Author Topic: Bush Unplugged....great article  (Read 1665 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline 5412

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2062
  • Reputation: +220/-78
Bush Unplugged....great article
« on: June 25, 2009, 12:42:12 AM »
 

Bush Unplugged
By: Dr. Paul Kengor
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was at President Bush's speech in Erie, Pennsylvania, last week -- and here is the unreported truth.
Last Wednesday evening, I witnessed a remarkable event, which is being misreported and misperceived-from the Drudge Report to the White House-in antagonistic ways I plainly didn't see. I shouldn't be surprised, since it involved George W. Bush.

It was the 104th annual event of the Erie-based Manufacturer & Business Association, which attracts top speakers from all over the world. June 17 was no exception, as Ralph Pontillo and his staff brought in the 43rd president of the United States.

As president, George W. Bush was, of course, widely disregarded for his oratorical shortcomings.   His failure to communicate his core message, especially regarding his Middle East vision, was central to his record disapproval.

And yet, Bush was magnificent last Wednesday. He spoke with no teleprompter and few notes. After formal remarks, he reclined in a leather chair and answered audience-supplied questions. It was Bush unplugged.

I can't do justice to all that was said. I'll share a handful of items not getting the wider attention they deserve:

Referring to post-9/11 America, Bush calmly conceded, in a refreshingly frank manner: "I'm surprised we didn't have another attack."

We should all be surprised. Credit for that colossal accomplishment-Bush's first priority after 9/11-goes to this president, who got little thanks.

Speaking of ingratitude, the unpopular ex-president didn't whine about how he was poorly treated, and acknowledged he doesn't sit around "psychoanalyzing" himself. Besides, he suffered something worse: He said it was far harder watching his father get attacked as president.

This was telling. George W. Bush idolizes his father. He talks of the "unspeakable" reassurance of the "unconditional love" of his father, which he compares to the unconditional love of his "heavenly father." After watching his dad absorb arrows for four years, only to lose to Bill Clinton, the shots he took for eight years were easy.

Besides, said Bush, he can look in the mirror knowing he didn't "sell his soul" for political gain. He always did what he felt was "morally right."

The George W. Bush presidency was truly the sacrificial presidency.

What was more, Bush, a history buff and history major at Yale, noted that he had three busts installed at the Oval Office: Churchill, Lincoln, and Eisenhower. Ironically, he did that before 9/11, and it occurred to him only later that all three were wartime leaders. He couldn't imagine the war he faced, and asserted that the most unexpected aspect of being president is preparing for the unexpected-"to prepare for the worst and hope for the best."

On this point, President Bush didn't pause to zing President Obama for removing that bust of Churchill. Quite the contrary, Bush promised, to tepid applause, that the one thing he will not do as ex-president is rip the current president: "I didn't like it when it happened to me [read: Jimmy Carter], and I'm not going to do it to others."

Here, reports that Bush "slammed" Obama are untrue. Naturally, he unavoidably made clear his preference for policy solutions in contrast to the central planning now governing Washington. At the same time, he dismissed fears that the nation was rushing toward "socialism."

Bush shared a fascinating insight into his conviction that the Middle East can be democratically transformed. He reaffirmed his faith-based belief that Middle East Muslims have an inherent yearning for freedom placed on their hearts by a "loving God." To think otherwise was "condescending." God created them, too.

He made explicit reference, speaking passionately, and to hushed silence, about Muslim women in particular, and how they long to be educated and raise their babies in freedom. That emphatic statement from Bush haunts me right now as I now watch footage of Iranian women literally taking bullets for freedom-martyred women who may be the modern equivalent of that Tiananmen student who stood in front of a tank 20 years ago this month.

These were messages right out of the best speech of his presidency, his November 2003 address to the National Endowment for Democracy.

What was new was the personal way he brought Japan into the equation. After World War II, many judged that Japan couldn't become a democracy. Japan was out-of-control, recklessly belligerent. It was that culture, that insane war-machine, which shot down Bush's dad in the 1940s.

And yet, explained Bush, not only did Japan change dramatically, unthinkably, but one of his best friends as president was Japan's prime minister, who was the first to telephone after 9/11.

Imagine, exhorted Bush: There he was, President George Bush, son of President George Bush. The father had been shot down by imperial, anti-democratic Japan. Now, after 9/11, peaceful, democratic Japan was calling the son to express condolences and offer help.

That moving message deserves pause: If Japan could change that much, what might transpire in the Middle East? It's a promising prospect, one every skeptic of Iraqi democracy should bear in mind.

This was George W. Bush in Erie, Pennsylvania on June 17-inspiring, colorful, communicating the big picture.

Alas, the one major disappointment from the event is that no video or transcript is available. All rights belong to the 43rd president. I imagine this gem will end up on a shelf at the Bush Library, left to lonely scholars with a VCR, watching with a mix of awe, confusion, and frustration.

Awe at the supposedly poor communicator delivering this engaging message. Confusion as to why he couldn't communicate the message as president. And frustration that the millions who ought to be watching never will.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul Kengor is author of God and George W. Bush (HarperCollins, 2004), professor of political science, and executive director of the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. His latest book is The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand (Ignatius Press, 2007).


 

Offline thundley4

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 40571
  • Reputation: +2222/-127
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2009, 01:43:14 AM »
I think history will judge President Bush far less critically than the current political wonks have done.

Offline TheSarge

  • Platoon Sergeant
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9557
  • Reputation: +411/-252
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2009, 07:06:19 AM »
Quote
Confusion as to why he couldn't communicate the message as president.

It's all in how you cut the soundbite for the newscast.

I've heard him speak three different times...never had a problem communicating his message on any of those occasions.
Liberalism Is The Philosophy Of The Stupid

The libs/dems of today are the Quislings of former years.  The cowards who would vote a fraud into office in exchange for handouts from the devil.

If it walks like a donkey and brays like a donkey and smells like a donkey - it's Cold Warrior.  - PoliCon



Palin has run a state, a town and a commercial fishing operation. Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. - Mark Steyn

Offline JohnnyReb

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 32063
  • Reputation: +1997/-134
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2009, 07:32:17 AM »
Unplugged: The word will forever more make me think of a bald headed Joe Biden.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."  Stalin

Offline DixieBelle

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12143
  • Reputation: +512/-49
  • Still looking for my pony.....
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2009, 07:38:00 AM »
Excellent article. Thanks for sharing that!
I can see November 2 from my house!!!

Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.

Forget change, bring back common sense.
-------------------------------------------------

No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle

Offline Lord Undies

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11388
  • Reputation: +639/-250
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2009, 07:38:55 AM »
While shopping in town last evening for a greeting card, I came across a birthday card of interest.  The front of the card pictured the smiling face of President George W. Bush.  The inside of the card said, "Every Birthday Party Needs A Clown".  

Offline MrsSmith

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5977
  • Reputation: +465/-54
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2009, 05:25:33 PM »
Those that pay attention know that Republicans are always smeared in the media while Democrats are fawned upon.  If W had been at all as moronic as the media portrayed, he would have neither frightened our enemies, nor gained the respect of our allies.  In truth, by painting him the way they did, the media smeared the entire world...only an idiot reacts to an idiot the way the world reacted to W. 

Thank you for that article. 
.
.


Antifa - the only fascists in America today.

Offline docstew

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4741
  • Reputation: +281/-187
  • My Wife is awesome!
Re: Bush Unplugged....great article
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2009, 05:17:41 AM »
Those that pay attention know that Republicans are always smeared in the media while Democrats are fawned upon.  If W had been at all as moronic as the media portrayed, he would have tried drooling on himself, but missed, then forgotten how to breatheneither frightened our enemies, nor gained the respect of our allies.  In truth, by painting him the way they did, the media smeared the entire world...only an idiot reacts to an idiot the way the world reacted to W. 

Thank you for that article. 

Fixed