Sunday, January 18, 2009

Farewell to Bush

In the past week there have been a lot of Bush farewells. I think I've found that I've probably got nothing new to add. The Bush Thankathon at Flopping Aces and The Anchoress' Thank You, President Bush cover things very well. What I can add, I suppose, is some of the impressions I will be left with.
  • I will remember, of course, the terrorist attach on 9/11. On thing I recall is feeling a lot better to have President Bush at the helm, as opposed to a President Gore.

  • And for that matter, for the second term I am glad not to have had President Kerry.

  • For election 2004, I also remember voting in large part for SCOTUS. Roberts and Alito were justification of that vote to me.
I will mostly remember it as an era in which the mainstream media lost their collective minds. The examples of bias are legion, so much so that it is now next to impossible to even attempt to summarize how absolutely derelict 'journalists' were in their duty.

I wish Bush had discovered his veto pen much sooner, and I can't count the number of times I wish 'bipartisanship' had been flushed down the toilet. If only he could have been able to articulate conservative positions and push them in Congress. His first term utterly wasted the opportunity of a lifetime on domestic policy. But given the requisite focus on Islamofascist terrorism, I can cut him some slack.

I will retain, also, all of the images of a president moved with emotion. Choking back tears in the aftermaths of the tragedies that our nation faced -- not a saccharin "I feel your pain". Never in my lifetime will I ever expect to see a man so utterly savaged on a day-in, day-out basis.

How will history judge President George W. Bush? Time will tell. The effects of the War in Iraq will not be known for years to come. Nor will the extent of the state of the American and the global economy. Do I think he could have been better? Of course. Do I think things could have been worse were he not the 43rd president of the United States. Definitely.

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