Steve H. is in great form with his latest post. I mostly agree with him. Bush screwed a lot of things up, wouldn’t fire incompetents and can’t communicate worth a damn. But on the main issue of our day he showed vision, courage and resolve at a time when anything less would have been disastrous. I doubt that either Gore, Kerry or Bill Clinton would have done nearly as well, and I suspect that Bush will eventually be seen by Americans in a much more positive light than is currently the case.
UPDATE: Ginny points out Glenn and Helen’s interview with Doug Feith, which is probably worth listening to.
UPDATE 2: A commenter points out The Diplomad’s excellent post on this topic. I read it several days ago, it probably influenced me and I should have credited it.
Glen & Helen interview Feith. Informative & useful.
I don’t know. I can start the bitterest arguments with the simple words “Bush got a couple of things right.” And the same people who hated Reagan 20 years ago will still swear with their dying breath that Reagan ruined the economy and made us a “debtor nation”. Partisan derangement is as strong as religion, if you assume there’s a difference.
Must be something in the air; The Diplomad just did the same thing. Mark your calendar down for 2035-40 when we might get something like Sean Wilentz’s recent book admitting Reagan might not be too terrible.
Harry Truman left office in disgrace with lower approval ratings than even Nixon. Today, few people even know of that. Nobody remembers the Truman dogged by recession, a steel strike and a Korean war he could not win. Instead, they remember winding down of WWII and his creation of the containment strategy that won the cold war.
Most of the good that Truman did was unrecognizable in his time. I suspect Bush will suffer the same fate. 20 years from now, if Iraq is a democracy and especially if other Arabic nations follow, Bush will be seen as a visionary leader. People will forget all the petty squabbles that dominate our day to day view of the issues and just see the clearly stated ideas and their outcomes.
Shakespear was wrong, at least win it comes to statesmen. With statesmen, their failures lay with their bones, the good lives long after.
Imagine a President Obama, each morning getting the intel assessments on the day’s threats, contemplating Bush’s legacy of an America free from attacks since 911… imagine what will be going through is mind… he may turn out to be a very muscular Liberal; maybe irrationally muscular.
Imagine all the people Obama will appoint to fill thousands of positions all over the Federal beurarcacies.. all the Far Left university type people, the Nation of Islam folks, the Black Nationalism folks, Earth worshipers, Communists, Marxists, Anti-Military, and America-haters.