Posted on 05/31/2012 6:58:57 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Bushes humorous return to White House
(CNN) -- Thursday afternoon, Barack Obama presided over the unveiling of George W. Bush's official portrait in the White House, a warm event that reminds us: It feels like years since President Dubya regaled the world with his famous spoonerisms. His retirement has been defined by an awkward silence. While John McCain's endorsement was trumpeted by Mitt Romney, Bush delivered his in just four words. "I'm for Mitt Romney," he shouted to a journalist as an elevator door closed between them. If, just for old time's sake, Bush had said, "I'm for Ritt Momney," it would have been perfect.
Bush's silence may be motivated by the recognition that much of the public doesn't like him. He left office with the worst approval rating for a president since Watergate. But Bush could undergo a renaissance of enthusiasm. Consider the shifting attitudes toward Harry Truman.
When he left the White House in 1952, Truman was blamed for the recession and an ugly war in Korea. His approval rate was just 31%. By 1977, Jimmy Carter was hanging Truman's portrait in the White House and the band Chicago sang, "America needs you, Harry Truman!" The switch came partly because Truman, like Bush, had a gentle, honest personality that voters looked back on with fondness. But Truman also proved prescient in his conduct of the Cold War. Bush, likewise, might seem a better and more farsighted leader in a few years time.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
I understand exactly what you mean, but it is a mistake to cede the battlefield of the media to the enemy.
I think his administration and he himself could have done a better job of presenting their side, and they didn’t have to be nasty to do it.
Despite some snide remarks here and there, the overall message of this article is actually quite positive. Note that the author is not a CNN journalist. He’s a historian at Oxford.
Thank you for those pictures...especially him hugging the little girl....my favorite which I haven’t seen in years. Thanks for the tears, too.
Actually, I think Bush won the territory. Because as I said the media lost a lot of its power due to Bush's strategy. CNN was and is today a major casualty.
A President is not God...he cannot do all things. I'm glad Bush preserved his energy for the WOT...the greater fight. 20/20 hindsight says "why didn't he do this" or "why didn't he do that". We forget today how hard it was to keep the troops encouraged and the war strategies working. We forget how discouraging things looked. EVERYONE thought we would have another major attack. Well Bush went on offense and never let up and we did not have that 2nd attack. He did a great job...and with dignity.
"After 9/11, Bush could have determined the threat to America to be a limited terrorist opposition centered on al Qaeda. Instead, he defined it as a grand existential conflict between democracy and radical Islam: a clash of civilizations. Many may argue that his analysis was flawed, but many in the West also bought it -- witness Britain's participation in Iraq and Afghanistan and France's ban on the Burqa."
Huh? I guess I missed CNNs reporting on Bush's "ban on Burqa's", including the reference to this fact by the CNN propagandist.
My wife and son, last year year one Sunday, saw GWB last at SMU's Methodist Church while attending with our friends who are members.
The Bush family attends regularly as devout Christians by all accounts and live in a humble manner considering their familial position and accomplishments.
This humility has been a hallmark of GWB, as well as his father, for better or worse. I've been frustrated by GWB's lack of vigorous defense of conservative policies,a But, it seems genuine that his silence after leaving office is due to his respect for the office.
I still believe the man and his ancestors are globalists of the first degree, but I don't think they have an abject hatred of America.
Here are snipts of a great article on GWB's military service from Aerospaceweb:
"It really bothers me that a coward like George W. Bush spent the Vietnam War training to fly old and useless planes in Texas while John Kerry was heroically risking his life in combat and got three purple hearts!"
- question from Jennifer BraunGeorge W. Bush's military service began in 1968 when he enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating with a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University. The aircraft he was ultimately trained to fly was the F-102 Delta Dagger, popularly known as "the Deuce."
The F-102 was a supersonic second generation fighter designed in the early 1950s for the US Air Force. The primary mission of the aircraft was to intercept columns of Soviet nuclear bombers attempting to reach targets in the US and destroy them with air-to-air missiles. The technologies incorporated into the aircraft were state-of-the-art for the day.
ANG members of the period who we've been able to locate indicate that only highly qualified pilot candidates were accepted for Delta Dagger training because it was such a challenging aircraft to fly and left little room for mistakes.
Bush then returned to Ellington in Texas to complete seven months of combat crew training on the F-102 from December 1969 to June 1970.
Bush graduated from the training program in June 1970. When interviewed by the Associated Press in February 2004, flight instructor Maj. Udell recalled that Lt. Bush was one of his best students saying that, "I'd rank him in the top five percent."
The Air National Guard has often been ridiculed as a safe place for military duty during the Vietnam War. However, pilots from the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, as it was called at the time, were actually conducting combat missions in Vietnam when Bush enlisted.
Thanks to Palace Alert, the Air Force was able to transfer much-needed National Guard pilots to Vietnam on a voluntary basis while not actually calling up their squadrons. [snip]
Fred Bradley, a friend of Bush's who was also serving in the Texas ANG, reported that he and Bush inquired about participating in Palace Alert. However, the two were told by their flight instructor, Maj. Maurice Udell, that they were not yet qualified since they were still in training and did not have the 500 hours of flight experience required. Furthermore, ANG veteran Col. William Campenni, who was a fellow pilot in the 111th FIS at the time, told the Washington Times that Palace Alert had stopped accepting new applicants before Bush would have been eligible."
Bush made Barry Half-White possible... but it may be years before he is recognized as a hero of the democrat party..
Bush is a stealth democrat.. not George only but all three of them.. and their wives..
Bush deserves a great deal of blame for permitting reckless spending, in which he expanded the military budget without cutting elsewhere, and even more so for TARP. However, Bush meant well and made many good decisions to balance out his blunders. Overall, he did a pretty good job. History should, if written honestly, be a whole lot kinder to Bush than to the usurper, a man who has catastrophically failed at everything he has done since taking power.
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