That’s Why He’s Bush, Not Carter
Look, you won’t find me defending a lot of what Bush did—but he got the basics right: national security, war on terror, and a certain moral seriousness (stem cells, abortion) that, whether you agree with it or not, was grounded in a code of ethics:
I’d classify this under that code, as well:
Former President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that he won’t criticize Barack Obama because the new U.S. president “deserves my silence,” and said he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office.
Bush declined to critique the Obama administration in his first speech since leaving office in January. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Obama’s decisions threatened America’s safety.
“I’m not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena,” Bush said. “He deserves my silence.”
…
“I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”
Now, you’ve heard me praise Rush and Cheney to the skies for their shots at President Obama, and I don’t take any of that back.
But Bush is a former President, and I think he takes that role as seriously as he took his active-duty role. He was fully aware of the cheap shots Carter and Clinton took at him (and Gore and Kerry, the sore losers), but he never responded.
A lot of us wish he had defended himself more—at times crackpot bloggers like Aggie and I were the only ones out there, especially on Iraq—but he clearly believed in a sense of decorum about the job (remember the rule requiring jackets in the Oval Office).
The left and the media (yeah, yeah—same thing, I know) howled incessantly about Bush’s moral failings. I wonder if history will acknowledge that he was the most honorable and decent man in public life of his time?
Barb said,
March 18, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
***Look, you won’t find me defending a lot of what Bush did—but he got the basics right: national security, war on terror, and a certain moral seriousness (stem cells, abortion) that, whether you agree with it or not, was grounded in a code of ethics…***
Since you put it that way, I’d say he really needs no defending. I, for one, miss him, and his moral integrity. We bargained that away to the devil who is now occupying the White House and Congress.
Count to 10 said,
March 18, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
In some sense, Bush deserves the right to silence as much as anything else. History seems to indicate that an ex president can only hurt himself by continuing in politics.
Barb said,
March 18, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
Who, on earth, could you be referring to, Count to 10???