Pet Peeve

Ok so I know I told myself that I would never write about politics on my blog, but I am going to write about one of my pet peeves which happens to deal with politics.
On Wednesday I was working on a patient that was going to be receiving IV sedation. In passing I asked the dental anesthesiologist who was running the sedation whether he had heard the outcome of the democratic primaries the night before. He informed me that Obama had swept it. I made the comment that I even though I was not an Obama fan, I felt that he was going to be the next president. The doctor was like, “wait a minute, why don’t you like Obama?” I really think I offended him by saying I didn’t like Obama. It was almost like he expected that I would like Obama.
Anyways, my response was that he didn’t have enough experience and that his foreign policy of sitting down with our enemies would be a disaster. So the doc started talking about how nobody needs experience being president b/c nobody has experience until elected. I responded that I would like to see someone that has experience being an executive whether in the private sector, the public sector, or the military. Then I asked him what Obama was doing before he was elected to the Senate 2 years ago. The doc kind of bumbled out some stupid answer about being a community activist. Bottom-line was he really didn’t know what Obama did before being a senator. So much for experience.
Next he took issue with my statement that Obama’s foreign policy was a load of crap. Instead of focusing on the deficiencies in Obama’s foreign policy he started talking about Bush’s foreign policy (typical liberal). “Bush is the reason that we are in the mess we are in right now. He is the worst president this country has ever had!” Then he went on to say how Bush lied to the country and made decisions based on a hunch. I defended my position and there was more to this conversation but I just want to focus in on this part of it b/c this is my pet peeve.
I can’t stand it when people make a comment like “Bush is the worst president.” I didn’t say this to the doc but I wanted to say, “Ok if you are going to say that Bush is worse than all other presidents, then I want you to name all the other 42 presidents this country has had. Not only do I want you to name them but, I want you to tell me their respective political policies and what they did and did not do in the White House. If you can do that then you are qualified to say that ‘in your opinion’ Bush is the worst president.” Of course, no one I know would be able to answer that challenge. So until someone can answer those questions I wish they would keep their uneducated and unqualified opinions to themselves. At least Bush isn’t bad enough to get impeached. Truman’s approval rating was the all time lowest at 23 percent. Polk took us to war on trumped up charges that Mexico had killed a handful of our troops. “Bush is the worst…” please!
When I hear someone say this it tells me 2 things about that person:
1. That person is certainly no student of history
2. That person is a hypocrite b/c they are making decisions, in this case about President Bush, based on their incomplete and media-defined knowledge, which if we remember, is the same thing they are accusing Bush of doing.
Some people just get me going.