Reflections, The Stuff Wisdom is Made Of...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Rodin, The Thinker

I've been thinking again. I know, there are many who no doubt view the idea of me thinking as an oxymoron. As I always say, so what? Somebody has to do it.

Has it ever occurred to either the fringe extreme left or right they may actually be at the point where reason and the absurd actually meet and the same? That is to say the absurd.

Given the hyperbole, platitudes, and sophistry of both are guilty of one can only conclude that for both ignorance is in fact their bliss.

Yeah, I know I've sited no specific examples of either. I suppose, being honest, that is the point.

One thing about blogging, it does have the danger of broadening ones perspective. Assuming of course one actually thinks for themselves and identifies critical issues.

For this relatively shallow thinker (just ask the progressive community for their thoughts on this statement) it seems most who travel on either extreme seem to miss (I believe intentionally) the bigger picture. Question. Are we all Americans?

Okay, I your question will be what do you know? After all I've been around only 60 years and seen and experienced a lot, as have many others as old and older than even I am. Just wondering here, do we have anything to offer in the way of experience and wisdom?

But I have digressed.

George W. Bush, the 43'rd President of the United States and one I consider to be perhaps the least effective right behind the corrupt Ulysses S. Grant, is reviled by both the left as well as many on the right. Hindsight, coupled with not being the one in the hot seat really does give critics safe haven doesn't it?

Politico has an interesting article on just this subject today, which gave way for this rather rambling post. But once again as I've always said said, who cares? Somebody has to do it.

Selected excerpts:

Reviled by Democrats and generally avoided as a campaign talking point by his fellow Republicans, the former president is in a self-imposed political exile — an absence that was underscored in the last two weeks as his father and brother backed Mitt Romney.

Bush’s only presence in the Republican campaign is by association, as President Barack Obama’s campaign and national Democrats pin three years of recession and the now-unpopular Mideast wars on the 43rd president. More than 40 percent of voters still blame Bush for the nation’s economic problems. Congressional Republicans hold him at a distance, and some have faulted his policies for helping to give rise to the unpredictable tea-party movement.

“It saddens me, because I think that President Bush, through a perilous time for our country, kept us safe,” said former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. “And people forget he came in with a recession, he left with a recession but in the middle, the economy boomed.”

Like many former Bush hands, most of whom declined to speak for the record, Fleischer suggested Bush is getting a raw deal from his fellow Republicans.

“He’s taken a lot of hits, and politicians know how to read polls, and I understand why they’re not asking President Bush to stand at their side. But I think it’s unfortunate,” Fleischer said.

But instead of looking for a second act once off the stage like Bill Clinton — who eagerly interjected himself into the 2008 Democratic primary between his wife and Obama — Bush is, except for speeches and personal travel, in virtual hiding in Texas, where he bought a home in Dallas. Yet friends and former aides say that he has chosen to be in the wings.

“George W. Bush has never needed the mirror of politics to reflect who he is,” said former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon, describing Bush as “at peace” with his current life.

“Obama didn’t beat McCain, he ran against and destroyed George W. Bush,” said one longtime Republican insider. “Anywhere Bush had a favorable under 35, Obama won and that was most of the country…the GOP feels he hollowed out the GOP brand, eroding the GOP’s core strength on spending restraint. No longer could the GOP claim to be the adult in the family, managing the family budget responsibly.”

Bush had equal culpability in how he handled the nation’s two Mideast wars, the strategist said.

A spokesman for the former president said he had “no plans to endorse, at least not at present.”

“He is enjoying his life in Texas. He’s not seeking the limelight. And he is really focused on the Bush Center,” the spokesman said.

“President Bush read three books about George Washington during his last year as president. He said that if historians were still analyzing the first president, then the 43rd didn’t have a lot to worry about because he would never know how history would view his presidency.”

Another former aide agreed, saying, “The way President Bush has been treated by many in the party is disappointing…rank-and-file Republicans should be concerned about that because they won’t defend Bush and his record for the same reasons they won’t defend Paul Ryan’s efforts on the budget and Medicare. It requires them to stand up for principles and articulate why it’s better for the country and for too many of our elected politicians, it’s just easier to duck and cover.”

But a veteran Republican operative pushed back, noting that congressional Republicans were, for much of Bush’s two terms, marching to a drum that the president was beating.

“He was the leader of the party,” said the operative. “It’s not like they were just sending him their bills to sign.”

Bush’s behavior is a stark contrast post-presidency to Bill Clinton, a political animal who, even in his final year in office, got involved in his wife’s run for Senate in New York. He was highly popular after departing the White House, and was heavily deployed by John Kerry as a surrogate in the 2004 presidential race. His brush with mortality during that presidential cycle after a heart ailment merely added to a sense of Clinton as a sympathetic figure.

Clinton remained one of his party’s major rainmakers.

Yet Bush has never had the political neediness of Clinton, and is not spurred on by what Fleischer dubbed “the roar of the crowd.” {Full Article Here}

Indeed. History has a profound way of eventually casting Presidents in a more objective light than did their contemporaries. George W. Bush may very well be viewed more favorably by history. Just as Harry Truman ultimately has been.

In the meantime this political animal will continue on the path that hopefully one day will lead to the achievement of reason and truth. Whatever the cost.

Via: Memeorandum