Bush is complicated?

Salena Zito:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry tells a story of a conversation that he had with his predecessor George W. Bush five months after both men took office, it occurred in June of 2001, shortly after the president had his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Perry explains that typically a Bush conversation is pretty quick to the chase, asking about his wife and kids and good-bye. But nearly forty minutes later Bush is still on the phone asking about who got the best of who in the Texas state legislature and catching up on all of the intrigues of Texas politics.

Perry says the homesickness was obvious in the president’s voice and as the conversation ended Bush said to him, “Hey Perry, remember that conversation we had in the governor's office about 18 months ago when I told you being the governor of Texas was the greatest job in the world?”

“Well, it is” Bush told him.

In the end as in the beginning much of the story of George W. Bush is that he really a Texan. He would really rather be in Texas than Washington. It is his home, his comfort zone. He considers Washington cold and cruel and Texas warm and genuine.

“More than that, he knows the issues in Texas” said political scientist Rob Maranto explaining that while in Washington Bush always had to stretch, often getting things wrong.

Bush found Texas Democrats, who are often center-right, casual, friendly, boisterous, trustworthy, and easy to work with, very unlike Washington Democrats.

“Bush has good instincts, good strategic vision” said Maranto, “he knew where he wanted to take the country, and many of his ideas made sense. His problems came in the tactics, in the execution. Because he personalized policy he kept on loyal subordinates even when they had screwed up royally, while firing those seen as competent, but more independent.”

As Bush’s shadow grows shorter around the halls of the White House and the world and excitement shifts toward President-elect Barack Obama the business of the White House must still go on.

The late Tony Snow told the Trib in an interview in 2006 that Bush “has a clock that tells you how many days we have left in the administration”

Then the White House press secretary Snow explained that Bush had told every cabinet secretary to think about everything they could do between now the end of “our” time in office.

“It will be a sprint to the finish” said his outgoing secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in an interview last week.

Chertoff says that history will judge this president favorably, “He had big challenges under his watch and he never walked away from a challenge, he never said let me make this the next guys problem.”

Knocking on wood Chertoff says that the president had done what was considered unbelievable seven years ago, “which is kept this country safe for seven years.”

America’s relationship with George W. Bush is complicated.

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I think George Bush has been a heroic President who has defeated a wicked enemy in Iraq and put the Islamic religious bigots on their heels. He has also been buffeted at home by and ugly partisan opposition that continuously attacked him in bad faith. that opposition was bolstered by a hostile media that was determined to deny him credit for his accomplishments and equally determined to make him responsible for things beyond his control.

I like George Bush and would be proud to have him as a friend.

He has been a much wiser President that Barack Obama. Obama will bet better media treatment. They will write his defense briefs without him needing to respond to challenges. But Obama's poor judgment on Iraq is something for which he should have paid a political price. The Democrats cowardly retreat from responsibility for the war in Iraq has been one of the most disgusting spectacles since their retreat from responsibility in Vietnam. President Bush withstood that and the worst the enemy could throw at us and defeated them. That Democrats should be elected now just shows that politics can be grossly unfair.

That they could be elected because of a financial crisis they were largely responsible for is also grotesque. While we need to hope for the best from the economy, (which the Democrats did not do under Bush), we need to continue to remind people that it was Democrats who screwed things up.

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