"Amazing That W Seems Much More Presidential Than Trump"

No. Not amazing. Almost anyone would be a much better President than Trump. I mean that completely seriously and literally: human beings could have been picked completely at random for the office of President, almost all of the choices would have been better than Trump. W was and is wet-brained and sort of slow, but he grew up in a family of politicians, watching up-close how politics is done. It's unfortunate than Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales wielded so much power in W's White House, tending to drown out the better advice of people like Colin Powell and, if W ever listened to them, his parents.

People may be allowing the W of today, and the positive contrast he makes with Trump -- no difficult task, that -- to obscure their memories of President W. For the past 8 years, W has been hanging out with people, such as the Clintons and other philanthropists, who've clearly had a good influence on him.

It's true that W said, in the days following the 11th of September, 2001, that Muslim did not equal terrorist. I remember him saying that, I remember it very distinctly. But I also remember that he didn't say it nearly often or forcefully enough to prevent his party from descending into abysses of Islamophobia. I also remember the lie about the WMD's in Iraq, very conveniently used against the very personal enemy of W's family, Saddam Hussein.

I'll never forget the signs held in front of TV cameras by Iraqis celebrating in the streets of Baghdad in the spring of 2003, after Saddam's regime fell: "Thank you, Americans. Now please go home." Could Iraq possibly be more fucked-up than it is today if we had obeyed that request? The Patriot Act happened on W's watch, Gitmo became America's shame on his watch, children and mentally handicapped and demonstrably innocent people were executed on W's watch. I haven't forgotten any of it.

And it all pales compared to Trump.

So, yes, today, naturally, W is an ally against Trump. Lots of people are allies against Trump right now. Now, if the vast majority of the people in the world can just somehow convince the Republicans in the House and Senate to do the sane thing and fire Trump, soon, like, today...