If you haven’t already noticed, George Bush’s last days in office were atypical compared to his predecessor. Unlike Clinton, who pardoned almost 500 people–with 140 of them coming in the last hours! of his presidency, Bush 43 pardoned less than 200 people. I applaud him for showing restraint and not abusing the power of the office (for once). I am especially encouraged that he did not pardon Scooter Libby–despite Cheney’s clear disagreement. Though I think History will judge the Bush/Cheney presidency as a colossal failure on virtually all accounts, Bush deserves credit and respect for exercising good judgement with respect to pardons. If he could have only done that more often throughout his 8 year tenure.
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