Posted on 02/01/2002 4:42:01 AM PST by Rightfield14
Too many pundits have made the mistake of thinking that President Clinton was loved because of his job performance numbers. That was never true.
The average person on the street could not see that Clinton had done any great damage to the economy while he was in office. His surprisingly high approval ratings were not nearly the result of anything he had done; but rather, they were a reflection of the office he occupied.
Americans love the institution of the presidency. We love and pray for them in times of war. We weep for them when they are assassinated. We often rally behind them when they are maligned. What has changed is the fact that we once again have a president who shares our love and respect for the office.
If you saw the recent NBC program, "The Real West Wing," then you learned that the Bush administration treats the presidency with the dignity that it rightfully deserves. In contrast to the previous administration, President Bush insists that his meetings and appearances start ON time. He realizes that he is only a custodian of the White House and that it belongs to the American people. He also reserves that sense of honor for the Oval Office.
When President Reagan was Commander-in-Chief, he would not even enter the Oval Office without wearing his coat. President Bush has restored that sense of dignity. The president and his closest advisors, clad in sweat pants and T-shirts, no longer lounge around the Oval Office, stuffing themselves with pizza. Moreover, we do not have a president engaging in "miss-conduct" with interns just off the Oval Office.
All presidents have weaknesses, but not all of them suffer from extreme moral failings or serious deficiencies in character. Everybody knows by now that President Bush will occasionally butcher the English language. However, these occasional foibles from an essentially good and decent man have also endeared him to us. They certainly do not reveal a lack of intellect or an inability to lead. We know the man is not perfect, but we are also left with the sense that he is not satisfied with the mediocre.
In his speeches and in his manner of conduct, we realize that this man was also outraged by the attacks of September 11th. We believe he "feels our pain" but he has no need to constantly bring it to our attention. We believe that our president shares our sense of patriotism, our love of country, and a deep and abiding faith in the greatness of the American people.
Americans want to trust, like, and respect their presidents. Despite the circumstance by which he came to office, this president is winning because the public trusts him. They like George W. Bush. They believe him. Moreover, they have come to respect his leadership. Bush’s father also ran a war and had high approval ratings for its successes. But a stumbling economy was his eventual undoing. However, that is where the similarities end. During the Gulf War, Americans didn’t see thousands of flag draped coffins coming home. They could not sense that the war cost us anything. The terrorists changed the way we looked at our president.
Unlike his father, President Bush will get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the economy. America knows he stood by all of us when the country was under attack. They knew that he too was targeted by the terrorists. And they know that, in his pursuit of justice, he is trying to do the things that we would do.
We don’t expect that our presidents be perfect; but we like them to try. We want them to be human, but we don’t want them to behave like the family uncle that nobody cares to discuss. We want them to be ordinary; but when circumstances warrant it, we expect them to rise to the occasion and to inspire us to do the same. In a sense, President Bush has become like all of us, only better!
© 2002 Robert Yoho
Says it all for me.
Thank you, Mr. President.
It is a shame that 911 and the loss of so many innocent American civilians is what was needed to wake this country up from the MTV President and his misdeeds.
Sadly, If Americans had overwhelmingly supported President Bush Sr. during and after the Gulf War then perhaps Saddam would have been taken out and Clinton would have lost the election and the past 8 years would have been so different.
Would that be, getting elected?
It's a sort of poetic justice for eight years ago. The liberals in my former workplace all had a little string with a pull ring on them. You pulled it, and as it wound itself up, the mouth would work and out would come the words, "He[1] lost! Get over it!" -- thirty-eight times a day[2]. As a Keith Laumer[3] character once said, "Iron maiden on other foot now."
[1] George H. W. Bush
[2] HHGTTG, Douglas Adams
[3] See my profile
I remember that when Clinton took office, someone in his administration mocked Bush the elder, because he had said that the greatest thing about being President was the honor of holding the office. If all he does as President is restore honor to the office, then he would have done our country a great service.
Excerpt:
If you saw the recent NBC program, "The Real West Wing," then you learned that the Bush administration treats the presidency with the dignity that it rightfully deserves. In contrast to the previous administration, President Bush insists that his meetings and appearances start ON time. He realizes that he is only a custodian of the White House and that it belongs to the American people. He also reserves that sense of honor for the Oval Office.
All presidents have weaknesses, but not all of them suffer from extreme moral failings or serious deficiencies in character. Everybody knows by now that President Bush will occasionally butcher the English language. However, these occasional foibles from an essentially good and decent man have also endeared him to us. They certainly do not reveal a lack of intellect or an inability to lead. We know the man is not perfect, but we are also left with the sense that he is not satisfied with the mediocre.
Americans want to trust, like, and respect their presidents. Despite the circumstance by which he came to office, this president is winning because the public trusts him. They like George W. Bush. They believe him. Moreover, they have come to respect his leadership. Bush’s father also ran a war and had high approval ratings for its successes. But a stumbling economy was his eventual undoing. However, that is where the similarities end. During the Gulf War, Americans didn’t see thousands of flag draped coffins coming home. They could not sense that the war cost us anything. The terrorists changed the way we looked at our president.
We don’t expect that our presidents be perfect; but we like them to try. We want them to be human, but we don’t want them to behave like the family uncle that nobody cares to discuss. We want them to be ordinary; but when circumstances warrant it, we expect them to rise to the occasion and to inspire us to do the same. In a sense, President Bush has become like all of us, only better!
In George W. Bush we see a triumph of function over form.
Bush won! By all of our constitutional principles, he met the standard for election. Only Palm Beach County voters and Jesse Jackson think otherwise.
It was late last night. I was trying to meet an editorial deadline. I guess I could have copied something like Doris Kearns Goodwin does.
When the slickster spoke, it was so that the people could see that he understands.
When President Bush speaks, it is so that the people understands what he can see.
Both stood on top of the American mountain, but only W is interested in sharing the unique perspective from the summit. Clinton was more interested in peering down the mountain, focusing on the distance between himself and the "common" American.
I, for one, thank God that we once again have a man of principle to be our principle man (to paraphrase another G.W. - George Washington:-).
You're on! Thanks!
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