Americans Appreciate Bush

I'm a nonpartisan pollster, but I'm also a columnist with a strong Republican background. So let me be clear right from the start: I believe President Barack Obama and his national security team performed admirably in the near-flawless effort to capture and kill Osama bin Laden.

It's disingenuous and just plain silly for anyone to say otherwise just because the president is a Democrat or because they disagree with his other policies. The snuffing out of the world's top terrorist demonstrated the power and determination of America and its leaders.

A poll we conducted just after the announcement of bin Laden's demise showed a modest upward bump in approval ratings for the president. I expect these numbers to keep inching up over the coming weeks.

But another name has been connected with the Navy SEALs raid in Pakistan, if perhaps in the background -- George W. Bush. He left office with not the best of popularity ratings. But according to the poll just mentioned, Bush, too, is greatly appreciated by the American people for the policies he put in place that led to bin Laden's abrupt end.

In our nationwide survey of 1,735 registered voters, 65 percent of Americans said that Bush's policies contributed to bin Laden's capture. Amazingly, 48 percent of Democrats felt the same. And among all age groups, a majority gave the ex-president his due for the manhunt that ended so successfully last weekend.

To me, it's both interesting and praiseworthy that Obama referenced George Bush in his national address after the killing of bin Laden. The president was also gracious enough to invite Bush to a celebration at Ground Zero. (Bush politely declined.)

The fact is that when momentous events happen, the old cliche about all of us first being Americans becomes true. For once, our partisan views take a back seat.

That doesn't mean Obama hasn't made huge mistakes -- including, in my mind, a stimulus package that only stimulated the nation's debt and the creation of reams more of bureaucratic red tape that have had the net effect of making life more difficult for most of us.

That aside, we now may well be witnessing the maturation of a president. Looking at the photographs in the situation room, as the president and his advisors watched the bin Laden mission in real time on video, one can't help but notice the similarities to John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here was a president -- maligned by many -- making historic, and historically good, snap decisions.

During all this, somewhere in Texas was the man who endured nearly eight years of fighting against the savage, relentless al-Qaida. While Obama and his team finally breathed relief, George W. Bush likely was receiving word of bin Laden's capture and killing.

I believe that Bush contributed to the massive federal debt that now weighs down America. And sometimes his style of leadership seemed hard to understand.

As readers may recall, Bush got me pretty good when I wrote a column in praise of then-first lady Laura Bush just before Bush left office. A handwritten letter was sent to me. In it, Bush thanked me for complimenting his wife. But he also made it politely clear that, contrary to what I had suggested in the same column, he indeed did read newspaper columns. I mention this because I believe many people have done what I did in that column: underestimate Bush as president.

Who can forget the image of Bush standing atop the rubble of New York's Twin Towers after 9/11? He stood with a fireman, sleeves rolled up, and said in no uncertain terms that those who had perpetrated that evil on America would get what was coming to them.

In an important sense, I view Bush's pointed promise and Obama's resolute fulfillment of it as two bookends in American history. This week, I don't feel like a Republican, a Democrat or an independent. I feel like an American.

Will this capture and killing of bin Laden assure re-election for Obama? Both the polling numbers and my own gut tell me no. Our economy remains weak, and a vast majority of our poll respondents believe that we may yet be the victims of retaliation by our terrorist foes.

But for the moment, we must recognize that Bush and Obama finally got their man. Anyone -- Republican, conservative or anyone else -- who attempts to deny Obama his due credit is only spiking the celebratory champagne with sour grapes.

(my election night rant still stands)

Let’s review just a few of the Democrat Party tactics: They spent the first four years calling President Bush “illegitimate”, grown men and women in Congress (and the MSM) told Americans everyday that this President STOLE an election, they deliberately fostered hate and fear, knowing it was a lie. Nancy spent the last four years saying nothing but “failure, failure, failure.” It got to the point where Ring Around The Collar was Bush’s fault. She, Obama, and Harry Reid declared the Iraq war LOST, all to score political points and turn Iraq into another Vietnam that the Democrats could run against for another 30 years.

They stole our troops honor in death, and stole their victories. The entire Valerie Plame “scandal” was made up out of whole cloth by the Kerry campaign, in conjunction with David Corn. It planted the “Bush lied” meme that Democrats rode all the way through the 2006 elections. Then they pulled the Dan Rather bull with the fake TANG memos to try to nail George W. Bush. Ray Nagin refused to call a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, left 200 school buses unused, and made no contingency plans for getting people out of the Superdome or the Convention Center after Katrina. But Reid was right there to blame Bush.

No terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11. But all the Dems says is “we are not safer” and the media laps it up. Not to mention that after 9/11 ....SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON HOLDING UP A FRONT PAGE OF A NEWSPAPER, ON THE UNITED STATES SENATE FLOOR...SAYING BUSH KNEW! They started websites, made movies, wore T-shirts, ran protests with hanging effigies and Hitler photo shops constantly in order to destroy the President and the Vice President of the United States.

Now they have foisted an anti-American President on us...who sat in an anti-American racist church with his children for 20 years, and a man who has friends in the WeatherUnderground. This political party proved they will lie, fabricate documents, and try to lose a war in order to gain power.

There is nothing easier than telling the guy you just beat that he should forget the depths you plumbed to do so. We remember “Jesusland”. And if you have a few hours, scroll through Malkin’s “Bush Derangement Syndrome” archive. We remember everything - being called racist warmongers, & Christianist nutbags.

They spent the last eight years engaged in a disgusting orgy of divisive political hatred. When we asked them to unite for the country it was in the course of a shooting war with an enemy who would like to kill us all. They told us to stuff it.

This goes deep and hot and I will not yield on this one. Jonah Goldberg wrote on NRO that the Democrats have spent the last eight years blackmailing the country: give us power or we will destroy America. We’ll stab the troops in the back, leak classified intelligence, block George Bush at every turn, loudly protest and bring things to a halt, do our best to drive the economy into the ground and make this country a smoldering ruin until you let us win.

I will laugh at every stumble Hussein makes, applaud his mistakes and cheer his enemies. I want him to spend the next four years cowering in a corner while our economy crashes and burns and our enemies kick his bony arse. I want him to leave office a broken man. And I want every disloyal American who voted for him to share his pain. These rotten bastards poisoned the well for the last eight years, and I want them to choke on it now. *No* bipartisanship, *no *compromise, *no* surrender *

We must create doubt. Question his judgment. Support his opponents. Ridicule his errors. Mitigate his successes with suggestion of unintended consequences. Refuse to praise his work. Challenge his advocates when they advocate; don’t let them own the conversation. Speak to personal liberty; it’s fertile ground.

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