Bush Over Truman (Still a hero after all these years)

TownHall.com ^ | 6/19/08 | By Emmett Tyrrell

[JohnHuang2]

The stature and repute of our public figures are shaped, as I have written before, by this thing called Kultursmog . It is our political culture, a kultur utterly polluted by politics, left-liberal politics. For instance, it renders the Clintons, as reporter John F. Harris hymned in a recent hagiography, "the two most important political figures of their generation." Continues...

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Still a hero after all these years

Anyone who has been following the MSM for the past eight years and has had nothing but the MSM to go by might be forgiven for believing Bush to be some bungling nincompoop, doomed for the top spot on the list in history's category of failed presidencies -- if not just a footnote, his two terms better forgotten than remembered. Never has so vanishingly little been made about as trailblazing and consequential a leader as President George W. Bush.

For a guy routinely written off as some irrelevant lame duck limping along in the waning days of his presidency, Bush sure has a funny way of showing it. Left for dead after the Democrats' '06 election victory, the President adamantly refused to say die. Plans to steamroll Bush on Iraq were meticulously laid by Pelosi et al, but Bush steamrolled the steamrollers instead. Grabbing a bullhorn, Bush announced a troop surge and dared Congress to stop him. Liberals shook their fists in anger, held hearings, threatened to cut off funding, held still more hearings, threatened to slow-bleed the troops, but Bush called their bluff and he won.

They misunderestimated him, for Bush is like few politicians -- brutally telling it like it is, saying exactly what he thinks, just as he sees it, while waving off the polls and the poll-obsessed media with a chuckle. Agree or disagree, you always know where this President stands on an issue.

Bush is also like few politicians in another respect -- class. The man embodies dignity, elegance and decorum. Despite the continuous discharge of attacks against him and his good name, Bush has never responded in kind. He plays the hand he's been dealt, doing so with unsurpassed class and grace as only he can, never whining, never complaining, never allowing any grudge to fester as he goes about his business, carrying out the most stressful job in the world with unrivaled confidence and optimism, unswayed by the fickle wind of public opinion.

Most politicians instinctively go for the easy road -- marking time, cutting deals, no heavy lifting, don't offend anyone and ride those Rocky Mountain high approval ratings to the finish. But Bush doesn't do Easy Road. If marking time and sitting out the big decisions means good ratings, that's a trade-off Bush wasn't going to make. From the get-go, Bush grasped the basic meaning of 9/11, that this is war, and wars aren't won with indictments or subpoenas, nor by leafing through Noam Chomsky. In Afghanistan, Bush made quick work of the Taliban, confounding the armchair strategists and every brutal Afghan winter scenario, then, against the wishes of the New York Times, knocked Saddam off his gold toilet seat and down the gallows trap door. Bush never flinched.

Seven years after leaving a hole in Manhattan, al-Qaeda has been rendered so diminished, Obama seems to think it's just some Chicago gang that Bush didn't read its Miranda rights to. Liberals frantically insist that all is well with al-Qaeda -- a few setbacks here and there, but the lads soldier on. Yet, for all the happy talk, sources indicate there hasn't been a terrorist attack on the homeland since 9/11. Seven years without another blow on U.S. soil, so Obama is nagging that captured enemy combatants weren't getting their own free lawyer. First they came for the innocent shepherd Khlaid Sheikh Mohammed and I said nothing . . .

If Truman laid the Cold War victory's foundation (followed up by Reagan actually winning the Cold War), Bush is doing, foreign policy-wise, something as big and transformative in applying the 'Drain the Swamp' or 'Kill-'Em-Before-They-Kill-You' method in dealing with Muslim fanatics, as opposed to the failed 'Book-'em-and-fingerprint-'em' approach, which Obama likes, according to his teleprompter.

If al-Qaeda sought to alter the strategic equation by altering the Manhattan skyline, Bush went on to alter the strategic equation of the whole Middle East itself, with al-Qaeda losing the colossal bet it placed on lots of haggling in Washington over the fine print of the Geneva Conventions and no response beyond indictments and stern, fierce, tough, harsh and forcefully-worded U.N. paperwork. Oh, al-Qaeda got the 'lots of haggling' part to a tee, with its in-the-tank cheering fans dragging John Ashcroft before Congress which wanted to know why the 'harsh' 'outside the regular criminal justice system' military tribunals for foreign nationals trying to slaughter all of us. Ashcroft "owes the country an explanation," sniffed Pat Leahy. Warming to the theme, Bush owed al-Qaeda a major butt-kicking and they got it; Afghanistan and Iraq, gone as safe havens; tens of thousands of dead jihadis; funding sources drying up, etc.

All presidents get a second look from history, and inevitably history will give Bush his second look, but when that time comes, Bush will take his place near the top in the rankings of America's greatest presidents.

Anyway, that's...
My Two Cents...
"JohnHuang2"

[JohnHuang2]

Have a great day, y’all!

[Impy]

Bush’s domestic policy failings cannot be overlooked and keep him from even approaching what you would call greatness.

And Truman was trash. It sickens me all the GOP candidates when asked named him as their favorite 20th century rat President.

[Rummyfan]

Bush is also like few politicians in another respect -- class. The man embodies dignity, elegance and decorum. Despite the continuous discharge of attacks against him and his good name, Bush has never responded in kind. He plays the hand he's been dealt, doing so with unsurpassed class and grace as only he can, never whining, never complaining, never allowing any grudge to fester as he goes about his business, carrying out the most stressful job in the world with unrivaled confidence and optimism, unswayed by the fickle wind of public opinion.

I agree wholeheartedly - and I am going to miss the President sorely when he's gone.

[singfreedom]

Good job, John, as usual. I, too, think history is going to be a good deal more kind to Mr. G. W. Bush than we have been. His mistakes will be put in perspective.

[ClearCase_guy]

Bush's domestic policy failings are shared among many, in both parties. I did expect more from him there, but I cannot single him out as the sole cause of the problems (spending, immigration, etc.)

Where Bush has been correct has been foreign affairs and in that arena he has seemed almost alone, pushing forward in the right direction in spite of great opposition. He deserves credit for that.

[beebuster2000]

i agree history will be kind to bush. the libs already know this and are hoping to get thru the election before history starts.

[ishabibble]

Thanks, John! This one's a keeper, it's a most excellent retort to the Bush bashers here and elsewhere. People forget so easily, don't they?

[Vaquero]

Truman was trash

Any president with the cajones to nuke our enemies is a great one.

Dad was 85 when he died. If we would have attacked the Japanese mainland with troops, he would have most likely died at 24, along a good chunk of the other Marines in his group.

Granted, Truman did screw up Korea though....

[BARLF]

Thank you John.

[tanuki]

Great essay. Really sums up the strong points of the Bush II presidency.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Good one John.

As domestic policy failings I can only think of one. Failure to make Mexico a protectorate.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

The man embodies dignity, elegance and decorum.

"Good job Brownie"

"Wanted Dead or Alive"

"Hey Blair";

Angela Merkel Neck Massage

Diginity, elegance and decorum I think not.

[what's up]

I agree!

[Jabba the Nutt]

It's nice to see a rousing defense of President Bush. But (and you knew a but was coming), if Bush knew this was war, why didn't he come out with a Declaration of War? Look, Bush is better on the war, even better than John McCain, but he's still a hell of a long way from the "Victory" program for this war. And Bush has been horrible, horrible in any kind of communication about setting out the terms for this war. He apologized for telling the truth in the "sixteen words". He's allowed the 'Bush lied, people died' meme to multiply. He doesn't seem to understand Jihad.

So, saying Bush is better than most politicians on doing the hard thing, is like saying that Bob Uecker is better than most people at baseball. True, but meainingless.

[Impy]

Truman was a leftist demorat who advanced the cause of huge throbbing government and union bosses. He was also a bumpkin and product of a corrupt Kansas city machine, completely unfit for the office of Judge let alone President. That he may have handled the end of WW2 right doesn't make him great. If Clintoon had captured Bin Laden and bombed Saddam would that have made him great? Of course not. The historical mystique now surrounding Truman is revolting.

[Impy]

Oh yeah, he also let the Reds conquer Eastern Europe and told the Nationalist Chinese to give up. Great guy.

[expat_panama]

"...Bush will take his place near the top in the rankings of America's greatest presidents..."

You may be expecting too much from historians, but I hope not. 

The incessant Bush-bashing we hear on and off these threads has got to stop and the realities you've pointed out have got to be faced.

Thanks.

[expat_panama]

he also let the Reds conquer Eastern Europe and told the Nationalist Chinese to give up. Great guy.

There's lots of things that Truman can be criticized for, but being soft on Stalin and Mao isn't one of them.  

The Reds were given Eastern Europe by Roosevelt on Eisenhower's and Marshall's recommendations.  Chang Kai-shek gave China away.  Truman set up NATO, stopped Red invasions of Greece and South Korea, and set up the "Marshal Plan" --so named because it never would have gotten out with all the Truman-bashing that was so popular.  

All of this was faced by Republican opposition led by Taft.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

John, while I’d like to agree with you, I think Bush’s legacy will, unfortunately, depend upon his successor. If there isn’t continued resolution and an approach like Bush’s... if it’s cut-and-run in Iraq, then the Mid-East will return to the disaster it was when Bush began his terms and the war will have been an entire waste. And we all know who writes the first draft of history — the MSM will lay all the problems at the feet of GWB.

The Truman Doctrine was correct policy, but it required strong defenders of America to keep it going. Jimmy Carter would have surrendered if he had the time in office. Reagan’s victory in the Cold War turned Truman into the “great president” he is often credited with being.

Let’s hope that there is another Ronald Reagan in our future who will sustain and perhaps push to a conclusion the valient war on terror that George Bush initiated.