The anchoress on W

By lex, on January 30th, 2008

She’s not surprised.

I think it’s quite possible that history will treat the man a good deal better than we think likely today.

Update: Related.

January 30th, 2008 | Tags: Politics and Culture | Category: Uncategorized

15 comments to The anchoress on W

• STEVEC

  January 30, 2008 at 11:27 am

  The benefit of hindsight will be that W will be compared and contrasted to what will follow him. From what I’m seeing right now in the campaigns for President, that comparison won’t be a “fair fight”. W has his faults, and shortcomings, but many of those who aspire to follow him and ‘improve’ on what has been done, are dreaming.

  I wish it weren’t so, but thats how it looks right now from the cheap seats.

• Chris

  January 30, 2008 at 12:10 pm

  I personally cannot wait to sit back and say, “See? He was RIGHT.”

• fliterman

  January 30, 2008 at 12:38 pm

  Hope springs eternal…

  However I suspect Bush will be likened to Hoover; and for more current reasons than this 2006 article indicates.

• cottus

  January 30, 2008 at 12:50 pm

  Having seen the world get remarkably better over my lifetime, there are only two things that really depress me. 1) Walking into Walmart and seeing firsthand both the physical and mental deterioration of America, but worse 2) Looking at the way George Bush has been abused & belittled by just about everyone, and egregiously undercut by his own careerist subordinates.

  You don’t know what you’ve got ’till its gone. Charge up that foreign bank account, stock up that survival bunker – 8 years of bad news on the horizon.

• Fontessa

  January 30, 2008 at 3:27 pm

  Cottus? I don’t want to start a rock fight, but would you please explain why walking into a Wal-Mart store depresses you?

• PeterGunn

  January 30, 2008 at 3:41 pm

  I agree, Lex! I believe “W” will be vindicated and respected in the years to come, both for what he said and for what he didn’t say.

  What’s that old saying about, “walking a mile in his moccasins”…

  Fliterman, as I understand history, wasn’t Hoover more a victim of the times than anything else? Before he was President, he was the hero of the Great Flood of the Mississippi.

• Buck

  January 30, 2008 at 4:21 pm

  Fontessa sez: I don’t want to start a rock fight, but would you please explain why walking into a Wal-Mart store depresses you?

  I can’t speak… won’t speak… for cottus. But if he’s on about 76% of the products on sale in Wally-World being of Chinese or other non-US origins, then I’m with him.

  I live near an east-west mainline railroad route, and there are about 50 trains a day that pass through here, each almost a mile long and each consisting of nothing but flatcars with nothing but containers, four to a car, that say Hanjin, China Shipping, and the like. That’s a lot of microwaves and such.

  Depressing.

• Fontessa

  January 30, 2008 at 4:49 pm

  Buck, I used to live on Galveston Bay, and the Houston Ship Channel was a mere three miles off the end of my dock. I watched those container/cargo ships cruise by every day (plus a whole lot more). And you are right: it IS a lot of microwaves and other big boxes.

  But my favorite breakfast cereal, which comes from the American heartland, is $1.50 a box less in W-M than in the chain grocery store. I’m not buying a microwave, or computer games or a tv set every week.

  I am buying cookies, tortillas, Pace Picante Sauce, Coca Cola, paper towels and toilet paper. Milk, eggs, butter. My cheese is from Wisconsin, or California, not China.

  Ranch Style Beans come from Dallas, and Pioneer Biscuit Mix comes from San Antonio, and it is cheaper to buy them at Wal-Mart.

  Go in Dillard’s and pick up any ten items, and see how many are made in this country. But no one ever beats up on Dillard’s.

• MissBirdlegs in AL

  January 30, 2008 at 5:07 pm

  I’m glad to see these articles, Lex – thank you for linking them. I’ve been amazed that Pres. Bush has managed, at least in public, to ignore the nastiness that has been said and written about him. To my knowledge, we’ve never had a “Perfect President”, and I admire him tremendously for setting a course and staying it. As the anchoress says, that’s almost unheard of in politics. He’s got backbone and guts, and these days that’s unusual in more areas than politics. He’s also a heck of a lot more tolerant than most of the DC crowd, no matter how “progressive” they are.

• fliterman

  January 30, 2008 at 5:42 pm

  #6 PG – Yes, many might be surprised to learn of Herbert Hoover’s uncommon character, and his many admirable accomplishments, both in the public and private sectors.

  Nevertheless, whether victim or not, when the Ship of State runs aground, History will never look very favorably upon the Captain at the helm.

• Skippy-san

  January 30, 2008 at 9:32 pm

  I think folks should read McCullough’s book on Truman before thinking thet GWB will be treated the same way by history.

  They were very different-despite those who want to force the comparison.

• PeterGunn

  January 30, 2008 at 9:57 pm

  Granted, Mr f. Sad but true, isn’t it.

• Subsunk

  January 31, 2008 at 2:52 am

  If results are what count….
  Then W will be known as more of a success than most. And there’s not a damn thing any of us can do which will compare to the amazing turnaround of a 40 yr old drunk to the most admired man in the world for 7 yrs in a row. He wouldn’t be there because he’s been treated well by 90% of the nation either. And that’s sayin’ something.

  http://www.topix.com/forum/who/hillary-clinton/TTTE3V2JSBGAC7DR6

  I note that over the seven years of polls I surveyed, he was the most admired every year, but each successive year’s article mentioned how he was less admired every year to match his dropping popularity. Some articles even dared to mention why some nimrod reporter THOUGHT or BELIEVED his numbers were dropping. (Couldn’t be because of some vapid propaganda machine which is almost as efficient as Joseph Goebbels in its relentless tenacity to pursue Bush Derangement Syndrome, could it?)

  It is awful hard to get up in the morning, shave your face while looking at yourself in the mirror, and know that “the entire world thinks you are the most evil man in history” and still DO YOUR JOB every day without complaint or a hint of feeling sorry for himself, or saying that he is being treated unfairly.

  Most unpopular? Worst ever? Those are judgments by mental midgets. I posted on this at Blackfive a couple of days ago. W is tougher than a sack full of wolverines, in my humble opinion. He may not be as tough as some of our Marine Corps Corporals, or Army Captains, but he’s a durn sight tougher than most Presidents in our history.

  And the rest of us ought to be ashamed for allowing our own countrymen to savage so noble a Man so often without response. You can quote me.

  Subsunk

• Kris, in New England

  January 31, 2008 at 5:24 am

  Well said Subsunk. I too believe that history will judge W far more fairly than any attempts in the here and now.

  He faced the worst tragedy this country has ever known. He lead us through our darkest hour, stood strong and made decisions that have ensured this country has not been attacked since that horrible September morning.

  I daresay there are probably only 2 or 3 past Presidents who could have handled what W was faced with just 8 months into his first term. Clinton the Male isn’t one of them and god help us if it’s true, Clinton the Female won’t be either.

• David Curp

  January 31, 2008 at 7:37 am

  The neat thing about being over 40 is that one gets a certain historical perspective (especially when one is already a historian). Having seen how ferociously the left savaged President Reagan and by the time of his death pretended that they had been on board in confronting the Soviets and easing us out of the Cold War, I think, that if we can stay the course in Iraq and make it as relatively decent as Jordan (about as big an if as there is, I know – but the audacity of President Bush’s gamble is striking when you think about it) that history (and most of his current critics) will be very, very kind to President Bush.

  One often hears the claim ad nauseum that there can be no “war on terror” because terrorism is a tactic – usually by the same people who regard the much more amorphous war on poverty as praiseworthy. By demonstrating to state sponsors of terrorism by our interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq the high costs of terror-coddling (which includes trying to play a shell-game about WMDs that you have agreed your country will not develop) we’ve made this particular set of tactics much more risky, which in itself is a great point gained.

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