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The decency of George W. Bush
Washington Post ^ | Friday, November 7, 2008 | By Michael Gerson

Posted on 11/10/2008 6:05:41 AM PST by meandog

Election Day 2008 must have been filled with rueful paradoxes for the sitting president. Iraq -- the issue that dominated George W. Bush's presidency for 5 1/2 bitter, controversial years -- is on the verge of a miraculous peace. And yet this accomplishment did little to revive Bush's political standing -- or to prevent his party from relegating him to a silent role. The achievement is historic. In 2006, Iraq had descended into a sectarian killing spree that seemed likely to stop only when the supply of victims was exhausted. Showing Truman-like stubbornness, Bush pushed to escalate a war that most Americans -- and some at the Pentagon -- had already mentally abandoned.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; bush43; bushlegacy; decency; falure; gerson; term2
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"...But that humanity is precisely what I will remember. I have seen President Bush show more loyalty than he has been given, more generosity than he has received. I have seen his buoyancy under the weight of malice and his forgiveness of faithless friends. Again and again, I have seen the natural tug of his pride swiftly overcome by a deeper decency -- a decency that is privately engaging and publicly consequential.

No one here has ever said that George W. Bush wasn't decent guy, BUT this is exactly why IMO he failed as a president! Loyalty, after all, is a two-way street but, when one is president the president's side of the street should be the one with less traffic. Instead of tolerating the incompetence which will forever distinguish his administration, Bush needed to immediately fire the subordinates thet screwed up. If "Heckuva Job" Brownie, McClellan, Evans, Crummy Rummy and currently Paulson, Cox and Bernake were kicked to the sidewalk the minute they flubbed up perhaps the legacy could have been different. "Nice Guys finish last," both in Leo Durosher's baseball world and in the history books on presidential legacies!

BTW, for you tin-foilers, the author is a distinguished member of the Council on Foreign Relations

1 posted on 11/10/2008 6:05:42 AM PST by meandog
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To: meandog

Manipulating jerks.


2 posted on 11/10/2008 6:08:38 AM PST by Earthdweller (Socialism makes you feel better about oppressing people.....)
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To: meandog

This idiot writer doens’t know what class is.


3 posted on 11/10/2008 6:11:51 AM PST by cornfedcowboy
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To: meandog; Admin Moderator

Thank you for posting this, meandog.

admin mod, could you please correct the spelling of President Bush’s name? Thank you kindly.


4 posted on 11/10/2008 6:14:11 AM PST by mrs tiggywinkle (Hosea 10:12)
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To: mrs tiggywinkle; Admin Moderator
admin mod, could you please correct the spelling of President Bush’s name? Thank you kindly.

ooops "n" is right below "h" on keyboard and finger must have slipped.

5 posted on 11/10/2008 6:19:09 AM PST by meandog (Wasilla warrior in 2012!)
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To: meandog

Now the jerks write a story like this an expect us to believe their veiled applauding of Bush. Of coarse he got NO respect for winning in Iraq thanks to the MSM. They make me sick. This guy is another who whinned and complained after her left the faith based inititive working group.


6 posted on 11/10/2008 6:21:06 AM PST by therut
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To: meandog
President Bush is still popular in my house with me and my husband and all three of my children..He is a great man..The people that really make me ashamed are the bully liars in Congress and senate.. You know I always remember Gods promise and that is I will always be with you..

Things happen for a reason and one day these scum bags will get theirs..

7 posted on 11/10/2008 6:22:20 AM PST by PLD
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To: meandog

Thank you double for me Mr President,especially for waiting until the 2006 midterms before the surge. And keeping up our moral 2005 and 2006 when all the media lied and said the war was going badly, you held firm and kept us true dwindling believers together, and then in 2007, you did the surge, I believe that war just turned bad in one month after the election. I dont care if every elected official is democrat, I don’t care if the term ‘conservatism’ is consider a joke now, I still believe in you. THANK YOU!


8 posted on 11/10/2008 6:22:31 AM PST by sickoflibs ( Those who don't learn from (real big) mistakes are losers forever)
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To: meandog
The author points out an interesting fact: "Many conservatives view Medicare, education reform and foreign assistance as heresies. Many liberals refuse to concede Bush's humanity, much less his achievements." Much like Richard Nixon in the 1970s and Herbert Hoover in the 1930s, Bush was intensely, irrationally hated by liberals even though from a domestic policy standpoint, both Nixon and Bush did not break from the welfare state, big government policies of their Democratic predecessors. (Bush did support significant tax reform, an initiative that was possible due to Republican control of Congress, which Nixon lacked. Hoover, though not a laissez faire advocate, contrary to popular belief, was President prior to the establishment of the welfare state and before the metastasis of Federal and state taxes to present levels.) As happened in the 1930s and 1970s, the Republican Party and conservatives were tarred with the problems and failures of the GOP administration.

Politics are cyclical. However, we must realize that sea changes can and do occur in American history: the Civil War and the Great Depression caused the two greatest changes since the founding of the republic. The election of 2008 may be another one, as 52% of eligible American voters voted for a man for the Presidency who is fundamentally anti-traditional or un-American, irrespective of the circumstances of his birth. America may have ceased being American in any but the geographic or pop culture sense.

9 posted on 11/10/2008 6:26:34 AM PST by Wallace T.
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To: PLD

Ditto mean dog. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve felt it a privilege to be able to vote for him twice. He kept us safe. The rats tried to knock down everything he tried to do, or water it down. They treated everyone he tried to nominate with such meanness and ignorance that it was a disgrace to this country. His own party didn’t have the guts to stand by him. He and his family, as well as Vice President Cheney and his family are in my notebook of daily prayer intentions and they will always be there. God Bless the Man.


10 posted on 11/10/2008 6:34:27 AM PST by LilRhody
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To: meandog

speaking of keyboards and decency,

do you think that all the O’s will be removed from the keyboards during this transition?

(no, I know they won’t)


11 posted on 11/10/2008 6:36:42 AM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, and Thuggery)
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To: sickoflibs
Thank you double for me Mr President,especially for waiting until the 2006 midterms before the surge.

?
Did you mean this as sarcasm? Just about every EVERY military expert has agreed that the surge should have come two years earlier than it did!

12 posted on 11/10/2008 6:37:49 AM PST by meandog (Wasilla warrior in 2012!)
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To: LilRhody
It really makes me cry to see what has happen to this country under the rule of SCUM..and I mean the two houses in Washington..I love the Chaney family also and wish them all well..

God is still in control and he will have these liars pay for their lies..

13 posted on 11/10/2008 6:49:40 AM PST by PLD
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To: meandog
"were kicked to the sidewalk the minute they flubbed up perhaps the legacy could have been different."

You can't kick people to the sidewalk every time a mistake is made; that's no way to run an operation.

Track record and situational issues dominate. That's what makes the job of POTUS such a huge burden.

GWB's willingness to take the long view (and the heat) and "go the distance" brought us Petraeus and the successful Surge. Good for him.
14 posted on 11/10/2008 6:57:18 AM PST by indthkr
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To: PLD

I voted for bush twice. And supported him as he betrayed caonservatives time and again with his brand of socialism, which he names, compassionate conservatism which really means republican socialist.

While Bush showed he would defend our country he saold us down the river to the international socialists.

I won’t waste my time listing the socialist agenda he was able to put into law, but the worst was the recent nationalization of freddie, fannie AIG, banks and God only knows what else.

Now what I see is the socialist media coming out and thankiing him for all he has done for their cause. As for me I have NO respect for the man George Bush, republican socialist.


15 posted on 11/10/2008 7:03:46 AM PST by stockpirate (Compasionate Conservative, nothing compassionate or conservative about them.)
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To: meandog

Whatever. They spent the last eight years dumping on Bush. Now it’s Zero’s turn. Don’t expect us to roll over and play nice.


16 posted on 11/10/2008 7:12:32 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Obama, you are NOT my President!)
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To: meandog
Pres Bush deserves our thanks and credit for the WOT, holding firm on tax cuts and the USSC.

However, he will always be remembered by the conservative base as the man who,,,

gave us President B. Hussein Obama.

17 posted on 11/10/2008 7:23:22 AM PST by stockstrader (At least Biden has tried to warn us of the dangers of an inexperienced and unqualified ticket)
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To: meandog
If "Heckuva Job" Brownie, McClellan, Evans, Crummy Rummy and currently Paulson, Cox and Bernake were kicked to the sidewalk the minute they flubbed up perhaps the legacy could have been different. "Nice Guys finish last," both in Leo Durosher's baseball world and in the history books on presidential legacies!

Works for me. And add to it that he didn't through a loud, public fit about problems for which he had solutions (Fannie/Freddie, ANWR) that the Dems (and RINOS) torpedoed.

18 posted on 11/10/2008 7:41:04 AM PST by Tribune7 (Obama wants to put the same crowd that ran Fannie Mae in charge of health care)
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To: stockpirate
I voted for President Bush twice also and would do so again if I had the chance if he had of run against Obama no matter what the Liberal criminals say he would have won..

You have your opinion and I have mine and that is the way this county works now, but just wait it will go down hill very fast with the GARBAGE that is going to be in the white house and his partners in Crime the Liberals..

God Bless my President and I tank him from the bottom of my heart for keeping us free..

19 posted on 11/10/2008 7:49:50 AM PST by PLD
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To: PLD

Same here.


20 posted on 11/10/2008 7:52:19 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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