For all his faults – Bush was a patriot, a man of uncommon decency and compassion, combined with the patience of a saint. Obama is a spoiled elitist who needed the collaboration of a supine media and the popular culture (Hollywood, MTV etc.) to con the American voting public. Bush was a tax cutter, Obama is a tax raiser, Bush put America first, Obama puts the United Nations first, Bush was proud of America, Obama is ashamed of America. Bush was authentic, Obama is a phony trying to play pretend intellectual (that is why I refer to him as a poseur) whose politics were shaped in Chicago and by a host of Marxist influences, Bush instinctively loved America, Obama … well the less said the better!
by Victor Davis Hanson
Various polls report that George W. Bush in some states is now better liked than President Obama. Even some liberal pundits call for Bush to weigh in on the Ground Zero mosque or the Arizona anti-immigration legislation.
Suddenly, Bush is missed. Why? Let me list 10 likely reasons.
1) The Obama record. We naturally compare Bush to his chief critic and successor — and find the latter increasingly wanting.
Obama turned Bush’s misdemeanor deficits into felonious trillion-dollar annual shortfalls. He’ll pile up more debt than any other prior president. Bush was tarred in 2004 for a “jobless recovery” when unemployment hovered near 6 percent. It’s now almost 10 percent, and Obama still harps about “jobs saved.”
2) Obama as Bush. Candidate Obama demagogued Bush on a variety of issues, which, as president, he simply flipped and endorsed. Remember Bush’s Guantanamo gulag? Or how about the terror-producing Predators? Or the need for an immediate Iraq pullout?
In case after case of national security, Obama, when invested with the responsibility of governance, simply adopted, or even trumped, Bush’s protocols — the irony made worse by not acknowledging his debt.
3) Bush Did It. The public is tiring of Obama’s Pavlovian blaming of Bush. After 20 months, it’s time for the president to get a life and quit the “heads you lose/tails I win” attitude about presidential responsibility.
4) Who’s the real yuppie? The media tried to paint Bush as the privileged yuppie, masquerading as the Texas rancher. But this president’s handler could not stage a chain-sawing task for Obama if they tried — severe injury would surely follow.
From 2001-03, presidential golf was proof of aristocratic disdain and laziness. Suddenly, from 2009-10 — given that Obama has hit the greens more in 20 months than Bush did in eight years — the Ministry of Truth redefined the game as necessary egalitarian relaxation.
5) Michelle is no Laura. Remember the narrative: Conservative women are elitists who decorate, buy nice clothes and play Barbie; liberal first ladies are independent feminists who can’t be bothered by inanities like fashion and play. But Michelle this summer enjoyed a movable feast from Marbella to Martha’s Vineyard, in designer clothes and shades. Laura Bush used to vacation at the national parks.
6) United Nations first; United States second. If Bush was a supposed “cowboy,” at least there was never any doubt that his first and foremost interest was America, not the “international community.” One Obama bow was OK; one apology about genocide tolerable; one smug line that we aren’t exceptional understandable; one mea culpa sent to the corrupt UN human-rights crowd I suppose forgivable. But add them up, and we sense that our president is embarrassed about America’s history and culture.
7) Who’ll criticize the critics? American elites crucified Bush. Al Gore called him a liar. John Edwards and John Kerry tag-teamed him in vicious attacks.
Now? Edwards imploded in scandal. Kerry was exposed as a tax-dodging elitist hypocrite. Gore, if not a sex poodle, at least is a green-con-artist billionaire, who both hyped a world-ending crisis and then profited from his rhetorical overkill by selling supposed green snake oil like medieval penances.
[….]
But Obama? He can’t really speak off the teleprompter without pauses, repetitions and constant self-referencing. He’s stiff and not comfortable with himself off the court or golf course. Bush made decisions and stuck by them; Obama the professor offers a perennial “on the one hand/on the other hand” mishmash and a sorta, kinda, almost answer.
Who knows? At this rate America may play Brandon DeWilde to Bush’s Shane: Bush — come back, Bush, come back!
Tags: Victor Davis Hanson
