"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish others." Mark Twain
Support for Bush is non-existent among liberals and weak among many Conservatives. I've had to endure "so-called" Conservative blogs that have Ron Paul videos on them comparing Bush to Hitler, the Townhall cartoon page being full of Conservative cartoonists making fun of Bush and numerous abandonments of Bush over immigration. As I've taken all of this in I've been stubborn in my support for Bush. I may not agree with him on all the issues but he has done
too many awesome things during his Presidency to deserve the treatment that he now receives.
Through all of this the list of names I have been called is endless. I have been called a whore, an idiot and gotten a death wish all for my support of Bush. I realize its a very unpopular view to take right now, that doesn't make it any less right. So when I stumbled upon Bill Kristol's latest column in the Washington Post, entitled,
Why Bush Will Be a Winner, it was nice to see someone else seeing the bigger picture.
My take has always been that history will view George W. Bush much more favorably than the polls do now and that is exactly what Kristol points out. Here are his 3 main points that he spends the whole article backing up:
"First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil -- not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy -- also something that wasn't inevitable.
And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where -- despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless "benchmark" report last week -- we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome."
An excerpt on the economy:"After the bursting of the dot-com bubble, followed by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we've had more than five years of steady growth, low unemployment and a stock market recovery. Did this just happen? No. Bush pushed through the tax cuts of 2001 and especially 2003 by arguing that they would produce growth. His opponents predicted dire consequences. But the president was overwhelmingly right. Even the budget deficit, the most universally criticized consequence of the tax cuts, is coming down and is lower than it was when the 2003 supply-side tax cuts were passed."
The Supreme Court Justices:"Meanwhile, 2005-06 saw the confirmation of two Supreme Court nominees, John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Your judgment of these two appointments will depend on your general view of the courts and the Constitution. But even if you're a judicial progressive, you have to admit that Roberts and Alito are impressive judges (well, you don't have to admit it -- but deep down, you know it). And if you're a conservative constitutionalist, putting Roberts and Alito on the court constitutes a huge accomplishment."
Terrorism:"What about terrorism? Apart from Iraq, there has been less of it, here and abroad, than many experts predicted on Sept. 12, 2001. So Bush and Vice President Cheney probably are doing some important things right. The war in Afghanistan has gone reasonably well."
The War in Iraq:"We are routing al-Qaeda in Iraq, we are beginning to curb the Iranian-backed sectarian Shiite militias and we are increasingly able to protect more of the Iraqi population.
If we sustain the surge for a year and continue to train Iraqi troops effectively, we can probably begin to draw down in mid- to late 2008. The fact is that military progress on the ground in Iraq in the past few months has been greater than even surge proponents like me expected, and political progress is beginning to follow. Iran is a problem, and we will have to do more to curb Tehran's meddling -- but we can. So if we keep our nerve here at home, we have a good shot at achieving a real, though messy, victory in Iraq."
The odds on the Future:"The truly successful American presidents tend to find vindication in, and guarantee an extension of their policies through, the election of a successor from their own party. Can Bush hand the presidency off to a Republican who will (broadly) continue along the path of his post-9/11 foreign policy, nominate judges who solidify a Roberts-Alito court, make his tax cuts permanent and the like?
Sure. Even at Bush's current low point in popularity, the leading GOP presidential candidates are competitive in the polls with Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Furthermore, one great advantage of the current partisan squabbling in Washington is that while it hurts Bush, it also damages the popularity of the Democratic Congress-- where both Clinton and Obama serve. A little mutual assured destruction between the Bush administration and Congress could leave the Republican nominee, who will most likely have no affiliation with either, in decent shape.
And what happens when voters realize in November 2008 that, if they choose a Democrat for president, they'll also get a Democratic Congress and therefore liberal Supreme Court justices? Many Americans will recoil from the prospect of being governed by an unchecked triumvirate of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. So the chances of a Republican winning the presidency in 2008 aren't bad.
What it comes down to is this: If Petraeus succeeds in Iraq, and a Republican wins in 2008, Bush will be viewed as a successful president.
I like the odds."
Kudos to Bill Kristol, for risking the vitriol he will surely receive from both the left and the right. Kudos also to 2 great bloggers that I've recently added to my blogroll who brought my attention to Kristol's column--Burkean Reflections and The Oxford Medievalist. Also,
Mike,
Shane and
Marie have great posts on the "Surge Report" that came out recently. And Wordsmith has an
excellent post on Iraq and those who suffer from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome).
Others blogging:Flopping AcesOther related columns:Bush Will Stand the Test of Time--Donald Lambro
