Grace and dignity from unpopular man

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of Bush (mostly because of his fiscal policies and religious bias), but the hatred he incurs is outrageous and undeserved. He's kept us safe, which is the MOST important of a presidential task. So, it's nice to see articles, such as this one, recognizing the grace with which he has endured the taunting, personal attacks and general hatred constantly spewed against him. It takes a special person to rise above these things. And while I think he should not be so apologetic now, especially about his foreign policy decisions, this is another reason why he is a good, if not great man. Can you see Clinton being sincerely apologetic about anything? He's about as humble and sincere as O.J.

Velcro Presidency

Leadership: George W. Bush was pegged as a hate figure even before being sworn in. Yet he resisted bitterness, stuck to principle and became what history will judge to be one of our better presidents.

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We may have witnessed in the last eight the Anti-Watergate. Richard Milhous Nixon never forgot a slight, used federal law enforcement powers against his political enemies and infuriated the Republican Party's conservative base with policies ranging from wage and price controls to detente with communists to Supreme Court appointments.

President George W. Bush

Soon-to-be-ex-President Bush, on the other hand, has taken at least as much personal abuse, yet his graciousness seldom fails. While the 37th president acidly told the press, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," the 43rd told the reporters at his final presidential press conference Monday that they were "just people trying to do the best they possibly can."
That's charitable in the extreme: Every step of the way, the establishment press has been eager to see this president fail.
And unlike Nixon, who so disappointed his supporters on the right that he was challenged for the GOP nomination in 1972, Bush stuck to the conservative principles on many if not most issues, including income and investment tax cuts, the invasion of two terror states and the appointment of Supreme Court justices.
Bush came to the plate with two strikes against him. He was falsely accused of stealing the 2000 election and hit the ground in the middle of a recession. Then came the first attack on the homeland since Pearl Harbor. In the face of the threat to both the U.S. and the free world, the commander in chief made war against governments that sponsored terrorism and cut taxes to revitalize the post-9/11 economy.
As he noted Monday, when the establishments of both parties in Washington insisted on throwing in the towel in Iraq, rather than accepting the status quo because the party might end up not doing well in the elections, Bush "decided to do something about it — and sent 30,000 troops in as opposed to withdrawing."
Asked about alleged damage to America's international image, the president offered a challenge: "Ask Africans about America's generosity and compassion; go to India . . . go to China and ask . . .. No question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries."
On Hurricane Katrina, he asked: "When I hear people say, 'The federal response was slow,' then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?"
The one foreign-policy area where Bush may legitimately be faulted in the history books is in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions. As the New York Times reported Saturday, a major covert program that would "subtly sabotage Iran's nuclear infrastructure" was begun by the administration early last year. It would "undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other networks on which Iran relies" and "is aimed at delaying the day that Iran can produce the weapons-grade fuel and designs it needs to produce a workable nuclear weapon."
If Barack Obama lets that program succeed, it'll be yet another reason history may place "the Velcro president" somewhere near the top tier occupied by the "the Teflon president," Ronald Reagan.