Monday, January 19, 2009

Getting it right

I'm struck by this paragraph from the Telegraph:
The American lady who called to see if I would appear on her radio programme was specific. "We're setting up a debate," she said sweetly, "and we want to know from your perspective as a historian whether George W Bush was the worst president of the 20th century, or might he be the worst president in American history?"
I'm going to assume from the question that the lady with the sweet voice is a liberal. She's trying to decide if George W. Bush is the worst president ever, or just the worst president in the 20th Century.

I think that history will record that George W. Bush served from 2001 until 2009. None of those years are in the 20th Century.

The lady with the sweet voice is trying to decide ole Bush's place in history and she doesn't even know which in which century he served as president.

Personally, I think history will judge George W. Bush as a good, if not great, president. He presided over one of the toughest periods of American history, during the time when most Americans became aware that we were embroiled in a war against fundamental Islam.

Personally, I'm going to miss him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I'll breath a sigh of relief when he gets off the plane in Texas tomorrow. Google "Cost of the Bush Era" and see what you get. One estimate is $11.5 trillion.

Just the National Debt went from ~$5 trillion in 2000 to ~$10 trillion in 2008.

kahr40 said...

...and what's it going to rise to under Obama. Personally I think we'll be missing Bush a few months.

Anonymous said...

I will miss President Bush as well. He defended our nation in time of war, appointed conservative judges to the Supreme Court and defended the pro-life position whenever he could. Everyone says he lied. Did Congress not vote for the war in Iraq as well? Were they so lazy they could not use their own staff to determine the truth of WMD's before they voted for the war? What do we pay them for? Personally I don't think WMD have anything or should have anything to do with why we are there anyway. On top of that, no one knows what would have happened if we did not go into Iraq. How would history have judged Bush if we did not go and Saddam Hussein did use WMD's against us? As my old boss used to tell me "if people like you it probably means you're not doing your job. As far as I am concerned, Bush did his, and that is why the spoiled citizens of this nation do not like him. Being an effective parent or an effective president are not likely to win you any friends. And unfortunately, that is what our new "rock star" president wants. For everyone to like him and to like the United States. Who cares whether any one likes us or not? The United States and Israel are the last true democracies left in the world. Of course everyone hates us. Sorry to use your comment section to vent, this is just a hard day for me.

exile