Pretty easy to throw the nasty adjectives around when someone's a few thousand miles away........
Like a few of his predesessors, he won a few and lost a few. I differ with many of his policies, but still wish him the best as he leaves office.
Running this country is a monumental job, and there are no perfect records. The 08 recession and the 9/11 attacks happened on Bush's watch, and Clinton, well, he had his problems too! On a front that we can almost all agree on, public land policy, his administration did very well.
I read a book a few years ago titled 'The Finish', by Mark Bowden. It went through the last few years of the hunt for Bin Laden and the raid on his compound in Pakistan. Based on the intel they had, the raid was quite a gamble. It could have, and almost did, save for a very skillful helicopter pilot, become a real fiasco. The President had to make the decision, and in that case, he won. That book made me think about decisions like that, and I doubt that my decisions would be right more than anyone else. Interestingly enough, sources in the book said it wasn't until after Obama took office that the heat was turned up to hunt him down.
I want to believe that our current President will do well. I feel I need to give him the benefit of the doubt, but my gut doesn't allow me to get too hopeful. I have read quite a few books in the last few years on the last few presidents, and if one thing stands out, it is that a presidency is made or broken by the people he surrounds himself with. Some of Trump's picks give me some hope, and some seem a little too much like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. Hopefully they prove me wrong.
On a final note, today a man who is still married to his first wife and the mother of his daughters left office. He was replaced by a man married to his supermodel third wife. To be faithful to your marriage vows and love the mother of your children takes a base level of integrity, and I applaud him for it.
