Posted on 09/28/2011 7:40:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
As time passes, and the distance between George W. Bush’s presidency and the present grows, we can gauge his biggest decisions and his fortitude with greater circumspection. And the deeper understanding that comes through time helps us see that many of the decisions that elicited the most outrage while he was in office have proven, with time, to be some of his best.
Moreover, from the perspective of the highly secularized administration occupying the presidency today, it’s surreal to reflect on how important President Bush’s faith was to him and to those around him. As well as how focused and tenacious that faith made him once the role of “war president” was thrust on his shoulders one cloudless September day.
All these things and more were brought to the forefront of my mind as I recently read a book by my friend Timothy S. Goeglein, titled “The Man in the Middle: An Insider Account of Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era” (released September 15, 2011). Because Tim served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Bush administration for nearly eight years, he saw the president from an angle untainted by the mainstream media’s reports, the Democrat’s attacks, and our jihad-driven enemy’s propaganda.
In sum, “The Man in the Middle” is a narrative of the Bush presidency interwoven in an often autobiographical work that retraces the path that led Tim into politics, eventually bringing him to Bush’s 2000 campaign and then on to the White House itself.
The autobiographical portions are very important, for they demonstrate how well suited Tim was to write this book, based on the totality of his reading, his mentors, and his dedication to his wife and two sons. And of course his experiences in the White House put him in the perfect place to write a book that provides the reader “a personal portrait” of President Bush, written “by a friend” and “White House insider who was on the outer ring,” yet who was “on occasion…honored to pray with the president.”
Throughout the book, Tim brings to mind the prescient moments of the Bush presidency (and our nation’s history) His account of the 9/11 attacks from the perspective of one who was in DC that day and who had to travel past the smoldering Pentagon to return to his Northern Virginia home that evening, will give every reader pause. His description of people huddled in the streets of DC, praying for our country as the news of the attacks unfolded, is moving to the say the least. Then he turns his pen to President Bush, whom we remember now as the one who bravely stood when so many others fearfully sat. From Afghanistan to Iraq, Tim presents Bush as a man who made hard decisions with prayer, reflection, and consultation, and who, upon making such decisions, never looked back.
Tim writes that Bush “was a reluctant war president,” but that once in war, “he became one of our country’s most effective war presidents.” He makes this point again and again emphatically by reminding the reader that while Bush fought off attacks from jihadists across the sea, here at home he was regularly being attacked by Democrats who sought to weaken or stop the war effort. An example of the latter, which he remembers vividly, took place in April 2007 when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asserted the Iraq surge was “not accomplishing anything” and that “the war is lost.”
Wrote Tim:
Another president in another time may have buckled from the pressure or tried to find a political solution. Another president may have caved or become preoccupied with public opinion polls. President Bush did none of these things because he knew the mission was the right mission for the future of our freedom and security. …The surge was won because President Bush made the right decisions at the right time. It took courage—mental, spiritual courage—to make that decision and not to back down when huge numbers of the American and international political and pundit classes were pounding him every day, demanding retreat.
Tim also brings to mind Bush’s fight for the sanctity of marriage and the dignity of life. In reading these pages, the reader faces that fact that it wasn’t that long ago that the occupant of the White House supported the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), refused federal monies for organizations that supported abortion, and who opposed new embryo destruction for research purposes on the grounds that destroying life to save life was essentially anti-life. I read these accounts with the sad knowledge that the Obama administration has pushed for a complete reversal of these policy positions. In fact, the contrast between the Bush administration and the current one is literally that of life and death.
Perhaps the most fitting thing to do in closing is to highlight that which Tim highlights throughout so many portions of the book: namely, the faith of President Bush. From a campaign trail speech in December 1999, where a questioner asked Bush to name his favorite philosopher and Bush answered, “Christ, because He changed my heart,” to numerous episodes throughout his presidency, the reader is confronted (and comforted) by the fact that Bush’s faith was genuine. Tim relays one story where “a famous American” walked into the Oval Office and “with barely a pause” looked at the President and asked if he “believed in the literal six-day creation of the world.” In response Bush smiled, admitted the ongoing debate over the timeline of creation, and then, instead of cowering down, said: “Let me tell you what I am confident of; I am confident that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for my sins on the cross, that He rose on Easter Sunday. That is what I believe.”
In “The Man in the Middle,” Tim Goeglein has a given us a book that highlights the faith, courage, morality, and steadfastness of President George W. Bush. Before reading this book, I missed President Bush. After reading this book, I miss him more and more.
Bump for later reading...
I was just having a talk today with the Creator about how Christians are treated as freaks and idiots by the elite....I suggested that God do something about it.
Do something about it?
Why? - it is as God said it would be.
They hate you as they hated me, Christ told his followers, but if you were of this world they would love you.
He was a good President...He IS a good man. I’m thankful that he was in office on 9/11.
God Bless President Bush
He already did.
John 16:33
Do something about it to have the pendulum swing the other way. It is really hard putting one foot in front of the other these days.
People are getting fired from government jobs because they are Christian. Muslims are protected.
So yeah, lighten things up for your sons and daughters, God, please.
“In this world you face persecution. But take courage I have conquered the world.”
Satan has been attacking my family and me for four years. It is harrowing. Lord please deliver us through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Perhaps we should stop sending gentle souls to certain slaughter by the MSM and liberal lynch mobs.
The pseudo-scientists in the MSM and Democrat enclaves may have met their match with Herman Cain.
He is a brilliant educated man - fully armed with experience, humor and common sense. A deadly force against enemies, foreign and domestic.
No, He doesn’t need my insight at all, but He does want us to talk to Him. I am fasting too. Don’t know what else to do.
Not saying how you should pray - but I find the most effective prayers I have ever said have been those where I asked God, not to change the world, but to change ME.
Please God give me the strength to bear the load you have given me - the insight to accept your plan for me - and the wisdom to know that an eternal reward in the next life is what is set aside for me.
Remember, we’re aliens. Why expect to be treated any differently?
Well, that is a lovely prayer and believe me, I have said to Him, if there is anything in me that needs to be cleaned out or up, please change it. Take the log out of my eye.
Aliens and outcasts, true. Doesn’t necessarily make it easier knowing that
Why is Bush is the man in the middle? Because his presidency came between those of two amoral narcissistic scoundrels?
I have heard clinton's reign referred to as sex between the bushes...
Cain is an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10. He has a BA in mathematics and an MS in computer science.
Cain is the real deal. Where do I sign up for duty?
check out justsaynomore to get added to the ping list.
“He was a good President...He IS a good man. I’m thankful that he was in office on 9/11. God Bless President Bush.”
I shudder to think about what would have happened in subsequent months and years had Al Gore been POTUS on 9/11. I think there should be little doubt that 9/11 and worse would have been perpetrated repeatedly, with little or no response by the USA. I’ve said before, God was watching over us with GWB in office.
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