The Legacy Of President Bush

William Kristol wrote a excellent editorial for the Washington Post yesterday about Bush and his legacy.  He brings up many of the same points I have made over and over again on this blog about Bush.  He will go down as a great President.

He invigorated the economy to new highs after 9/11 and the dot com bubble burst, his policies and actions have prevented another terrorist attack on this soil since 9/11 – an attack which many people thought was a foregone conclusion, he placed two great conservative justices on the Supreme Court, and he was the first President since the dawn of modern terrorism to actually call this war a war.  Not even Reagan did that.  He not only called it a war but he put us on a war footing, took out a brutal tyrant and freed 25 million Iraqi’s and millions inside Afghanistan.

Let’s look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil — not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy — also something that wasn’t inevitable.
   
And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where — despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless "benchmark" report last week — we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome.

On the economy:

After the bursting of the dot-com bubble, followed by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we’ve had more than five years of steady growth, low unemployment and a stock market recovery. Did this just happen? No. Bush pushed through the tax cuts of 2001 and especially 2003 by arguing that they would produce growth. His opponents predicted dire consequences. But the president was overwhelmingly right. Even the budget deficit, the most universally criticized consequence of the tax cuts, is coming down and is lower than it was when the 2003 supply-side tax cuts were passed.

On Iraq:

First of all, we would have to compare the situation in Iraq now, with all its difficulties and all the administration’s mistakes, with what it would be if we hadn’t gone in. Saddam Hussein would be alive and in power and, I dare say, victorious, with the United States (and the United Nations) by now having backed off sanctions and the no-fly zone. He might well have restarted his nuclear program, and his connections with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups would be intact or revived and even strengthened.

Still, that’s speculative, and the losses and costs of the war are real. Bush is a war president, and war presidents are judged by whether they win or lose their war. So to be a successful president, Bush has to win in Iraq.

Which I now think we can. Indeed, I think we will. In late 2006, I didn’t think we would win, as Bush stuck with the failed Rumsfeld-Abizaid-Casey strategy of "standing down" as the Iraqis were able to "stand up," based on the mistaken theory that if we had a "small footprint" in Iraq, we’d be more successful. With the new counterinsurgency strategy announced on Jan. 10, backed up by the troop "surge," I think the odds are finally better than 50-50 that we will prevail. We are routing al-Qaeda in Iraq, we are beginning to curb the Iranian-backed sectarian Shiite militias and we are increasingly able to protect more of the Iraqi population.

If we sustain the surge for a year and continue to train Iraqi troops effectively, we can probably begin to draw down in mid- to late 2008. The fact is that military progress on the ground in Iraq in the past few months has been greater than even surge proponents like me expected, and political progress is beginning to follow. Iran is a problem, and we will have to do more to curb Tehran’s meddling — but we can. So if we keep our nerve here at home, we have a good shot at achieving a real, though messy, victory in Iraq.

I have no doubt Bush will stay the course with his Grant, Gen. Petraeus, and allow this great General to win this thing.  Now will conservatives allow us to win?  That’s the question. 

Many conservatives are down on Bush due to the immigration issue.  You know, that issue that’s been around for 30+ years and the issue Reagan couldn’t fix.  The fact that Bush has had the same message on immigration since before 2000 matters not to some, memory loss I suppose.  But the base won that fight and now the base needs to stop being so damn fixated on a single issue and see the big picture here.   That big picture being the war that was declared on us almost 30 years ago and we are finally fighting back.

The economy is another mosaic inside that big picture, and he has not waffled in his belief that tax cuts are what drive this economy.

Conservative justices on the federal bench is another piece of that picture.

There are many mosaics inside this picture and it’s should be remembered.

Lastly, one big reason why I believe Bush will go down as a great one is because he was the kind of President that we rarely see.  One who does not govern by polls but instead governs by his heart.  One who believes in the decisions he makes and does not waffle when bad polls come in.

UPDATE

The Anchoress wrote an excellent post last month about the immigration fracas that was going on and directed it towards those conservative who felt betrayed by him.  While it was written about the immigration issue many of her points on what Bush has done is relevant for this post so here it is:

Betrayal is such a strong word; did he betray you, really?

• Did he protect us from the reach & province of the International Criminal Court? Yes.
• Did he keep us from the Kyoto mess that is currently tying up Europe? Yes.
• Did he create a workable alternative to Kyoto that other countries have embraced? Yes. Bet you didn’t know that!
• Have US Carbon Emissions decreased on his watch, without Kyoto? Yes.
• Did he submit a comprehensive energy plan that got killed by a weak congress? Yes.
• Has he lowered the deficit ahead of schedule in time of war? Yes. Even the NYTimes admits it!
• Did he cut taxes? Twice? Yes. And yes.
• Did he try to get the cuts made permanent? Yes. Congress dropped that ball.
• Did he stop government funding of EMBRYONIC stem cell research? Yes.
• Has he kept the promises he made as he held a dead cop’s shield before the Joint Houses? Yes.
• Did he go after the Taliban and AlQaeda in Afghanistan barely a month after 9/11? Yes.
• Has he been unflagging in his efforts to subdue terrorism, worldwide? Yes.
• Has be been the consistent voice for human liberty around the globe? Yes.
• After some serious missteps, is the surge working? Yes.
• Has he been a staunch friend to Israel, the only stable democracy in a frantic region? Yes.
• Did he end the farce of world-wide Arafat admiration? Yes
• Did he remove Saddam Hussein, whose state supported terrorists, from power? Yes.
• Did he invade Iraq at a time when the whole world believed Saddam had and “would use” WMD? Yes.
• Did he bring a much-maligned coalition with him? Yes. Some are still there.
• Did he liberate 50,000 people in keeping with the ideals of the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act? Yes.
• Has he inspired the Iraqi people to finally believe enough in freedom to fight AlQaeda with us? YES!
• Has he figured out that a free and engaged Middle East makes America safer? Yes.
• Has he kept you safe since 9/11? So safe that you’ve almost forgotten to fear? Yes.
• Did he remove “the wall” between the CIA and the FBI? Yes.
• Did he go to the UN before invading Iraq? Yes.
• Did he tell the UN that the US would never ask permission to defend herself? Yes.
• Did he inspire Libya to surrender it’s WMD without firing a shot? Yes.
• Did he appoint excellent SCOTUS and Federal Judges to the bench? Yes.
• Did he implement the NSA terrorist eavesdropping program? Yes.
• Did he immediately move to freeze assets and make terror funding more difficult? Yes.
• Did he reform Medicare? Yes.
• Did he reform Social Security to give you more power over your money? He tried. See Congress.
• Did he manage an economy thru recession, terror attack & war w/ consistent gains for over ten quarters? Yes.
• Has he kept unemployment between 5.5% and 4.4% for an impressive period? Yes.
• Does he say what he means and mean what he says? Yes.
• Did he try to address immigration last year, when the houses in his party? Yes.
• Does he support the second amendment? Yes.
• Does he support school vouchers and school choice? Yes.
• Did he sign the ban on Partial Birth Abortion? Yes. It went to court, but he signed it.
• Did he reverse Clinton’s intent to kill Reagan’s pro-life Mexico policy? Yes.
• Did he support the Defense of Marriage Act? Yes. That used to be vitally important to you.
• Did he expand the roles of faith-based organizations in social programs? Yes.
• Did he prosecute the white-collar criminals like Ken Lay who ran riot through the ‘90’s? Yes.
• Has he handled himself with enormous courage, dignity and grace in the face of world/media/hate?
• Is he a man with a creed before he’s anything else? Yes.
• Did he establish Health Savings accounts? Yes.
• Did he have the Border Patrol installing monitoring devices along the borders? Yes.
• Has he made mistakes? Yes. Some undeniable beauts.
• Has he been an imperfect president? Yes.
• Has he spent too much? Probably.
• Has he given you most of what you’ve wanted? Actually, looking at the list…yes!
• Has he dared to disagree with anyone to keep his principles, even you? Yes.

Has he really been your Judas? Has he really betrayed you?

What she said.