Posted on 05/15/2009 3:45:17 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Let's face it, this is shaping up as George W. Bush's best month in years. The last time the 43rd president enjoyed this kind of vindication was when a bedraggled Saddam Hussein was pulled from a hole in the ground by American soldiers in 2003. All of Barack Obama's efforts to cast the Bush administration as an immoral stain on American history have not merely collapsed, but collapsed on the heads of Bush's most public and vocal critics.
Here's a non-stammering Nancy Pelosi talking about Bush last July: "God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States -- a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject."
Don't mind if I do. How about national security? It turns out that support for a criminal investigation of Bush policies yielded an important finding after all: Pelosi's own long-standing agreement with the Bush administration's toughest measures. On that point she's in sync with the rest of the country. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll found that Americans approve of the interrogation methods Bush okayed by a margin of 50% to 46%. In other words, she didn't have to go through the condemnation charade to begin with.
Then there's Iraq. That July interview with Pelosi is quite a goldmine. When faced with a 14% approval rating for Congress, she counters: "Everything I see says this is about ending the war. . . " Well, that's not happening anytime soon. Everything I see says "ending the war" was as phony as Nancy Pelosi's outrage. Hillary Clinton went to Baghdad three weeks ago to reassure the Maliki government that the the Obama administration will not abandon Iraq. On top of that, Gen. Ray Odierno said the U.S. might "maintain a presence" in some Iraqi cities beyond the scheduled draw-down date if the Iraqis request it. Did Pelosi mean the other war, in Afghanistan? Obama has done an outstanding job of taking that challenge seriously, and for those keeping score, his pick of Gen. Stanley McChrystal (the man who hunted down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq) has met with the gushing approval of Dick Cheney.
And speaking of Dick Cheney: Not only has he proved to be an important and articulate defender of the Bush administration's national-security policy; his repeated interviews and statements have done Bush the service of drawing fire away from the former president. Bush not only looks wise these days; he looks modest and thoughtful as well. And Cheney's (denied) request to declassify more CIA interrogation memos explodes the myth of the "most secretive administration in American history."
Let us not forget the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility. For years adduced as a monument to the Bush administration's disdain for due process and human rights, Gitmo was slated to be shut down by Barack Obama as a first order of business. Today, the posture without a plan has come up against a bi-partisan roadblock. Yesterday, the House denied the Obama administration a requested $80 million to close the facility. The Senate's version of the bill in question contains $50 million for the Pentagon to shutter the place, but the money can only be tapped 30 days after Robert Gates devises a plan to relocate detainees outside the U.S. -- so far France will take one. To top it all off, Obama will apparently soon announce the revival of Guantanamo military trials.
On Iran, the Obama administration is veering from its stance of bottomless "respect" and "perseverance." This week Obama set early October as a "target" to determine whether Iran is really deserving of all that extended goodwill. Additionally, the administration has drawn up benchmarks to gauge Tehran's cooperation in halting their march toward a nuclear weapon. As Robert Kagan put it, "[Obama's] policy toward Iran makes sense, so long as he is ready with a serious Plan B if the negotiating track with Tehran fails." The October non-surprise will be the revelation that Bush wasn't merely neglecting to smile at the mullahs and to ask nicely.
Finally, there's the strange and frankly unsettling image makeover of the Saudi royals. The Bush family's alleged intimacy with an extremist monarchy formed the very backbone of the anti-Bush industry. Yet, upon taking office Barack Obama commented on the bravery of King Abdullah and went on to virtually adopt the Saudi Peace Initiative as American policy. The administration is also seriously considering sending released Guantanamo detainees through the Saudi "jihad rehab" program. A week ago, "60 Minutes" aired a prime-time broadcast praising the same absurdity. The free pass Barack Obama gets on his all-encompassing embrace of Riyadh leaves the score of anti-Bush best sellers and documentaries looking a little less than credible.
President Obama, and the country at large, is finding out that George W. Bush's most controversial policies were not born of ideological delusion, American arrogance, or missionary zeal. They were imperfect but sound (with the exception of our ties to Riyadh) responses to complicated threats. But the validation of the last president runs a very distant second to the most compelling aspect of all this: the drama over CIA interrogations and Guantanamo will hopefully serve to set the administration on a more serious national security course. And it would be helpful if the American public finally dropped moral outrage as the preferred mode of political argumentation.
Only on some issues...
Amen ... on the MOST important issues,
he’s already shown his leadership.
His #1 mission and relentless pursuit was our
safety and that of our military, and without
that, nothing else matters.
We certainly .. gravely and tragically .. do
not have that safety now.
The BDSers will just have to live with the
fact that he was an outstanding President
in the most historically harrowing and risky
of times.
As they gripe on with the ‘yeah buts,’ those
with perspective, maturity, emotional health,
and reasoned rationality know and will always
know the truth.
Thank you, and God bless you, President Bush!
Hence we are now a Bamanation.
Saw the new Star Trek movie and was blown away.
Literally.
More explosions that my mind could cope with.
Like how the new actors are portraying the characters, with the exception of Chekov who was weird. I didn’t connect with the new Uhura, but my husband liked her.
Bush may have made many mistakes but he was right on the Security of this nation. I wish him well.
And to those who constantly bitch about Bush and have nothing good to say about him I would like you to do me a really big favor by GROWING UP AND GETTING OVER YOUR DAMN CRYBABY HISSY FITS! If any of you Bush bashers think you can do a better job as POTUS than him then man up and run for President in 2012 and show us what great leaders you are.
Great pics! Though I didn’t agree with every thing they did I believe the Bush family brought a high level of class and dignity to the White House. The Clintons and the Obamas on the other hand have greatly disgraced the office of POTUS and have treated the White House as their pleasure palace.
Isn’t it odd that lately BC looks better.
As much a sleeze as he was, he was an American.
Obama is not. He is not off this country, was not brought up as an AMerican, identifies with foreign soil and Islam.
He doesn’t even like American black people,,that is what nobody is saying. He has contempt for blacks. Just like Jessee Jackson said.
I never thought I would see BC and Jesse Jackson as real Americans but I do.
Wait till the blacks of this country realize they have been had.
I would love to here GWB's snicker after some of the moves "O" is making. Reminds me of him and Cheney with the hot "Mic" talking about Adam Clymer......
I agree with you that the end of the day Clinton was an American that wanted to see the country succeed (while at the same time not opposed to seeing himself prosper at well). I can not imagine any true blooded American prostrate themselves on foreign soil the way Obama does. I almost get physically ill when I see him apologizing to countries that have sickening human rights records and that want nothing more than to see this country decline into third world ruin. But as the great Reverened Wright said, "the chickens have come home to roost."
The good old days were wonderful around here.
(Which is why I "disappeared for a week - college graduation and concerts in far away places!)
How are things with you?
Having left this place when the BDS was demonic (not exaggerating), I have come back to find that it has returned to just being irrational. :)
Anyone who missed the greatness of George W. Bush can't see the forest for the trees.
What a great American "forest" we had for eight years!
(Most of the blind and short-sighted will get it eventually........the rest are residing in "homes." ;)
We are now, as we have always been ------right!
Hubby has been doing Math research this past year, and is *this close* to getting the answer he needs. He's taking a break from that to work on the house, though.
That empty nest thing was hard for me to deal with..............for about two months, and then I started to like it..........a LOT! :)
We've got one home for the summer before venturing out into the "real world."
Life continues to be interesting with kids, doesn't it?
We're doing quite a bit on the house, because it's 20 years old, and we haven't really done any updating. We're re-doing the kitchen, and since our house was built before the age of larger master baths and closets, we're doing an addition over part of the garage to accomodate a much larger closet/bath space for our room. We're also putting a new bathroom up in the attic, and creating a 'teen suite' up there. We had the builder finish off the attic, when we bought the house, so SirKit could use it as an office. We just have to add a closet to it to make it a legal bedroom. We also have to build a new deck that will be accessed from both the kitchen and den, cause the old one was deteriorating. We'll connect it with stairs to a lower level deck that will be off the back of the garage, and we've already bought a hot tub to put on it!
We've got a LOT of work to do, but the market is really down in our area, and to get a quick sale at a good price, it will have to be, as the Realtors say, a 'Prom Queen'. Since we're doing all the work ourselves, and SirKit has shopped victoriously on eBay, we've been able to amass quite a lot of the materials we need for really good prices, so the cost to us for the updates won't be that expensive. We'll see a good return on our investment, that's for sure.
Of course it didn't hurt that my s-i-l is Martha Stewart.........well, only the decorating part of her, not the criminal, creepy part. LOL!
*snort*
I know as I was here, too. Albeit with several self-imposed time outs. ;*)
I have come back to find that it has returned to just being irrational.
Hmmmm, you weren't on the same threads I was on today. We are now, as we have always been ------right!
LOL! You have certainly been missed!
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