President Bush leaves his father's hometown following a fund-raising appearance. (GREENWICH CITIZEN file photo )
By PATRICIA McCORMACK
Bushy-tailed, upbeat and confident during a 2004 campaign fund-raiser in Greenwich, President George W. Bush promised to move the nation and the world to a rosier future.
Today, as he prepares to leave office with his ratings in the cellar and the country flirting with a depression, it's evident that President Bush was incapable of delivering on the campaign promises.
The country he promised to lift up during his 32-minute speech at the Hyatt Regency in Old Greenwich has been driven into a ditch: Skyrocketing unemployment, the Wall Street meltdown, the home foreclosure mess, and the auto industry on the ropes.
The old saying, "As GM Goes, So Goes the Country" - if true - portends a far from rosy road ahead for the nation.
Yesteryear - the 2004 speech - the country appeared still on the highway and not slipping and sliding into the proverbial ditch. In fact, the President's reception by the Greenwich turnout was downright friendly. The White House Web site reported that his speech was interrupted some 50 times by either clapping or laughter.
Maxi-laughter erupted when Bush noted the presence of some of his classmates, Yale '68. The President related that they invented the expression "shock and awe."
"They invented 'shock and awe' when they heard that I was President," Bush said.
Bush used God's name twice - "God bless," as he signed off; and as he described freedom in the middle of his speech, as "the Almighty God's gift to every man, woman in the world."
All that aside, the pithy mingled with promises as Bush let go with the nuts and bolts of his stump speech aimed at winning four more years in the White House. At the time, the stuff fired up passions of the party faithful for victory over terrorists and the Democrats......
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