About a year ago I was having coffee with a friend in a Starbucks who had voted for Barack Obama and commented with a resigned disillusionment that he was just “Bush on steroids”. Now in the middle of American campaign season and everyone arguing over how different they are and everything being compared to the Bush Jr. administration, let’s take a brief minute to examine just how different the two most recent American presidents have been.

Health Care:

George W. Bush passed a prescription drug bill with questionable legislative tactics, minimal support from Democrats, that was fiscally irresponsible.

Barack Obama passed a health care bill with questionable legislative tactics, minimal support from Republicans that was extremely fiscally irresponsible.

Fiscal Responsibility:

George W. Bush promised to be fiscally responsible while passing an across the board tax cut. In 8 years President Bush ran total deficits of $3.5 trillion in deficits and total public debt grew from $5.5 trillion to $10.9 trillion.

Barack Obama promised to raise taxes only on the wealthy while returning American to fiscal responsibility. In 4 years under President Obama, the United States has run total deficits of $6 trillion and total public debt has grown by $5.8 trillion.

Foreign Policy:

George W. Bush as a candidate promised not to engage in adventures and nation building while standing tall against the economic policies of China. George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, pushed sanctions against Iran, pursued a multilateral negotiation strategy with North Korea, and took a soft line against Chinese economic policies.

Barack Obama promised as a candidate to end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while standing tall against Chinese economic policies. Barack Obama redeployed troops in Iraq to Afghanistan to support a significant surge, pushed sanctions against Iran, pursued a multilateral negotiation strategy with North Korea, and took a soft line against Chinese economic policies.

Education:

George W. Bush passed with Democratic support the No Child Left Behind Act which increased teacher pay requiring yearly student tests designed to increase performance.

Barack Obama created the Race to the Top initiative which gives schools and teachers more money for innovative ways to improve student performance.

Civil Rights:

George W. Bush passed the Patriot Act and engaged in rendition, extra-judicial detention, warrantless eaves dropping, created Guantanamo Bay for foreign terror suspects, and other significant expansion of police powers.

Barack Obama strengthened the Patriot Act, engaged in rendition, extra-judicial detention, warrantless eaves dropping, preserved Guantanamo Bay, kills American citizens on his order and other significant expansion of police powers.

Political Style:

George W. Bush promised to work across party lines but left office as a polarizing figure extremely disliked by Democrats.

Barack Obama promised to be a uniter but campaigns for a second terms as a polarizing figure extremely disliked by Republicans .

The point of this exercise is not to change the potential votes of anyone in the upcoming election or change your opinion of Obama or Romney. You may like or dislike George Bush, Barack Obama, or Mitt Romney as you see fit. However, ask yourself how different are their policies? Do you like them based on the policies they have implemented and executed (or propose to implement) or just because you like their style?

As the old political saying goes, he may be a bastard, but at least he’s our bastard.