Vindication

A Motivational Poster for George W. Bush’s Library

Excerpt:

In case the font is too small, the words at the bottom are: “VINDICATION: When the loudest critic of your policies achieves his greatest success because of them.”

Comment: Yup!

The tea party released the GOP establishment from its shame cringe.

Tea Party to the Rescue: How the GOP was saved from Bush and the establishment.

Excerpts:

The tea party did something the Republican establishment was incapable of doing: It got the party out from under George W. Bush. The tea party rejected his administration's spending, overreach and immigration proposals, among other items, and has become only too willing to say so. In doing this, the tea party allowed the Republican establishment itself to get out from under Mr. Bush: "We had to, boss, it was a political necessity!" They released the GOP establishment from its shame cringe.

And they not only freed the Washington establishment, they woke it up. That establishment, composed largely of 50- to 75-year-olds who came to Washington during the Reagan era in a great rush of idealism, in many cases stayed on, as they say, not to do good but to do well. They populated a conservative infrastructure that barely existed when Reagan was coming up: the think tanks and PR groups, the media outlets and governmental organizations. They did not do what conservatives are supposed to do, which is finish their patriotic work and go home, taking the knowledge and sophistication derived from Washington and applying it to local problems. (This accounts in part for the esteem in which former Bush budget chief and current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is held. He went home.)

The GOP establishment stayed, and one way or another lived off government, breathed in its ways and came to know—learned all too well!—the limits of what is possible and passable. Part of the social and cultural reality behind the tea party-GOP establishment split has been the sheer fact that tea partiers live in non-D.C. America. The establishment came from America, but hasn't lived there in a long time.

...

This election is about one man, Barack Obama, who fairly or not represents the following: the status quo, Washington, leftism, Nancy Pelosi, Fannie and Freddie, and deficits in trillions, not billions.

Everyone who votes is going to be pretty much voting yay or nay on all of that. And nothing can change that story line now.

Comment: Good read from Peggy Noonan

College Station TX trip

We returned yesterday from our brief trip to Texas. We flew to Dallas on Friday and rented a car to drive to Bryan / College Station, TX. We attended a rehearsal dinner Friday night, a wedding and reception on Saturday, and then drove to Mansfield TX on Sunday. Sunday night we celebrated my Mother's 90th birthday.

• Our rental car was a new Nissan Altima. Although it is considered a mid-sized car, it had a lot of interior room. And although it only had a 4 cylinder engine, it had a lot of power.
  
• Saturday morning we visited the George Bush Museum on the campus of Texas A & M University
  
• This was our first time being South of Dallas by car. The country side is beautiful.
  

Back to the reality of work today!

Blame Bush is Obama's mantra

Obama's 'buck' still often stops with Bush

Excerpts:

Over and over, Obama keeps reminding Americans of the mess he inherited and all he's doing to fix it. A sharper, give-me-some-credit tone has emerged in his language as he bemoans Washington's fleeting memory about what life was like way back in 2008.

...

"I don't need to remind any of you about the situation we found ourselves in at the beginning of this year," Obama told people at a Home Depot stop last month. And then he reminded them anyway, detailing a nation in financial freefall when he took office.

Comment: President Bush is gracious enough to not speak up or complain!

Bush's legacy: He kept us safe!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Bush’s Last Televised Address

Excerpt:

This evening, my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house – September 11, 2001. That morning, terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock. I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93. I remember Arlene Howard, who gave me her fallen son's police shield as a reminder of all that was lost. And I still carry his badge.

As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before Nine-Eleven. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our Nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.

Comment: Widely loathed, President Bush will be well-remembered by history. But probably not in his (or my) lifetime.

Updated: Denny Burk: "A Few Thoughts on Bush’s Speech"

Bush ... quick reactions.

Comment: Still has a sense of humor too! Iraqi journalist hurls shoes at 'dog' Bush

Credit President Bush for our safety

Peggy Noonan: 'At Least Bush Kept Us Safe'

Excerpts:

There's a rough justice with the American people. If a president presides over prosperity, whether he had anything to do with it or not, he gets the credit. If he has a recession, he gets the blame. The same with war, and terrorist attacks. We have not been attacked since 9/11. Someone—someones—did something right.

Comments: In my own "book of blames". I blame the Democrats for the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac mess. I blame the wholly uneducated American consumer - just plain STUPID about debt - for our debt crisis. And I credit President Bush for our safety.

Path to growth: ""free markets and free people"

The Surest Path Back to Prosperity

Excerpts:

This crisis did not develop overnight, and it's not going to be solved overnight. There's going to be difficult days ahead.

...

History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, it is too much government involvement in the market. We saw this in the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Because these firms were chartered by the U.S. Congress, many believed they were backed by the full faith and credit of the U. S. government. Investors put huge amounts of money into Fannie and Freddie, which they used to build up irresponsibly large portfolios of mortgage-backed securities. When the housing market declined, these securities, of course, plummeted in value. It took a taxpayer-funded rescue to keep Fannie and Freddie from collapsing in a way that would have devastated the global financial system. There is a clear lesson: Our aim should not be more government -- it should be smarter government.

All this leads to the most important principle that should guide our work: While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people.

Classless disrespect for the President

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace

Excerpts:

It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.

...

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

W on McCain ... and Obama

McCain is a ‘true conservative,’ Bush says

On McCain:

John McCain is a "true conservative," President Bush says, although the presumptive Republican presidential nominee may have to work harder to convince other conservatives that he is one of their own.

McCain "is very strong on national defense," Bush said in an interview taped for airing on "Fox News Sunday." "He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I'm concerned."

On Obama:

"I certainly don't know what he believes in."

Comment: With messages like this, who can know what Obama believes in!

Bush: "addiction competes for your affection"

Bush: Faith Helped Him Beat Drinking

Excerpt:

President Bush called his one-time struggle with alcohol an "addiction"—a blunt characterization of his life before he relied on his faith to help turn it around.
"Addiction is hard to overcome," Bush said, speaking Tuesday at a faith-based center that helps former prisoners get job training and other help.

"As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life," the president said. "I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

Increasingly, Bush has reflected in candid terms about his days of drinking. Last month, he told some young recovering addicts to stick with their fight against drugs and cited his own experiences with alcohol years ago. He said at that time that "addiction competes for your affection ... you fall in love with alcohol."


Comment: Candid, interesting, encouraging.