“If we’re going to have a nuclear holocaust, I’m going to the buffet first” – National Review 2008 Post Election Cruise – part 7
The Bush Legacy
Full disclosure, I have been a fan of George Bush for a long
time, and I am reluctant to offer criticism of his presidency, even
when deserved. I knew this particular session would be difficult
for me to listen to personally, but I’m going to try and report in
a balanced manner. We will see if I’m successful.
The best way to sum up the session was a comment I overheard
after it was over,
Notice that the people who were closest to him, have the best
things to say about the strength of his character.
Deroy Murdock opened up with a very well thought out summary of
his presidency, which linked back to Bush’s first inauguration
speech, where he used words beginning with the letter “C” to
highlight his agenda and philosophy. Deroy has a list of 6 “C”
words to use in summarizing the last 8 years.
Credit - He deserves credit for a range of
issues that he got right. These include the war on terrorism, Iraq,
Supreme Court justices, and taxes.
Carter - Like Carter did to the Democrats, Bush
has served to weaken our movement through the wholesale expansion
of government and growth of federal spending.
Core - Bush doesn’t have a core set of
principles that define his conservatism.
Christian - This isn’t a criticism of his
faith, but of following of the principle of “turn the other cheek”.
His unwillingness to fight back and defend his policies only served
to weaken him.
Communicate - Both his personal style, and the
incompetent public relations team that he assembled, were
ineffective in conveying and defending his policies.
Crawford - It is time for him to go back
there.
Obviously, it was quite a harsh assessment. It was echoed by
David Freddoso, who had given me a preliminary taste of his dislike
for the Bush presidency the night before, over drinks,
The Bush people knew how to win and election, but they don’t
know how to govern.
As the author of “The Case Against Barack Obama”, David offered
the opinion that in the end, we may be saying the same thing about
Obama. When discussing Obama he opined,
Obama goes through life like Mr. McGoo. It is an odd case of
cognitive dissonance for someone so intelligent.
While Deroy and David were the harshest critics on the panel
(and noticeably those with the least personal experience with the
President), others were more mixed in their assessments.
Mona Charen believes that we will soon miss George W. Bush very
much, similar to Tiberius choosing Caligula as his successor to
guarantee that he would be missed. She also believes that we, as a
country, will be famous for our ingratitude at being kept safe for
the last 7 years. However, she also leveled criticism of Bush’s
inability to communicate the right message, or even the politically
adroit one. An example was given of the signing ceremony for the
ban on partial birth abortion, where he was flanked by all men.
This gave Planned Parenthood the visual fodder for their campaign
asking women if they were going to let “these white men decide the
fate of your body?” He could have easily instead staged the
ceremony with women holding infants.
Going forward, our motto needs to be “no more Mr. Nice Guy”.
We can’t afford to lose the battle over policy perceptions, by
refusing to engage due to a desire for comity and bi-partisanship.
The final point that she made was that Bush was very poorly served
by Colin Powell and Richard Armitage during the Valerie Plame
fiasco. They were criminally disloyal to him, and have largely
escaped any criticism or punishment.
Pat Toomey evaluated Bush’s economic legacy, calling it a “mixed
bag”. The good was Bush’s effective policies on trade and his
successful efforts on tax cuts. He was the best supply-sider since
Reagan. The bad was the removal of too many people from the tax
rolls, limiting the market for tax cuts as effective economic
policy. The ugly was the expansion of entitlements and spending
with No Child Left Behind and the prescription drug bill. He
offered the following warning as we choose our next candidate (and
I think this also applies to our last candidate),
Beware any politician who can’t articulate a core philosophy of
personal liberty and small government.
Next Ed Whelan evaluated Bush’s legacy regarding the courts. He
dismissed the criticism of the Meirs nomination, pointing out that
the firestorm around the nomination was necessary to force the
acceptance of the Alito nomination by the moderates in the party.
He also reminded us that going 2 for 2 in the Supreme Court is a
pretty good legacy, since Reagan went 1 for 3 (Scalia vs. O’Connor
and Kennedy) and Bush 41 went 1 for 2 (Thomas vs. Souter).
Finally, there were a couple of panelists that had worked in the
administration, including Bill McGurn (former Bush speechwriter and
now with the Wall Street Journal). He took Deroy’s criticism on
directly, saying the credit that Bush deserves makes for a damn
good legacy. Very few Presidents leave office with a legacy like
the one Deroy cited. He also disagreed with Mona and Deroy
regarding communications.
He gave many speeches about the rational for the war, and tried
to get ahead of the WMD stockpiles issue. Those speeches were
ignored in the press’s quest to get Bush to admit he had made a
mistake. In my opinion, the left will never forgive him for not
losing this war, when they called it lost.
He also defended the term “Compassionate Conservatism”, which
had been disparaged by the panel. He does not want to surrender the
word to the left, since fundamentally conservatism is the
philosophy of compassion.
Shannen Coffin was also on the panel, the former chief legal
advisor to Dick Cheney. He joked that in the Vice President’s
office, they would say, “We put the conservatism in compassionate
conservatism.” He was asked the likely recipients of presidential
pardons and felt that Scooter Libby has a decent chance of getting
one. He also is doubtful that the convicted border agents will
receive one, and declined to elaborate on the reasons. He was also
sharply critical of the Plame investigation,
Scooter Libby is an example of the dangerous Democrat trend to
criminalize political differences.
Ed Whelan followed up by hoping that the President will be able
to give a blanket pardon to all involved in the prosecution of the
war on terror to avoid any possibility of political reprisals.
While the left will howl in anger over this, ultimately the Obama
administration will thank him for it, since it will remove a
serious distraction that would detract from their agenda.
John O’Sullivan provided insight into the international
attitudes toward Bush. He started by pointing out that
international hatred toward America is really overstated. People
who hate America all want to come to America, benefit from our
economy, and be treated by our doctors. Anti-Americanism is simply
a political philosophy that can’t even stand up to simple
inconvenience, much less serious threat. He noted that there is
enormous international interest in our electoral process itself
because it shows that in America, unlike their countries, the
people really do rule. He also provided this interesting assessment
of the Bush Presidency,
In the end, Bush strengthened conservatism by showing that it is
an independent force capable of fighting and winning against the
full might of the Presidency and the political establishment.
Finally, Fred Thompson offered his assessment, in his typical
down-home style,
Now I agree with everything that has been said here, but I
didn’t see any conservatives taking to the streets to complain.
His top concern going forward is entitlements, and is worried
about the effect those underfunded obligations will have on our
economic future. He is also fearful that this economic crisis will
end up being “Bush’s Crisis”, after the Obama administration
exacerbates the problem and extends the length by making it worse.
He also believes that the “Bush Lied, People Died”, meme is the
“most historically evil mischaracterization ever levied against a
President.” Finally, he offered his opinion on Bush’s ultimate
legacy,
Historians don’t write about health plans and educational
policies. They write about acts of political courage taken for the
benefit of the country, by making decisions in the face of
withering criticism.
Return to
Part 6.
Part 8 will look at the future of conservatism.
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