This is interesting, and kind of touching. Excerpt:
If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of "Dubya" nearly every day...parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.
But they've had a change of heart:
[W]e will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.FOR HOURS.
The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.
If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks...you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes...and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.
You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth.
Criticize their policies academically and intelligently and discuss the Bush presidency in historical and political terms...but you mess with the Bushes personally and, from this day forward, you'll answer to us.
Read the whole thing. I hadn't realized the Bushes did that. God bless them, that was kind and loving.
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Crustacean, someone historically illiterate enough to have never heard the common American phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" is in no position to attempt to predict America's future.
Re: It will be the last latte-liberal administration any of us will live to see. I have a feeling all the post-Obama presidencies in all of our lifetimes are going to consist -- of necessity -- of Stuff White People Don't Like.
I had not heard that Obama liked lattes. Do you have a link? Meanwhile though, I can predict with confidence that we will continue to see Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, alternating control of the White House, Congress, and the several states. Neither side is godlike in power or wisdom. Both screw up, and when they do the voters dump them like scrapings from a liter box (and well they should). Moreover the public is nothing if not fickle, blowing first this way then that way. I actually feel a lot of sympathy for Obama and the Democrats over the current healthcare debate: the public was strongly in favor of changing the system just a year ago, and the proposals now in Congress were throroughly debated in the election campaign (in the general form, not all the specifics of course). The public voted for that change, but now seems to be turning away. Governing this country must be harder than herding 300 million cats.
Jon, you’re right, not lattes, but cold, bottled ice tea. An organic tea produced by a Maryland company and sold under the brand Honest Tea, from what I remember reading last year during the campaign. I think he also likes the same company’s non-caffeinated Black Forest Berry flavored drink. I’ve seen the Honest Tea line at Whole Foods, had some a few times, myself.
You make a good point about the Presidency. Conditions can change greatly from when one starts campaigning (often 18 months before an election) to when one takes office. Look at Bush, who argued against nation building during the 2000 campaign and couldn't remember Musharraf's name when asked but ended up spending a lot of blood and treasure in Iraq and worrying about Pakistan. Or Clinton, who said in 1992 he was going to focus like a laser on jobs and the economy and health care, but ended up grappling with Bosnia abroad and the government shut down, the reduction of welfare programs, balancing the budget, and a number of issues other than health care at home. Or Reagan, who ran on traditional conservative principles such as low taxes but had to raise taxes several times between 1982 and 1985. He griped in his diary that he didn’t necessarily want to do it, but he did sign the legislation that led to the increases (including a rise in the Social Security tax rate) because he understood that that was what was needed for the economy at the time.
Charles Blow observes today in the New York Times that Eric “Cantor is also right that the people want change — still. They trusted Democrats to deliver. The Democrats haven’t, not yet at least, and pleas for patience come at a price. If voters’ thirst remains unsated, they will change politicians until politicians change policies.”
During the darker days of the Iraq conflict, BEFORE WE WON DECISIVELY, Petraeus was facing opposition to his plans from the joint chiefs in the military, who wanted to do things their way, not the way Petraeus and the President wanted.
Bush sent a message back channel reassuring Petraeus that no polls or opposition would cause the president to fail to give him absolute support. He was absolutely true to his word.
Whatever lack of conservatism that Bush displayed, and his tolerance of excess government and spending, I will never fault his incredible commitment and loyalty to those who worked under him. Such is rare today. Bush never threw anyone under the bus. He took the heat himself, rather than pass it down.
A former president said "The buck stops here", and Bush kept that, as well.
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Except the CIA. And every service man and woman who served in uniform. Seriously, the man has taken absolutely NO responsibility for any of his transgressions while in office. Nothing.
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