JB made a comment on the article Wrestle Mania Over Debt Ceiling.  The comment was:

Republicrats have dropped the ball on both sides.  There really is very little difference between Bush & Obama.  Both have abhorrently squandered money thru expensiver power grabbing programs.  Both have intruded in our personal lives whether thru the Patriot Act, or the bureaucracies such as the FBI given more power to search without cause, or thru Obama’s executive order to assassinate U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism without a trial by jury.  Both are war mongers.  Bush went on his war parade bombing Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has expanded it by adding Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya to the list.  I don’t care how much they hate us over there, they simply aren’t a major threat until they start making inter-continental ballistic AK-47 bullets that can travel from a cave in Pakistan over the ocean to the U.S.  We need someone that’ll drop these power grabbing executive orders, and IMMEDIATELY begin withdrawing troops down from the mess in the middle east, or the gig is up with a major economic collapse.

My response to the comment was:

I agree with the many similarities you point out.  However stating the similarities does not prove that there is little difference unless you can also prove that there really are no differences.

Would Bush have pushed through health care reform legislation?  Would he have pushed through financial reform legislation?  Would he have pushed through the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act?  Would he have appointed good Supreme Court Justices? Would he have pushed through an economic stimulus program?

Yes, there are many unfortunate similarities between Bush and Obama.  There are also many important differences.

While it is important to recognize the differences between Bush and Obama, it would be like hiding our heads in the sand to ignore the similarities.  Given both the differences and similarities, it may be hard to figure out exactly what to do in the lead-up to the 2012 Presidential election.