Posted on 04/26/2013 11:31:16 AM PDT by yoe
Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a fellow reporter who’d covered President George W. Bush all eight years told me she’d had enough of the travel and stress and strain of the White House beat, that she was moving on.
Just before we said our goodbyes, I asked her if she’d miss covering President Obama.
“Not at all. He’s an inch deep. Bush is a bottomless chasm, a deep, mysterious, emotional, profound man. Obama is all surface — shallow, obvious, robotic, and, frankly, not nearly as smart as he thinks. Bush was the one.”
Her words, so succinct, have stuck with me ever since. By the way, she’s a hardcore Democrat.
But she was right. And that contrast was apparent to all who watched Thursday’s ceremonial event to open W’s new presidential library in Dallas. The class and grace and depth of America’s last president completely outshined that of his successor (who, coincidentally, or perhaps not, was the only one seated in the shade on a sunny Texas day).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
G.W. Bush = class. Barack and Bill (class - cl) = - - -well you get the point.
Maybe the bloom really is off the rose.
Except it’s not. Especially not this president. He has made his presidency about dividing America — along lines of class, sex, race, sexuality, you name it. Successful people are “the rich who need to pay their fair share.” Last week, he had a name for elected lawmakers who opposed his new gun laws — “liars.” And more than any president before him, he has set out to destroy the other party, casting Republicans as out of touch, archaic, maybe even racist.
Washington, not New York Times...
Granted, but not much less liberal, I don't think.
Mark Levin has been in W’s presence a couple of times. While outlining his many disagreements with some of his presidential decisions/policies, Levin always adds that GWB is a very profound, very nice man. (One in which you joy at being in his presence - my summation)
This, coming from a take-no-prisoners talk host, who keeps telling Jeb and any other Bushes out there to get lost.
Proves this writer’s point.
It is very different from the New York Times. You must be thinking of the Washington Post. This is very different from that newspaper as well.
Granting the benefit of the doubt, I will assume you haven't read the Washington Times.
It must have killed our Attention Whore in Chief that someone else had the limelight that day.
I so miss that guy. Warts and all.
One of my son’s employees was working at the GWB Library last year when President Bush came in. He stopped and talked to the lowly construction worker for a good 20 minutes, something that man will never forget. Can you imagine either Obama or Clinton ever doing that?
I am a fan of Dubyas and have been since he gave me a big grin at Hartford airport when I told him to kick Gore’s ass. But he also deeply disappointed me with his refusal to fight these bastards at their own level. I sometimes wish he had grown up in my neighborhood and learned that in a street fight there is a winner and a loser no matter what rules you follow.
A big fan myself.
Many of us will remember Candidate George W. Bush when, during a debate, in response to a question about his "favorite political philosopher," he answered, "Jesus Christ, because he changed my heart."
Oh, the pseudointellectuals on the Left and in the media had a field day in commenting on what they perceived to be ignorance and naivete.
By opening their mouths to criticize him, they actually opened a window to their minds which allowed a view into their own ignorance and lack of intellectual depth. As a matter of fact, by that statement, George W. Bush, perhaps unwittingly, put himself in extremely good company when he identified the philosophy of Jesus in such a manner.
Clearly, not one of his critics possessed sufficient knowledge of American history to realize that a former President who ranks high on the list of truly "intellectual" Americans wrote about his own strong admiration for the same "philosopher"--Jesus--whose "system" Jefferson deemed to be the "most correct of all the philosophers." That man was no less than Thomas Jefferson.
At an April 29, 1962, dinner honoring 49 Nobel Laureates, John F. Kennedy quipped, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." - (Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, 1988, from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 347).
Anyway, of Jesus, Jefferson wrote that Jesus "preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence," that "a system of morals is presented to us [by Jesus], which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man."
He stated, "His moral doctrines...were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers...and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants, and common aids," which, Jefferson said, "will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others."
The inspiring words of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" are declaratory and beautiful, because they remind us of the "transfiguring" power of that One whom the Republic's First President, George Washington, called "the Divine Author of our blessed Religion." Quoted here are the closing paragraphs of Washington's "Circular Letter to States" on June 8, 1783, as he retires to private life:
". . . I beg it may be understood, that as I have ever taken a pleasure in gratefully acknowledging the assistance and support I have derived from every Class of Citizens, so shall I always be happy to do justice to the unparalleled exertion of the individual States, on many interesting occasions.
"I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my Public trust to those who committed it to me, the task is now accomplished, I now bid adieu to your Excellency as the Chief Magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of Office, and all the employments of public life.
"It remains then to be my final and only request, that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your Legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered as the Legacy of One, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his Country, and who, even in the shade of Retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction upon it.
"I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation."
It seems that "in the shade of Retirement," George W. Bush intends, as did George Washington, to "not fail to implore the divine intervention" upon the country he loves.
Bush’s big problem was that he never defended himself from any attacks, whether from the left or the right. There were many people here whose BDS was as strong as that of anybody on the left.
I think that there has been no president more opposed and attacked. I don’t know why. Overall, he did a very good job and actually seemed to have a theory and ethic of governance. I disagreed with him only on the “religion of peace” bit, but that was really nothing but another example of his inability to defend himself. I remember when he changed the name of the post-9/11 response to “Enduring Freedom” or something of that nature because the Muslims complained when he called it “Infinite Justice.”
If only he had defended himself and his policies more aggressively!
W — always a class act. God bless him.
He needn't take a stand one way or the other. But they are valid issues; there are questions, are there not?
Strange the silence of the Right Wing Radio Hosts, including Glenn Beck, on the issues. Imagine if Rush Limbaugh himself said, "Well yeah, these are questions the courts really ought to look at, as well as State Attorneys general."
A good man who somehow harmed the cause of Constitutional Government, and whose actual legacy is Barack Hussein Obama, II, (or Jr., as the case may be).
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