"What Bush Got Right" from Fareed Zakaria

Lord knows I loathe Bu$hCo and yet I became hardly a fan of The Clenis. He was always too centrist for me yet the rise of toe-sucking scumbag consultant Dick Morris surely doomed that administration's effectiveness. The lies he told related to Ms. Lewinsky surely damaged his effectiveness and I agree he brought dishonor to the White House. A "censure and move on" approach always suited me. Yet I must share a "Nobody died when Clinton lied!" before I move on.

Bu$hCo has done more to rehabilitate The Clenis than I'd have ever been able to imagine just a decade ago. To find any good from Bu$h is tough but Fareed Zakaria has managed. His Newsweek piece What Bush Got Right: For the next president, simply reversing this administration's policies is not the answer is a must read. I'll share the following:

... this is not meant as a defense of George W. Bush. The administration made monumental errors in its first few years, ones that have cost the United States enormously. ...

... Bush 43 has surely been the most fiscally irresponsible president in American history, taking surpluses that equaled 2.5 percent of GDP and turning them into deficits that are 3 percent. This is a $4 trillion hit on the country's balance sheet. On the central issue of energy policy—the greatest economic challenge and opportunity of our times—Bush has been utterly obstructionist, recycling the self-serving arguments of industry lobbyists. On the whole, Bush's record remains one of failure and missed opportunities.

So why offer this corrective? Because we cannot go back to 2001. The next president will inherit the world as it is in 2009. He will have to examine the Bush administration's policies as they stand in January 2009—not as they were in 2001 or 2002 or 2003—and decide how to accept, modify and alter them. There was a U.S. president who came into office convinced that everything his predecessor had done was feckless, stupid, ill-informed and venal. He rejected and tried to reverse everything that he could, almost as an article of faith. Before he had even examined the policies carefully, he knew that they had to be changed. The base of his party was delighted by his clarity and fighting spirit.

That president, of course, was George W. Bush. His decision to blindly repudiate anything associated with Bill Clinton is what got us into this mess in the first place. Let's hope that the next president, no matter how much he despises Bush, will take a careful look at his administration's policies, America's interests, and the world beyond and do the right thing for the country and its future.

"Do the right thing" begins I'd suggest with and rejecting Conservatism and embracing Progressivism. I know St. John and especially those handling Huggy will not come close. I fear Senator Obama and his rather corporatist, centrist effort will not go nearly far enough. So it comes down to groups and people ranging from those in Congress to regular folks all the way down to the net/grassroots. "We are the ones we've been waiting for." John Gunn