Of course I couldn't help myself last night and I gave another 14 minutes of my life to the Bush presidency, watching his weird smirky face say farewell to the nation. His speech was exactly as I expected. What I find off is the number of pundits and commentators who are annoyed if not downright angry that the guy has spent that last couple of weeks spinning his time in office as a success when we all know it was an abject failure. What on earth did anyone expect?
Should Bush have said, "I tricked the nation into a war it didn't need, at tremendous human and monetary cost. I was wrong"? Should he have said, "My policies let the rich prosper and wrecked the economy. Oh well"? And should he have concluded with, "I have successfully destroyed the environment as well as scientific research, or at least have removed the role of the government in the promotion of scientific and rational thought"? No way he was going to say any of that.
We got the guy we elected, and he behaved the way we should have expected him to behave. More than that, we elect presidents to lead, to be certain, to be calm, to give us direction. Bush may have led in the wrong direction, but it was his direction, and he did lead us there. When he says that he's proudest of "making the tough decisions" I think this is exactly what he means. At this point very few agree with him, but he remained who he was. He did what he set out to do, no matter how disastrous the outcome. Good riddance to him, but I don't see why we should expect an apology. He's only ever been himself.
History will judge the past eight years. I have little doubt history will not vindicate him, but the one way he's right is in leaving the judgement to the future. In the meantime, we're thankfully moving on, and it's time to get ready for Tuesday. Time to break out the Obama yo-yos, commemorative thongs, onesies, Franklin Mint coins, and plates decorated with the Electoral College vote. If nothing else, at least the kitsch-fueled sector of our economy is working again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don't care who is in the white house.I just want the person in the white house 2 b smarter then me.our economy will not rebound 4 some time.small businesses r suffering.people r not buying.and no one is going 2 buy overpriced anything people.WAKE-UP.It is not happening.the dollar stores r the hottest ticket in town.GREED,GREED kills business quicker then anything.tunsie.tunsie.tunsie
BUT..... will history recall him as "The Decider" ?
Or just the boob that traded Sammy Sosa for three nobodies that lasted a combined 90 days in MLB. (Sammy played for many many Home Run filled years in Chi town.)
I hope history will remember his definition of Soverign Nations!
Post a Comment