From the article: Publisher Crown reports that 1.75 million copies of the book have sold since Nov. 9.
My comments: To put this in perspective, in only 42 days since the book debuted, its entire first printing has been sold out. It has been selling at the rate of approximately 41,666 copies a day.
Deliberately not using the much over-used word "great," I've often said GWB's was the most consequential, the most significant, important presidency since that of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Leftists who control modern academia will try to downplay it, twist it, and otherwise bury it. Obdurate people on the Right who hate him over pedestrian issues and imaginary slights (e.g., immigration reform PROPOSAL; Harriet Miers) can continue to whine, insult, and foolishly "disown" him, but none can diminish the importance of his presidency.
Not since the War of 1812 -- 189 years earlier -- had any of America's original 13 colonies been attacked by a foreign enemy. Not since 1812 had the capitol of the United States been attacked. The Pentagon, the seat of our military, had never been attacked.
The events of 9/11/01 and near-simultaneous anthrax events meant our government, military, air transportation system, financial system, postal system, and news media had all been attacked virtually at once. Yet the nation is still intact and the world did not descend into chaos thanks to the leadership of one man.
The way President Bush handled himself and led the nation with such towering dignity, courage and foresight in the immediate aftermath revealed him to be an extraordinarily rare man. The challenges he faced, and the decisions he made for better or worse, put him in a league only with Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Wilson (ugh!) in shaping not just our history, but our future for decades to come.
So the strength of his book sales should not surprise anyone. Metaphorically speaking, all of us stood with him on top of that destroyed fire engine at Ground Zero and told our enemies they would hear from us. All of us stood on that pitcher's mound with GWB at Yankee Stadium, gave thumbs up, tossed a perfect strike, and shouted USA! USA! USA! -- the quintessential American answer to the entire world. All of us stood with him before Congress and said, "You're either with us, or you're with the terrorists." All of us stood with him before the General Assembly and told the UN it either would enforce its nearly 20 resolutions against Saddam Hussein or become irrelevant.
Both the Right and the Left of today can continue their blind pettiness toward the man, but like the UN, they have become irrelevant as regards GWB's place in history. It is already assured by deeds and results. The man, himself, is serene, comfortable, happy and content to let the future dissect the past. His work is done. He did his best. Fair-minded people know; the rest don't matter.
Inaugural Address, January 20, 2001, President George W. BushAfter the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?'”
Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity. We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.
Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.
This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.
This sums up the BDS'ers around here perfectly and how little they matter in the sweep of history. Fantastic!
In other words, the Left and the Right didn't walk in the same shoes as President Bush did as he worked day and night to protect this country from getting hit with a terrorist attack. Unless these Bush haters were faced in the same exact situations as he did, they don't get it and probably never will.