This Administration has improved and protected the health of more than
27 million acres of Federal forest and grasslands, protected, restored,
and improved more than three million acres of wetlands, and established
the Papaha-naumokua-kea Marine National Monument, the world's largest
fully protected marine conservation area (nearly 140,000 square miles).

Much of the misperception about the President's environmental record is
born out of the President's withdrawing the United States from the Kyoto
Protocol, which did not include the effective participation of major
developing countries such as India and China. Instead, the President
worked to address climate change by launching the Major Economies
Process, which convened the leaders of the world's major economies, both
developed and developing, to work on ways to further reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and improve energy security without harming our economies
or giving any nation a free ride. Finally, the President set the country
on course to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions below projected
levels by 2025 and invested more than $44 billion in climate
change-related programs.

Some other items that are infrequently mentioned about the real record
of the Bush Administration but are worth noting: Teenage drug use has
declined 25 percent; in 2007, the violent crime rate was 43 percent
lower than the rate in 1998; between 2005 and 2007, the chronically
homeless population decreased approximately 30 percent; funding for
veterans' medical care has increased more than 115 percent; and as of
2005, the most recent abortion rate is at its lowest since 1974.

And one last fact: Our homeland has not suffered another terrorist
attack since September 11, 2001. That, too, is part of the real Bush
record.


We all know the "real" Bush record. It stinks. Even republicans don't
defend Bush. They pretend that there never was a Bush presidency. That's
why they now blame everything on Obama. None of them wants to say
anything about Bush because there isn't anything good they can say about
him. Look at his job creation record. 3 million jobs created in 8 years.
That stinks. Even Jimmy Carter created 10 million in only one term. But
no jobs is only the half of it. Doubled the debt in five years, started
two wars and won neither of them, and deregulated the financial industry
so much that it nearly collapsed and brought down the whole economy, and
then there is the little BP problem we have from deregulating the oil
industry. Yep, we do know the real Bush record. That's the problem.

Hawke