Posted on 01/13/2009 1:38:17 AM PST by Rummyfan
"No matter what you think of Bush's policies," said a friend of mine at lunch the other day, "you have to admit that he's a decent man. I mean, that's just obvious: He's a good man. Why can't people see that?"
Well, some can, some can't. Our 43d president provokes very strong emotions, to say the least. Many people flat-out hate him (and aren't shy about saying so). Some of us - fewer of us - love him. Probably very few people are lukewarm about him.
He has been anathematized to an extraordinary degree. "It's a wonder he can get out of bed in the morning," said Norman Podhoretz, the famed writer. But he does. And he tells people around him, "Don't worry about the popularity of the moment. We can leave judgments to posterity."
For now, President Bush seems virtually friendless. Many on the left regard him as a rank right-winger: against government in the domestic realm, and for war and mayhem in the foreign. Many on the right regard him as a hopeless moderate or "squish": for big spending, amnesty, and bailouts; unwilling to confront Iran, North Korea, and other menaces (no matter what he's done in Iraq and Afghanistan).
Seldom have perceptions of a public figure varied so wildly.
Looking back on the Bush years, I think of instances that bring out the character and (to me) likability of the man. I will share a few of those here.
At the beginning of his first term, he agonized over an extremely difficult issue: fetal stem-cell research. And he agonized over it in a thoughtful way. He faced up to the issue manfully.
And he has been manful in facing wounded soldiers, or the families of the dead (almost always away from the camera's eye). He has been forthright in accepting the consequences of his decisions. He is not a shifter of blame.
A bit of humor? At a big Washington dinner in 2002, Ozzy Osbourne, the wacky rocker, pointed to his extravagant locks and said, "Mr. President, you ought to wear your hair like mine!" The president responded, "Second term, Ozzy, second term."
At the White House, Bush was host to his Yale classmates for a reunion. One man showed up . . . as a woman. She said, "You might remember me as Peter when we left Yale." He said, "And now you've come back as yourself."
That's the reaction of a Neanderthal Texas Bible-thumper?
In New Orleans, Bush was talking to a man who had fled to Utah during Hurricane Katrina. The president said to him, "Were you the only black man in Salt Lake City?"
There is a president who is "comfortable in his own skin," as they say. And he has the gift of being able to talk to virtually anybody.
Another story: Bush is riding along in his limo one day, waving at people. One of these people flips him off. The president turns to the guy sitting next to him and says, "Not a fan."
And how has he handled the current transition period? About life after Jan. 20, he has said, "One thing I don't want to do is stay on the stage. The spotlight needs to shift to President-elect Obama . . . because he's the president. Therefore, I won't try to get it shifted to me. And I'll be very respectful of him during his presidency."
That is in marked contrast, I might say, to two of his own predecessors, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Truth is, some of us Bush supporters wish he had been more robust in his own defense. The Bush PR effort, to the extent there has been one, has been woeful. But some people admire the president's relative restraint. He has been pounded and pounded, and almost never has lashed back.
You know the expression "He's the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral"? That does not apply to George Bush. He has his share of braggadocio (which drives his detractors nuts); but there is also genuine humility.
On the subject of religion, he has been notably discreet. Clinton, during the impeachment drama, would show up at the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, waving a big Bible at the cameras. If Bush did something similar, cries of "Theocracy!" would be loud.
He once said of his vice president, "Cheney is not a hugger. But he loves deeply." Bush loves deeply, too - and is definitely a hugger. Indeed, he can be downright touchy-feely (another thing that bothers many conservatives).
Not that he's all sweetness and light - far from it. Anybody who has been around him for long knows he can be a real sumbitch. In a memoir, former speechwriter David Frum put it this way: In a White House of "sweet," the president himself was "tart."
And his stubbornness is famous, or infamous: This can be a boon in a leader; it can also be an impediment. To many, it seemed that he (and we) were going nowhere in Iraq. But he made the adjustments necessary to succeed, and has left the new president with a valuable gift: an upper hand.
One person who knows the extreme reactions George W. Bush provokes is the man himself. In his 2004 convention speech, he heavily hinted at this, saying, for example, "Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.' " For many people - millions - President Bush is simply fingernails on a chalkboard, someone who can do nothing right.
You can't please everyone. But he has pleased some of us. I will miss his decency and directness and honesty. I will miss his fundamental goodness. And I daresay this would be the case if I were in his Democratic opposition.
I would fall into the lukewarm camp on Bush. I'm sure he means well, but the best of intentions won't erase the horrific shift toward socialism that he has overseen as well as turning his back on US sovereignty in regard to illegal immigrants.
Bush has stated that any President in his place would have done the same. I still wonder about that....
I think President George W Bush did a fine job as Commander-in-Chief of a nation at war, and made the most out of the cards he was dealt. His first term followed a disastrous two years of Clinton, who appeased terrorists and chased skirts and did nothing to strengthen America and contributed nothing to the Nation he governed. Thanks to Clinton, President Bush was on the back foot for 9/11, yet he prosecuted war against the enemies of Democracy vigorously and with iron resolve. Under his stewardship Iraq and Afghanistan were liberated, Saddam Hussein and his evil henchmen were hanged and Hussein’s two psychopath sons were riddled full of holes.
Sadly, President George W Bush will not be as well known for his domestic policies, as they took a back seat to the War on Terror. But that’s OK, that’s what should happen during war-time. And anyway, now Obama has been elected President, he has said he is going to fix everything and everything will be perfect...
He was liked more before he started showing his socialist side.
” This house of cards is coming down “ Bush on the USA economic system.
He drove our enemies to BDS, an insanity from which some will never recover.
I have always thought he was an honorable and decent man and it’s probably made me overlook some of his policy blunders. Nonetheless, even with the policy blunders, I cannot understand why so many people think he is evil or automatically assume him to be of the worst of intentions. It is obscene to be as disrespectful of such a clearly good man as so many people in this country have been.
We got the man we elected. It was him or Algore or Kerry.
We were less worse off.
He wasn’t king, and the Hasteret/Lott Republican Congress were the one’s that blew the Republican brand.
"... doing the jobs American's won't do ..."
"comprehensive immigration reform ..."
immigrant vs illegal alien.
He's an out and out liar. Period!
He was just another RINO. Bigger government.
There hasn’t been a single gun control law on his watch and the AWB and Brady sunset. This is why I voted for him and he is 100% IMHO. Good Job, George. Let’s see what Zero does.
As a Texan, I didn’t care for the man when he was our Governor.
As they’d say in the Army HOOAH! Right on! If only we put forward the most conservative candidate we can find the entire nation will wake up and flock to him. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
A “decent man” would have pardoned the two railroaded border patrol agents and would have issued a blanket pardon protecting all US military and non-military personnel against future leftist “torture” witch-hunts.
Bush is not a decent man. Bush is an elitist prick who happened to have a very good policy in Iraq.
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