Kristol Clear
Bill Kristol willingly exposes himself to ridicule with claim that Bush admin will be remembered as a success.
I agree with every one of his points. On every count we have a wartime president who, despite some missteps, has done the right thing and done well for the country.
Whether Bush is ever viewed as a success is another matter.
His biggest pitfall now is the myopic push in Congress to abandon the Iraqi people, betray 3,500 American war dead, and endanger our national security, the lives of millions in the region, and the lives of future Americans in the wars that will ultimately follow a rapid withdrawal. Failure and disaster induced by Congress will be ascribed to him.
Any credit and absolution will take a century if it happens. Historians are notoriously left-leaning, and while Bush’s obit 20 or 30-odd years from now may be charitable as is the custom even with despised and mocked presidents like Nixon and Ford, the predominant view put before the public for the next several decades will be “Bush lied people died.”
UPDATE: Let me clarify and deviate on one point. I consider the failure of Bush’s immigration compromise venture to be a success, and hope nothing like it passes in the next couple of years.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:30 pm on Sunday, July 15, 2007
19 Responses to “Kristol Clear”
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July 15th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
He’s also got the failure to fix social security and the attempt to scam America with his amnesty bill working against him…
July 15th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
As if the role of “Wartime President” is a well known Shakespearean character, all Bush has to do is strut around in a codpiece and belt out the correct lines to get it right.
As if…
“Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.”
July 15th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I agree with Kristol too, because even though President Bush pushed the amnesty bill, it failed, so it can’t be counted against him in the long run. But the part of that article I liked best was this:
Many Americans will recoil from the prospect of being governed by an unchecked triumvirate of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. So the chances of a Republican winning the presidency in 2008 aren’t bad.
July 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
The pox-on-both-your-houses feeling Americans have for Bush and Congress will almost certainly be shared by historians when time for summing up arrives.
The defiantly clueless Bush, surrounded in his bubble by Texas yes-men, has reached a point of Carter-like estrangement with the public. The immigration fiasco that cost him the support of conservatives will no doubt bleed into support for the war just as the earlier incompetence Bush presided over is being straightened out.
July 15th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
To those that cry “wartime Presidents”, or infer that only this man Bush, is the root of all evil, I would suggest they look at this…BUT they won’t because of hatred of one man. So f-u-c-k ‘em….but for a bit of history for the sane.
List of United States military history events….from 1776 to present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_history_events
July 15th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I’ll go with Crystal. Those of us who were around in the last days of the Truman administration know how rapidly hopeless poll numbers and a firm reputation for bungling incompetence can translate into global insight and universally recognized strength of character. And whatever success his critics enjoy today, Bush is on the right side of history and they are not. They are not only wrong; they have no strategy and no vision beyind their focused hatred of him (the Iraq Stdy Group Report as a plan? Even leftist historians will laugh at that one). Who were the heroes of the left that emerged from Viet Nam? A couple of overrated journalist, perhaps (a rat knows his own), but even the msm’s own heroes won their spurs chasing down Nixon rather than finding decent alternatives to the war. In ten years’ time, Bush will look surprisingly good. Even his inexplicable stance on illiegal immigration will be no more than a footnote.
July 15th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I’d bet that the number of leaders who were seen to be bunglers in their day who are still considered bunglers far outnumber those who were vindicated by history.
Like the surge itself, a bet on Bush’s later political rehabilitation is an extreme long shot….a sucker’s bet.
And is that the Washington Post publishing Kristol’s childish arguments?
Yet another blow to the phony claim of a left-leaning “MSM.”
July 15th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I think that happens with Iran will determine much of how Bush is perceived by historians.
If we leave Iraq the way we did Viet Nam, it won’t matter. It will be years and years before anyone looks at what caused the final collapse. Look at how long it took humanity to even get to the point where there were historians capable of addressing the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Who knows how long it will take the world to come out of the decline and fall of of Western Civilization.
I hope like hell I’m being overly pessimistic.
July 15th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Moron
Imbecile
Idiot
Invertebrate
Amoeba
Pond Scum
alphie
Keep sending those cards and letters people. I can always make two or ten columns.
July 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Nice list, el cid.
Where do people who bet with other people’s lives and money fall on it?
July 15th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
The pox-on-both-your-houses feeling Americans have for Bush and Congress will almost certainly be shared by historians…
Any chance you can give me tomorrow’s Lotto numbers?
Truman was reviled at the time. 50 years later he got much kinder treatment. Anyone who thinks they can see 50 years into the future should be able to provide a very comfortable endowment for their family.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:31 am
saltydog:
You are.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Bush will be a success if he wins and a failure if he loses the war on irhabism. The rest is just window dressing. I agree with the wartime president line, but Wilson is hardly viewed as a success compared to others like TR.
Alphie: providing more snarky Leftist lines than you could ever want in every possible location. I’ll be straightforward - you want to surrender to Al Qaeda so Bush will lose. That is beyond pathetic. Not only that, but you consistently make stupid, pseudo-witty quips, yapping like an angry chihuahua. You don’t debate, you just leave snarky BS. This is adolescent posturing, and the rest of us got out of that phase years ago.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Haha, Omega,
Bush is a lame duck. I could care less about that sad little man.
Are you guys gonna be hiding behind phony “BDS” arguments when he’s home cuttin’ brush?
July 16th, 2007 at 2:39 am
I read the Kristo piece and about 40 of the comments posted with it online (un-freakin’-hinged). Amazingly, I believe Bush has a shot at being vindicated. Not because of anything written by Kristol, but because it’s starting to look as if there’s a decent chance things are going to work wrt Iraq. The Iraqi people are beginning to side with us and against AQ, for starters. I think we’ve finally done something to convince them that we aren’t there to occupy the place for a hundred years. Well, that and the depravity and brutality of AQ.
I don’t think it took 50 years for Truman to be vindicated. Maybe 20 or 25. Don’t know if Bush will be that lucky. I’ve noticed the intensity on the left to control the narrative has intensified dramatically in the last 6-8 months. Winning Iraq will go a long way toward rolling that back but it won’t completely undo the damage.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:58 am
Let me belt this out, Alphie,
It’s all of a piece, Alphie,
That you’re a cod of a cad, Alphie,
And I’ll sing it again, Alphie,
That what it’s all about, Alphie:
Is your neurons don’t fire, Alphie!
July 16th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I believe he’s had successes but it’ll hardly be called a success - first of all consider the impending disaster in Iraq withhaving a Dem to succeed him and that the liberal narrative on Iraq will blame everything on him forgetting everything else. Roberts, Alito, economy, reelection will certainly be considered successes but on the whole it’ll be looked at all thru the cracked MSM prism of Iraq.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I agree with Kristol and I do not have a problem with Bush’s immigration’s policy either.
After all, his views on immigration have been consistent and if the more rabid members of the right decided to go off on some paranoid rant about Bush giving the southwest to Mexico there is really nothing any president could do about that.Too bad they did not care that much about the issue when Newt was running Congress maybe they could have devoted as much time to border security as they did to going after Clinton in the Monica affair.
Any way, Bush has stood his ground and while the right went nuts over immigration and the left went nuts over everything else he did not back down or flinch.
I read McCullough’s biography on Harry S Truman and the men have a lot in common, including the fact that they were betrayed by people who owed them much.
The amazing thing to me as a 55 year old woman is that I see people building houses that would have had one time been considered mansions,. they drive their fancy cars, talk about their 401Ks, enjoy a standard of living unimagined by much of the world, and yet they bitch and moan and whine.
Back when I was a kid, people were not read their rights, it was not routine. I can remember the Civil Rights movement, Viet Nam, I can also remember people living in tar paper shacks. I can remember when people did not concern themselves about dental plans, they just wanted a job, any job.
I think people are spoiled today and that hurts Bush.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
New addition, people
Moron
Imbecile
Idiot
Invertebrate
Nematode
Amoeba
Pond Scum
alphie
Keep ‘em coming….I also see a couple more alphie clones. So get to it…:).