Posted on 03/08/2007 10:38:05 AM PST by SmithL
"It was an intimate affair," one of the attendees wrote. "The historian Andrew Roberts and I had to squeeze our chairs together to allow the vice-president, Dick Cheney, to pull his up to the table."
The occasion was a book club-cum-luncheon last week at the White House thrown by President Bush, with conservative intellectuals, including Gertrude Himmelfarb, Norman Podhoretz and Michael Novak, among others, in attendance, and the guest of honor, Roberts, the author most recently of 'A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.'
Writing in The Times of London, Irwin Stelzer, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, records:
The president divulged with convincing calm that when it comes to pressure, "I just don't feel any." Why? His constituency, he feels, is the divine presence, to whom he must answer. Don't misunderstand: God didn't tell him to put troops in harm's way in Iraq; his belief only goes so far as to inform him that there is good and evil. It is the president who must figure out how to promote the former and destroy the latter. And he is confident that his policies are doing just that.
More elaboration on the role of the divine reportedly came up when the talk turned to Winston Churchill, according to a "reliable source with access to the conversation," quoted by former Clinton communications director Sidney Blumenthal, in Salon.
The president confided to Roberts that he believes he has an advantage over Churchill ... He has faith in God, Bush explained, but Churchill, an agnostic, did not. Because he believes in God, it is easier for him...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Amen!
May God ever guide him.
May our prayers contribute to such.
This is an excerpt, but the entire piece is worth reading. Ross shares the San Francisco values of disliking the Bush, but he includes Roberts' outstanding advice to the President.
I did notice that the picture of Bush accompany the article shows a reflection in his glasses that he is reading Penthouse. I wonder if it is a doctored pic? (sarcasm)
May the lord guide him and our Nation to victory, and may the lords divine blessings sweep the lands and peoples of the world.
I like this guy, Andrew Roberts, all ready. I will have to go buy some of his books.
AREED. I thought these points were excellent--though also the first one of setting no withdrawl date.
2nd: WILL to fight and survive overcomes plentiful resources. He cited the Romans falling etc.
3rd: Keep the enemy locked up a long time. Worked in Ireland and WWII. Let em out only after we win.
4th: Hold on to the alliance of English speaking peoples. I might say--those of the Judeo/Christian construction on reality. They are doing the greatest part of the work in the wars
5th The Islamists cannot be placated. Otherwise, the French would have accomplished that given their vast expertise in placating.
We are his prayer warriors trying to shield him from this never ending evil.
What an outstanding president we have. His faith in God is what has enabled him to stand strong against all the garbage flung daily at him by the democrat party. I think this speaks well for the president, and extremely well for God.
Amen!
Is it possible to get a printable copy without the doctored photo?
The doctored photo with penthouse on the lenses is outrageous.
If there were any doubt about bias, there it is in plain view.
MUCH AGREE WITH YOU BOTH.
Just so, OldFriend.
Even on FR.
Good article thanks.
I DO like Roberts' advice..and I hope Pres. Bush does as well.
We are his prayer warriors...thank you for reminding us.
PING
Read the ORIGINAL article describing this meeting:
READER OF THE FREE WORLD
A literary luncheon with the president.
by Irwin M. Stelzer
03/12/2007, Volume 012, Issue 25
Anyone who thinks President George W. Bush is spending sleepless nights worrying about the machinations of the Democratic Congress, or figuring out how a lame duck president can limp from the political battlefield with honor intact, had better think again. And anyone who likes to regale his friends with references to that illiterate cowboy in the White House is due for some considerable embarrassment when the nonpartisan studies of the Bush years begin to hit the bookshops.
Those are two of the conclusions I reached watching the president in action at a luncheon--more accurately, a seminar--he convened last week to discuss the most recent of the many histories he has read, Andrew Roberts's splendid History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a tome that picks up where Winston Churchill's four volumes on the subject left off. Among those joining the president and Roberts at last week's White House lunch were the distinguished Victorian historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, neocon intellectual Norman Podhoretz, Paul Gigot, editor of the Wall Street Journal's influential editorial page, theologian Michael Novak, and a smattering of journalists
You can read the rest of this enlightening article here:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/366yferd.asp?pg=1
This is the author/book referenced in the article:
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0060875984/ref=s9_asin_image_1/105-0169855-9226807
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