Hatchet
By Lucas Roebuck

Now that President Barack Obama has taken office, the angry left and members of the media suffering Bush Derangement Syndrome hopefully have found a cure to their psychosis and can move on with their lives.

Sure, some of tolerance preachers who thrive on Bush hate will hold onto the “prosecute Bush” mantra for a while. Obama, however, appears to see no profit for his administration or the country in having show trials, so his hatchet man Rahm Emmanuel will likely be dispatched to keep the Congressional witch hunters under control.

Bush himself has always held that history will vindicate his presidency. On balance, I agree with him. However, even as Bush was booed at the Obama inauguration, pundits of all ideological stripes were starting to see past BDS and find praiseworthy aspects of Bush.

One common theme was how gracefully Bush, in spite of the hatred, carried himself as president.

“Other presidents may encounter the same level of motiveless, mindless hatred, others may suffer comparable abuse,” wrote J.R. Dunn of the American Thinker, “but we can sure that no one will ever meet it with more equanimity than George W. Bush.”

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe echoed Dunn’s sentiment: “By all accounts, Bush is neither bitter nor self-pitying about being so unloved. That is partly a function of his personality – in his last press conference, he described self-pity as ‘pathetic’ – and partly the result of knowing that it will not be his contemporary critics who render the final verdict on his presidency.”

But even his contemporary critics have started to find more than a silver lining in the Bush presidency. Some commentators praised Bush, long accused of facist-like tendencies and rampant croneyism, for not living up to that reputation.

“…(Bush) had confounded critics who had predicted that the White House would hand out commutations to CIA interrogators, former Bushies, the rich and famous and corrupt politicians who got caught. … (Bush) did not issue a blanket amnesty for cronies, rich crooks and crooked pols,” wrote Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Bush can be legitimately accused of … sins. But he has also been battered with charges of which he can be acquitted now, without waiting for history’s judgment,” writes Cathy Young of Reason Magazine. “For all the cries of jackbooted fascism, Bush never tried to gut American democracy. Yes, some curbs on the rights of terror suspects posed the risk of an innocent person facing a harrowing ordeal – which is bad enough. But there is not a shred of evidence that security-related measures expanding government powers have been used to suppress or punish dissent. … Nor were there any attempts to hobble political activity, despite dire warnings that the GOP cabal would stop at nothing to maintain its hold on power.”

The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne even begrudgingly said that many of Bush’s domestic policies represented some progress.
“Ironically, the clearest evidence of Bush’s larger failure can be found in the areas where he can claim genuine success. Bush’s prescription drug plan under Medicare and his No Child Left Behind education program were far from perfect. But they reflected broadly shared goals — expanding health coverage, promoting accountability in education — and involved actual bipartisan wrangling and negotiation. Aspects of both programs will endure,” Dionne wrote. “Bush’s dedication to the victims of AIDS in Africa and his dramatic increases in foreign aid were admirable, and surprised his fiercest critics…. For a few months after Sept. 11, 2001, the president governed as a truly national leader.”

Norman Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute at least found how Bush gracefully transitioned power to Obama worth note. “The nation can little afford a rocky transfer of power. America also faces threats from terrorists and other adversaries, and the first few months of a new administration can be a vulnerable time for the nation — when the full national security and economic teams are not yet in place and no crisis decision-making process has been established.The Bush administration may be leaving the country with big policy problems. But George W. Bush deserves a big gold star for the way he is leaving his office.”

Critics and supporters alike now suggest that the person who will be most important in vindicating Bush will be Obama, who now appears likely to continue some of Bush’s oft criticized policies.

Bruce Anderson of the U.K. Independent writes, “It now looks as if there will be many more continuities between the Bush Administration and the Obama one than many of the new President’s supporters had hoped. That is a tribute to George Bush. It will not be the last.”

The Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer puts it more pointedly. “Except for Richard Nixon, no president since Harry Truman leaves office more unloved than George W. Bush. Truman’s rehabilitation took decades. Bush’s will come sooner. Indeed, it has already begun. The chief revisionist? Barack Obama.
“Vindication is being expressed not in words but in deeds — the tacit endorsement conveyed by the Obama continuity-we-can-believe-in transition. It’s not just the retention of such key figures as Secretary of Defense Bob Gates or Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner. … It’s the continuity of policy. …. The very continuation by Democrats of Bush’s policies will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgement of how much he got right.”

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Part I:

 
Part II:

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching – balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin – that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

“I lean on the Almighty and Laura,” Mr. Bush said in the interview. “She has been very reassuring, very calming.”

Mr. Bush also has met privately with more than 500 families of troops killed in action and with more than 950 wounded veterans, according to White House spokesman Carlton Carroll. Many of those meetings were outside the presence of the news media at the White House or at private sessions during official travel stops, officials said.

Read all about Bush’s silent campaign here.

Kosovo decided Wednesday to name a central street of its capital Pristina after outgoing US President George W. Bush for his support of the territory’s split from Serbia.

Backed unanimously by Kosovo’s cabinet, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the move was “a sign of the huge state and national respect and appreciation” for the United States’ contribution to independence, declared earlier this year.

I am going to have to visit that street someday. Here is a link to the story.

Except for Richard Nixon, no president since Harry Truman leaves office more unloved than George W. Bush. Truman’s rehabilitation took decades. Bush’s will come sooner. Indeed, it has already begun. The chief revisionist? Barack Obama.

Vindication is being expressed not in words but in deeds — the tacit endorsement conveyed by the Obama continuity-we-can-believe-in transition. It’s not just the retention of such key figures as Secretary of Defense Bob Gates or Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner, who, as president of the New York Fed, has been instrumental in guiding the Bush financial rescue over the last year. It’s the continuity of policy.

The most beautiful line comes at the end. My left-leaning colleagues say if Krauthammer proves right, then they will be upset with Obama. We’ll see.

He leaves behind the sinews of war, for the creation of which he has been so vilified but which will serve his successor — and his country — well over the coming years. The very continuation by Democrats of Bush’s policies will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgement of how much he got right.

Read the full article HERE.

The George W. Bush farewell tour took off in earnest last week, with the president granting interviews left and right. The image that emerged was surprisingly upbeat. His party is in tatters, the economy is the bleakest in a generation, and yet Bush played the part of a man confident that history will side with him.

The full link is here.

I remember coming to the West Wing one morning before the daily 7:30 senior staff meeting and seeing Mr. Bush at his desk in the Oval Office, reading a daily devotional. I remember the look of sorrow on his face as he signed letters to the families of the fallen. When he met with recovering addicts whose lives were transformed by a faith-based program, he spoke plainly of his own humiliating journey years ago with alcohol. When a Liberian refugee broke into tears after recounting her escape to freedom in America, the president went over and held and comforted her.

Little acts behind the curtain like these inspired intense loyalty by staff members. They spoke of someone never too busy or burdened to care — like when he took time on Air Force One to call my wife when she was sick. The president’s true character rendered his media image pure caricature.

Mother Teresa was asked at the end of her life whether she was discouraged because after decades of caring for the dying and destitute in Calcutta little seemed to have changed. She replied, “No. God doesn’t call me to be successful. God calls me to be faithful.”

History will decide whether George W. Bush was a successful President. But he was faithful. He had a charge to keep and he kept it.

Read the full article here.

First, was the controversial decision taken with bipartisan support? Second, were there precedents for such action in prior Democratic administrations? Third, will such polices continue under the newly elected Obama administration? Four, have the media changed their position on the issue since the November election?

If the answer is yes to these questions, then the acrimony was probably about politics and style, not principle and substance.

Hansen goes on to apply this to several issues from Iraq policy, to FISA to Guantanamo. He concludes:

Many of our unpopular policies concerning terrorism, energy and finance are of long duration. They resulted from collective decisions by Congress, past administrations — and us, the people, in our daily lives. They were no more the fault of George Bush than they can be easily be solved by Barack Obama.

We should remember that fact in 2009, when the once-messianic Obama will become all too human, as he is overwhelmed by structural problems of terror, war and money not all of his own making — and the once-demonized but now retired George Bush will seem downright competent.

Read the full story here.

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Read the full article here.

“I said, ‘You know, I’m not going to change as a person because of politics or Washington’ — that’s what I said when I left,” Bush said. “I think they appreciate that. I want them to know that, you know, even though I had to deal with a lot of tough issues, that I’m still the same person that they knew before and that, you know, I’m wiser, more experienced, but my heart and my values didn’t change.”

Read the full story here.