In the WSJ yesterday, William McGurn said that Bush’s real sin in the eyes of the Beltway elite is the one least spoken of – he won a war they were publicly on record as saying was unwinnable:
Here in the afterglow of the turnaround led by Gen. David Petraeus, it’s easy to forget what the smart set was saying two years ago — and how categorical they all were in their certainty. The president was a simpleton, it was agreed. Didn’t he know that Iraq was a civil war, and the only answer was to get out as fast as we could?
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — the man who will be sworn in as vice president today — didn’t limit himself to his own opinion. Days before the president announced the surge, Joe Biden suggested to the Washington Post he knew the president’s people had also concluded the war was lost. They were, he said, just trying to “keep it from totally collapsing” until they could “hand it off to the next guy.”
For his part, on the night Mr. Bush announced the surge, Barack Obama said he was “not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq are going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”
Three months after that, before the surge had even started, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pronounced the war in Iraq “lost.” These and similar comments, moreover, were amplified by a media echo chamber even more absolute in its sense of hopelessness about Iraq and its contempt for the president.
In the same paper today, Juan Williams – who knows a bit about race – notes that our first African American president ought to be judged on his performance rather than the precedent he sets:
If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else — fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism — then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.
Yet there is fear, especially among black people, that criticism of him or any of his failures might be twisted into evidence that people of color cannot effectively lead. That amounts to wasting time and energy reacting to hateful stereotypes. It also leads to treating all criticism of Mr. Obama, whether legitimate, wrong-headed or even mean-spirited, as racist.
This is patronizing. Worse, it carries an implicit presumption of inferiority. Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise.
Hear, hear.
That is exactly the sentiment I have been looking for. Juan Williams (even though I do not always agree with him) has a fairly perceptive way about him. And in this case I think he is dead on.
I was discussing the “Enthrallment Climate” circling Obama with my wife yesterday when I realized, I really do not yet have a bone to pick with the new President. He hasn’t done anything. Up to this point he has done what every politician does, said whatever got him elected.
What is most disturbing is our National Gushing Hero Worship for… well, someone who has done… Nothing, good or bad.
I plan on being as critical as I always am of those proclaiming progressiveness. But if he makes hard decisions that aren’t just for maintaining his approval rating, I may have more respect for the man. Like him or not, he is going to get “experienced” in short order.
-JC
Williams’ piece is remarkable and perfectly timed (Day One). Get it out there, and fast. I managed to catch Williams’ emotional commentary immediately following the ceremony (believe the context was Rev Lowry’s closing prayer, which I did not find offensive, as many have; the guy is old, it’s phrasing from an old song, and he thought it fit. I didn’t, but neither did I find it racist). Anyway, Williams choked up during the moment, the full weight of the realization of the promise of this country, then put out the WSJ piece. Whether it was pre-prepared or not doesn’t matter to me. The timing and the message was. Perfect.
I was listening to NPR last night on the way home. I enjoy the quality of their programming even thought I find them to tilt too far left for my tastes more often than not. Amid the gushing about just oh how so wonderful it all was they had one of those man on the street interviews with a woman on the Parade route who was talking about how her son – a little boy I gathered – could now be anything he wanted to be. She said he didn’t need to be a rap artist or play basketball but he could be the President. She broke down in the telling of these things.
I realized then in a way that had not hit me before just how dramatic this has been for some members of our society. I can understand Juan Williams getting emotional and I do hope that we do judge the President on he merits of his actions and do not engage in patronizingly overlooking anything based on some misguided attempt to make the most we can out of the historic nature of his ascension.
I did not support his election and remain skeptical of his policy positions. But I am gratified that, as a nation, we have an opportunity to perhaps move further down the road beyond identity politics with racial overtones.
I am glad to see Juan Williams who has experienced first hand the left’s savaging solely for being willing to appear on the dreaded Fox News calling out, in advance, the damage to the advancement of our movement toward the Founding Ideals, being less than objective in the evaluation of his performance will be.
I agree. But when journalists claim you can’t draw a caricature of him, and comedians like Chris Rock (no stranger to taking on just about everyone and everything) say that there isn’t anything about Obama to make fun of because he’s handsome, virile and has a beautiful family – then you have to wonder what their motivations are.
If his own people are going to treat him with kid gloves, then what does that say about those of us who don’t share his ethnicity and call him on the things he’ll do that we may not agree with.
Why hate someone based on their color, creed, religion, or national origin… when if you’d just spend some time getting to know them, there are so many more valid reasons to loathe them as an individual.
He’s our President now. I’ll wait, observe, then formulate my dislikes of his choices and decisions based on their merit.
I could care less what color he is.
I’m sure he won’t disappoint.
I agree fully with the sentiments expressed by Juan Williams, however after watching the non-stop love-fest that was the 72 hour news cycle leading up to and including the Inaugural ceremony and subsequent parties I have my doubts as to the likelihood of its application.
Already President Obama has discussed policies and appointed cabinet members of a centrist vein, and are mysteriously similar to those of W. However, as we have seen the MSM have already spun these to reflect something different than what exists. Is it because they do not want to criticize “the One” for doing what W. has done? I am not sure.
I am proud, as a conservative, that this nation has finally achieved this milestone despite the political Party of our new President’s affilitation. This should have occurred some time ago.
My “hope” is that finally our society will put aside its obsession with “skin color”, and stop looking in the rear view at wrongs committed long before many of us were even a twinkle in our parents’ eyes. Hope, at least in my world view, looks ahead at what is to come, not back at what has already been done.
Is it too idealistic to ask Americans to stop talking in terms of “_____ American” and just be “American”? Perhaps. But only when we stop looking at and talking about skin, will we truly be equal.
Skin color will never become an irrelevant thing in our society. The lblacks of the left have already shown it.
He still has no experience, no record to speak of and holes in all of his stories that he won’t answer. He is not qualified and the press is lying for him by omitting the truth.
This does not show progress. It only proves that the media has the power to elect a president. Their hypocrisy in their coverage of Obama is evident on a daily basis.
I would have been more than happy to vote for a man or a woman of any color had they had the experience, quailifications, and the core values I believe in.
Obama was not elected DESPITE being black. He was elected BECAUSE he was black.
I pray HE does ‘right’.
I have thought the comments of “America was finally ready to elect a black President” to be odd. Colin Powell could easily have been elected President after Gulf War I.
Well said.
And perhaps a good way to explain it to those who thought not voting for Obama was racist, period. Full stop. To judge him on other than his promises and now his performance, that would be racist.
I couldn’t care less as to what his ethnicity and or color is. I cared about the fact that his record and rhetoric is Pinko, his radical advocacy against human life, and the questionable company he had been keeping for a long time. Anyone attempting to call me a racist because I loath Obama’s ideologies IS a racist because color is all they see.
You and I may see that distinction – but I do wonder if the accuser will.
Shove it back in their ugly faces. Call ‘em what they are, really are, racist morons. If they don’t like, just tell them to leave behind childish things.
Kris,
Probably not as they will give the argument about as much intellectual effort as a cockerspaniel would.
geo6
geo6:
What have you got against Cocker Spaniels?
Nothing. Sometimes they’re smarter than some people.
This could soooo easily morph into a threadjack about the relative intelligence of dogs v.other breeds of dogs, dogs v. humans, etc…….once that door is opened…….
Not that I would step through it or anything…
Just sayin’……….
VX,
IF WE WERE to talk about intelligent dogs, I offer we should talk about Chirac’s dog. Now THERE is a smart dog.
Best,
geo6