In before the first “miss me yet?”
You rang?
Posted on 04/25/2013 5:06:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
Tomorrow, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will be dedicated at Southern Methodist University in Texas. It's a good time to look back on the performance of the 43rd president, who has been almost entirely missing from the public stage these past four years.
It's widely assumed that Bush is generally despised by the public. The perceptive American Interest blogger Walter Russell Mead stirred the ire of some former Bush aides when he recommended that Republicans avoid any defense of his record and move on to new issues.
But perhaps Bush's name is not mud any more. The Washington Post/ABC poll asked respondents to rate Bush's performance for the first time since December 2008, when only 33 percent rated it positively and 66 percent rated it negatively.
What the pollster found is that today 47 percent approve and 50 percent disapprove of Bush's performance. That approval number is precisely the same as Barack Obama's in the most recent Post/ABC poll.
Clearly many Americans have been reconsidering their verdict on George W. Bush. Many have come to think better of him than they did in the last four months of his tenure, when we were facing a financial crisis and sharp economic downturn.
Barack Obama will be at the Bush Center dedication and will presumably refrain from his usual carping about his predecessor, adopting for the moment the protocol followed by every other president in the last six decades.
The three other living former presidents will also be there -- Bill Clinton, who has enjoyed high ratings ever since leaving office, and Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, who were defeated for re-election.
Their presence will be a reminder that with the passage of time we can appreciate presidents' genuine achievements and glide over their deficiencies and mistakes.
Republicans can appreciate that Carter provided leadership in transportation deregulation, which has strengthened our economy ever since, and brokered a peace between Egypt and Israel that even the current Muslim Brotherhood government has refrained from renouncing.
Democrats can appreciate that George Bush 41 provided deft guidance at the end of the Cold War, triumphed in the Gulf War and pressed successfully for the Americans With Disabilities Act.
It's an interesting coincidence that both these pairs of presidents were born in the same year -- Carter and Bush 41 in 1924, Clinton and Bush 43 in 1946, generally considered the first year of the postwar baby boom.
These two baby boom presidents illustrate how much individual character can shape presidential performance.
Clinton is one of those politicians who wanted to be president since he was a little boy. As a student and a candidate, he never seemed to prepare much but showed time and again that he could improvise and get himself out of trouble of his own making.
His brilliant political instincts were matched by an almost compulsive interest in the details of public policy. His major misfire came when he left the drafting of his health care program to others.
George W. Bush does not seem to have always wanted to be president. I think he believed that God had put it in his way, and he did his best to prepare himself for it.
Clinton was chronically late, while Bush characteristically showed up ahead of time. Clinton would keep rewriting his State of the Union speeches as he rode to the Capitol. Bush liked to have his big speeches prepared days in advance.
Clinton's indiscipline caused him problems, but he managed to surmount them. Bush's tendency to regard decisions as settled could cause problems, too. In retrospect, he should have revisited military strategy in Iraq sooner than in late 2006 and early 2007, when he put in place the successful surge.
Iraq and the financial crisis obscured Bush's successful initiatives -- the tax cuts, the bipartisan education accountability law, the Medicare prescription drug program, the PEPFAR program to curb AIDS in Africa.
They were the product of deliberate effort and careful preparation -- and some shrewd political calculation.
The Post/ABC poll suggests that Americans have been developing a more well-rounded assessment of Bush's stewardship, even as he has remained mostly silent in public.
Some presidents' reputations rise as they move into history. Harry Truman, reviled when he left office, was recognized later for getting the big decisions right despite some obvious mistakes.
The same thing seems to be happening, more quickly, with George W. Bush.
Worse...Ohio. Soccer moms here usually come with an ass the size of a barcalounger. And they have a sense of entitlement that would make the stereotypical inner city welfare queen blush.
LOL!!! I wasn’t even close.
Indeed. Some men talk tough, but GWB can actually walk the talk.
Who can forget this classic? George Bush scuffles with Chilean security guards:
Coward
You tell her. I haven’t seen her lately.
In before the first “miss me yet?”
You rang?
Well, at least Kaslin’s favorite was not Bill Clinton who, having left office in January 2001 must be considered the first president of the twenty first century, even if you consider it as I do to have begun on January 1, 2001. I am rather dismayed to see how many Americans seem to think Slick was a really great president, to me the idea is absurd. I have heard it said that the best thing about Clinton is that he did not really do a lot, I think that is probably true.
What he was NOT was the republican equivalent of the Kenyan Kommie.
You got that right, but then I never voted for a democRat and never will. Compared though to that arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Clinton was better then that pos is. At least he negotiated with the Republicans, while the usurper thinks that everything must go his way
Class and more important, maturity.
Why should he speak up, engage in the mud fights of the day?
Who needs it?
Guy’s got it made in the shade, enjoying life.
Exactly, but many in here don’t get it. Remember the rage when he was just quiet and did not say anything when he was attacked by the left.
I’m no fan of George W. Bush, though I voted for him twice. But I would carry him back to Washington on my shoulders if we could trade him out with this current communist pos.
DHS and TSA are the fascist police state agencies Bush saddled us with, but you could get a big hamburger for a buck too. Prices are so bad now the press liars tell us there is no inflation, but their inflation index doesn’t measure food and gas.
Bush or Gore/Kerry is no contest at all.
Orange dog, you need to take a long vacation on a tropic island. Your bitterness is overwhelming you.
Right...we have tanks in the streets and federally funded swat teams locking down cities, doing house to house searches but my attitude is the problem because I pointed out how we got here. Silly me.
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