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<b>My motivation in posting this list, "Bush by the numbers", is try to
examine the mindset of people who don't (or won't) reveal any
negative reaction to Bush or his record; no matter how serious or
substantive the item is. Taking 500 days vacation (even if it is only
half that amount, it is more than any past president took off), much
of it during a war that Bush declared, and only holding 14 news
conferences during his time in office, along with the controversy over
the premise and conduct of the war in Iraq, seem to be matters
too serious to just brush off, with predictable supporter responses;
by "shooting the messenger" and by trying to trivialize the entire list
of observations on Bush, presented by the author in a journalistic
style pioneered by USA Today. Is is it really so hard to give the list
a critical an studied appraisal and reaction, rather than the cursory
review of some respondents so far, who cite a few examples of
weak items, and then dismiss the validity of all the listed factoids,
with no referenced links to back their comments, and no serious
response to critical items, such as Vacation time and observations
about lack of references to Saudi Arabia in state of the union
addresses, and items about the war in Iraq. Who is Bush? Do you
really know? Do you notice that he has answered fewer spontaneous
questions put to him by members of the press, than any other
4 year president, and what do you make of that? </b>
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