Bush's Tenacity
Great column by Dinesh D'Souza regarding Bush's tenacity and what he'll be remembered for:
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt
Listening to the fatuous Al Gore claim his undeserved Nobel Prize and maunder on about how America is ruining the planet makes me realize how fortunate America is to have as its president George W. Bush. Yes, Bush has his ample share of failings. He occasionally speaks at the fifth-grade level. He is too willing to surround himself with cronies and sycophants. An unsupple man, Bush sometimes reminds me of the toy soldier who walks into the wall and keeps going.
Yes, we all have problems with some decisions Bush has made. For many, if not most, conservatives, it has been his willingness to overspend. However, as D'Souza points out, he more than makes up for that.
Bush's weaknesses, however, are more than compensated for by his one great strength. This is a man with unbelievable tenacity. No American president in my lifetime, not even Reagan, had Bush's guts. Perhaps one would have to go all the way back to Franklin or Teddy Roosevelt to find comparable determination. On the international stage, Bush's stamina recalls that of Churchill. Consider: when Bush was elected in 2000 with the tiniest conceivable margin--a margin so slender it required Supreme Court intervention to place him in the Oval Office--I was sure that Bush's proposed tax cuts were dead. But no: Bush pushed ahead and got most of what he proposed. And the subsequent health of the economy--low interest rates, low unemployment, steady growth--has undoubtedly been nourished by Bush's tax cuts.
When Bush believes in something, really believes in it, he doesn't give up until he gets it. The above is pretty amazing, but even more amazing has been this:
Then in 2006, after the midterm debacle, I thought that Bush's Iraq policy was finished. And you could hear the pundits and the newly-elected Democratic congressmen and the pathological Bush-haters gleefully declaring, "Now he's going to have to start pulling out of Iraq." Instead Bush pressed for an increase of 20,000-25,000 troops. Incredibly, he got it. Congress shrieked and howled but went along. The American people were very doubtful, but Bush serenely told them to "wait and see." Bush has seemingly singe-handedly pursued his vision for Iraq even when his allies both at home and abroad have dwindled or lost their nerve. And once again Bush's policy seems to be working. Iraq is becoming more peaceful, and apparently there are Shia and Sunni leaders cooperating with the Americans. The Bush-haters are still with us, but the wind has gone out of the antiwar movement.
After the mid-terms last year, everyone had pretty much written Bush off. It was nothing short of amazingly gutsy to forge ahead with the surge in the face of everyone saying that the mid-terms were a mandate for us to get OUT of Iraq, and here is Bush proposing sending MORE...ad GETTING it! He has never wavered in his resolve to protect America.
This kind of tenacity and character is, unfortunately, very rare in politics these days. The Democrats are hopelessly addicted to power at any cost, and we have some timid Republicans who know what the right thing to do is, but waver when the rubber meets the road. Perhaps some will learn from Bush's defiance in the face of the naysayers who do not believe in this country's greatness. We can only hope.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt
Listening to the fatuous Al Gore claim his undeserved Nobel Prize and maunder on about how America is ruining the planet makes me realize how fortunate America is to have as its president George W. Bush. Yes, Bush has his ample share of failings. He occasionally speaks at the fifth-grade level. He is too willing to surround himself with cronies and sycophants. An unsupple man, Bush sometimes reminds me of the toy soldier who walks into the wall and keeps going.
Yes, we all have problems with some decisions Bush has made. For many, if not most, conservatives, it has been his willingness to overspend. However, as D'Souza points out, he more than makes up for that.
Bush's weaknesses, however, are more than compensated for by his one great strength. This is a man with unbelievable tenacity. No American president in my lifetime, not even Reagan, had Bush's guts. Perhaps one would have to go all the way back to Franklin or Teddy Roosevelt to find comparable determination. On the international stage, Bush's stamina recalls that of Churchill. Consider: when Bush was elected in 2000 with the tiniest conceivable margin--a margin so slender it required Supreme Court intervention to place him in the Oval Office--I was sure that Bush's proposed tax cuts were dead. But no: Bush pushed ahead and got most of what he proposed. And the subsequent health of the economy--low interest rates, low unemployment, steady growth--has undoubtedly been nourished by Bush's tax cuts.
When Bush believes in something, really believes in it, he doesn't give up until he gets it. The above is pretty amazing, but even more amazing has been this:
Then in 2006, after the midterm debacle, I thought that Bush's Iraq policy was finished. And you could hear the pundits and the newly-elected Democratic congressmen and the pathological Bush-haters gleefully declaring, "Now he's going to have to start pulling out of Iraq." Instead Bush pressed for an increase of 20,000-25,000 troops. Incredibly, he got it. Congress shrieked and howled but went along. The American people were very doubtful, but Bush serenely told them to "wait and see." Bush has seemingly singe-handedly pursued his vision for Iraq even when his allies both at home and abroad have dwindled or lost their nerve. And once again Bush's policy seems to be working. Iraq is becoming more peaceful, and apparently there are Shia and Sunni leaders cooperating with the Americans. The Bush-haters are still with us, but the wind has gone out of the antiwar movement.
After the mid-terms last year, everyone had pretty much written Bush off. It was nothing short of amazingly gutsy to forge ahead with the surge in the face of everyone saying that the mid-terms were a mandate for us to get OUT of Iraq, and here is Bush proposing sending MORE...ad GETTING it! He has never wavered in his resolve to protect America.
This kind of tenacity and character is, unfortunately, very rare in politics these days. The Democrats are hopelessly addicted to power at any cost, and we have some timid Republicans who know what the right thing to do is, but waver when the rubber meets the road. Perhaps some will learn from Bush's defiance in the face of the naysayers who do not believe in this country's greatness. We can only hope.
posted by Jennifer at 1:19 AM
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