{link » George W. Bush the uniter}
All the willfully ignorant will bellow in mock contempt, but fair minded individuals will appreciate the basic goodness of the man who for 8 very turbulent years steered successfully our Ship of State through the rapids of international terrorism, two hot wars, Congressional incompetence, the malignancy of no-nothing political extremists, a complete disregard for the norms of civility, and numerous counter-currents of external and homegrown narrow-mindedness. And he did it mostly with grace and an unassuming good-natured demeanor. I am confident that I speak for many others the world over when I wish the President and Mrs. Bush all the best in their well deserved retirement.
“In this, George W. Bush is acting very differently from his predecessor. Bill Clinton bequeathed George Bush a series of regulatory time bombs, neatly calculated to explode and wound his new administration. As president, for example, Clinton had resisted tightening permissible levels of arsenic in drinking water. The evidence of benefit from tighter regulations was weak; the cost to local water authorities (especially in some poor states like New Mexico) would be painfully high. In the final weeks of his presidency, however, Clinton okayed the new standard—forcing Bush to choose between inflicting tax increases on localities or looking like a poisoner of the wells.
Similar traps were laid on energy regulations, on Kyoto, and on the International Criminal Court. In every case, Bush followed the actual policy that his predecessor had followed while in office—while falling short of the phony high-toned policy his predecessor had announced on his way out the door. And it has to be admitted, those little time bombs hurt.
Another man might have concluded that it was only fair that he retaliate by bequeathing some bombs of his own. Bush did the opposite, extending more consideration than he had received in his turn. It’s maybe not the biggest [of] presidential achievements. But surely it ranks among the finer.”
— David Frum
President Bush in 2000
President and Mrs. Bush in 2008
All the willfully ignorant will bellow in mock contempt, but fair minded individuals will appreciate the basic goodness of the man who for 8 very turbulent years steered successfully our Ship of State through the rapids of international terrorism, two hot wars, Congressional incompetence, the malignancy of no-nothing political extremists, a complete disregard for the norms of civility, and numerous counter-currents of external and homegrown narrow-mindedness. And he did it mostly with grace and an unassuming good-natured demeanor. I am confident that I speak for many others the world over when I wish the President and Mrs. Bush all the best in their well deserved retirement.
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