval rating, not to mention having the record number of people protest his presidency; the fact that over 2 million Americans lost their jobs between 2000-2002 thanks to Bush and his policies, and on top of that he cut unemployment benefits for those workers; he presided over the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period, and now wants to make tax payers bail out irresponsible home owners; Bush is presiding over the biggest energy crisis in history and not taking appropriate action against corruption; he also presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world, and refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions... JUST TO NAME A FEW.

To counter this, my opponent will list the few and far between "successes" of GWB such as the No Child Left Behind Act. However, research shows that NCLB is actually a huge failure - just one of many. In fact, most of GWB's "good deeds" are in fact not good at all with many negative repercussions. I'm sure this will be detailed further in the next round when Con attempts to present Bush in a favorable light. Anyway, even if Bush DID accomplish a few things here and there over the course of an 8 year period, they will never be able to counter or even slightly make up for the damage Bush has done to this country and the set backs he has created for citizens. Granted I don't think that Bush is the worst president in U.S. history as many peole ignorantly assume, however, he is an awful president and one who obviously does not know how to prevent iminent threats while exaggerating unlikely others; has no problem lying to the American public in order to gain support for an unfavorable position; is secretive and shady about his past and present actions; and whose costly mistakes have greatly failed the American public.

The typical rules of a 3-round debate usually state that if a debater does not respond for 2 rounds, it is automatically considered a forfeited debate. However let's give my opponent the benefit of the doubt. I do ask that people keep in mind that my position of Pro will not allow me to answer any of Con's rebuttals, therefore you should please disregard any new arguments introduced in the final round. I humbly ask for a Pro vote if my opponent does not successfully argue the resolution.

To support my position of the affirmative in this debate, I would like to remind the readers that thus far I have cited many examples in which GWB's leadership and deicision making has done more harm than good to the United States. Because he is our Commander in Chief, he can be and certainly is held responsible to a degree for our successes and failures as a nation.

So far in the past 8 years, GWB's actions have been directly attributed and/or contributed to the realities that face our country today: a bankrupted economy; an illegal and unsupported war; a betrayed and apprehensive society (most of whom do not support the policies of our President); etc. Although GWB has succeeded in some (few) areas, most of his 'good deeds' are exaggerated or untrue. I have cited examples of his failues/successes earlier in the debate. In my opinion, a President who has *so many* F-ups in comparison to *so little* good moves is a bad one. Everybody makes mistakes every now and again, but I expect my Commander in Chief and the most powerful man in the world to use his power wisely and not be wrong 99% of the time.

I don't think that George W. Bush is a bad person (I don't know him personally) or the worst president in United States history as many people ignorantly assume. I'd even go so far as to note that America could have possibly benefited from a Republican being elected into the White House back in 2000. However Bush's shady practices in addition to all that went wrong on account of him and his politics (including the failures of those he appointed to be his running mate, make up his Cabinet, etc.) just prove that he was not the right man for the job.