Say what you will, and I've said plenty, but George Bush is a good man. He showed up in Iraq this weekend, and you can just see how much he loves the troops and how much they love him (via Instapundit):
And then there was the shoe-throwing incident...you know, calling Bush a dog isn't quite the insult the guy intended. (See above.) Most Americans think more highly of their dogs than their next-door-neighbors.
He also showed up in Afghanistan, which was a surprise on top of the Iraq surprise. Again, he loves these troops, and it shows. It's one of my favorite things about him.
I think Bush's failing is that he didn't have a guiding philosophy beyond keeping us safe. Admittedly, that was a tough job thrust upon him in the early days of his presidency. But economically, WOW. When he was elected I thought, "oh, good, he has an MBA and he gets finance, how to motivate people, how to run things." I was wrong. Our President needs to have a vision of liberty beyond not being attacked on our land, and I prefer a president who has a guiding vision of government (small) and the role of taxes and government spending in the country. Reagan is a great example of that, someone who had developed an over-arching vision of smaller government, lower taxes, and staying out of people's lives. Anyway. Back to Bush...what a modest, humble man. Hopefully you saw this interview, but he said this when asked about the Bible: "I'm just a simple president." That is humility. Jay Nordlinger has a long interview with Bush over here. Here is a different view, from Bush himself:
Chew over this, too: “The real challenge will be for a president to never substitute pragmatism for an idealistic vision, because if you do, you have delayed the capacity to marginalize and ultimately defeat the ideology of the extremists.” You and I know that pragmatism is often necessary and called for, and the president knows it too. (That’s why so many “freedom agenda” people are disappointed in him, particularly given the policies, or non-policies, of the second term.) But I know what he means, and I suspect you do, too.
I think he was amazingly clear-headed on defending us. Did anyone really think that we would go seven years without another attack after 9/11/2001? I didn't. But I wish he'd been so clear with economics.
1 comment:
I agree. Horrible economic president but wonderful at keeping us safe after 9/11. The fact that there hasn't been another successful attack, when we all expected one imminently after 9/11, is truly wonderful. I don't agree with him on many things but I am glad he was our president in these times.
It's too bad all the loons go bonkers about him as if he's some evil genius. He really does not get the credit he deserves.
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