This is exactly the sort of liberal person we need to see more of in 14 weeks. Yes, he's probably going to have different opinions than most conservatives but he gets the big picture that terrorism and national security is the issue of today. You can't argue about jobs, stem cell research and gay marriage if you are dead. The fact that we have not suffered another attack has given us the luxury of debating these topics. The left's distaste of George Bush has clouded their conception of reality to the point they just don't get it any more and are willing to satisfy the whims of their indignation at the expense of American lives.
With all genuine and due respect to you Misterrob, I just don't agree with this point. They do get it. They hate GWB because they get it. You see, the Left wants this nation to, if not go away, then certainly be diminished. My tagline makes precisely that point, and the sooner more people who are not Leftists understand it, the better off we will all be.
The Left is a collectivist, statist movement. Its version of equality is false, because it subjugates all people to the state. Individualism is discouraged, if not outright squelched (think tyranny of political correctness). Individual liberty is anathema to them because it leads to conditions in society the Left considers unequal. (In truth, upper-class Leftists everywhere don't mind individual liberty, but only for themselves.)
More than any president in recent history other than Ronald Reagan, GWB has been an activist for individual liberty. The Left, both here and abroad, hates GWB because they fear him. They see him as turning back a number, if not many, of the gains they've made over the past century.
The tragedy is that, just at the moment when such a president comes along and could use all the help he can get, he doesn't have firebrand congressional Republicans like Newt Gingrich to help him. Congressional Republican leadership has reverted to the milquetoast type that kept them in the minority for so long.
I genuinely and most humbly thank the good Lord that GWB at least had Tony Blair, John Howard, and a handful of other foreign leaders who understand the real threat of Islamic radicalism.