Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
--Theodore Roosevelt
Listening to the fatuous Al Gore claim his undeserved Nobel Prize and maunder on about how America is ruining the planet makes me realize how fortunate America is to have as its president George W. Bush. Yes, Bush has his ample share of failings. He occasionally speaks at the fifth-grade level. He is too willing to surround himself with cronies and sycophants. An unsupple man, Bush sometimes reminds me of the toy soldier who walks into the wall and keeps going.
Bush's weaknesses, however, are more than compensated for by his one great strength. This is a man with unbelievable tenacity. No American president in my lifetime, not even Reagan, had Bush's guts. Perhaps one would have to go all the way back to Franklin or Teddy Roosevelt to find comparable determination. On the international stage, Bush's stamina recalls that of Churchill. Consider: when Bush was elected in 2000 with the tiniest conceivable margin--a margin so slender it required Supreme Court intervention to place him in the Oval Office--I was sure that Bush's proposed tax cuts were dead. But no: Bush pushed ahead and got most of what he proposed. And the subsequent health of the economy--low interest rates, low unemployment, steady growth--has undoubtedly been nourished by Bush's tax cuts.
Then in 2006, after the midterm debacle, I thought that Bush's Iraq policy was finished. And you could hear the pundits and the newly-elected Democratic congressmen and the pathological Bush-haters gleefully declaring, "Now he's going to have to start pulling out of Iraq." Instead Bush pressed for an increase of 20,000-25,000 troops. Incredibly, he got it. Congress shrieked and howled but went along. The American people were very doubtful, but Bush serenely told them to "wait and see." Bush has seemingly singe-handedly pursued his vision for Iraq even when his allies both at home and abroad have dwindled or lost their nerve. And once again Bush's policy seems to be working. Iraq is becoming more peaceful, and apparently there are Shia and Sunni leaders cooperating with the Americans. The Bush-haters are still with us, but the wind has gone out of the antiwar movement.
Bush has had a tough second term in office. But I think history will be kinder to him than the opinion polls, at least in the past couple of years, have been. When the country looks back at Iraq and sees a standing, even if fragile, democracy, Americans will see that when they became impatient, Bush forged ahead. When they were ready to give up, he was undeterred. And as a consequence the Middle East has its first Muslim democracy, and a pro-American democracy to boot. The lesson of Iraq may well be: Thank God we didn't listen to those advocates of defeat on the left; if we had, it would have been Vietnam all over again.
The diplomat Clare Luce once wrote that history, which has no room for clutter, will remember every president by just one line. I'm not quite sure how Bill Clinton will be remembered: perhaps his only distinguishing mark will be the one that Paula Jones identified. As for Bush, he will go down in history as the president who refused to back down, and if staying the course in Iraq proves to be the right move, then Bush could be remembered as one of America's great presidents.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 42)
1. are you sure your not the janitor at stanford?
because this blog has to be the most intellectually dishonest post i have ever seen.
im not going to even go into the laundry list of facts that you conveniently ignored to make your point.
stick to debating the existence of god dinesh,
your quite good at that.
otherwise,stay at the kiddie table of historical law debates,let the "big people" discuss those issues.
your way out of your league.
would you like some cake and ice cream?
enoch at 9:11AM on Dec 14th 2007
2. Maybe he'll go down in history as the guy who, unintentially, put the final nails in the Neo-conservative movements coffin?
Let's hope he does, at least it will be one good thing...
Ryan Anderson at 9:18AM on Dec 14th 2007
3. Dinesh, I couldn't agree more.
don the baptist at 9:18AM on Dec 14th 2007
4. Al Gore's medal was undeserved? So now you are the final arbiter of Nobel prizes. Good for you Dinesh.
By the way... didn't your Jesus say "judge not lest ye be judged."?
MY MOST HATED THING IN THE WORLD IS HYPOCRITES. AND YOU SIR ARE A HYPOCRITAL A-HOLE.
RMWiersema at 9:24AM on Dec 14th 2007
5. Oh and you translate Bush "tenacity" into guts. I translate his "tenacity" as nothing going on upstairs. The drugs ate his brains. He doesn't feel. He doesn't think on his own. He is told what to do and what to say. Nothing more. And certainly less... upstairs.
RMWiersema at 9:26AM on Dec 14th 2007
6. I nearly died laughing.....
abbkaw at 9:37AM on Dec 14th 2007
7. the only freedom liberals give is the freedom to agree
brian at 9:39AM on Dec 14th 2007
8. enoch, At least Dinesh knows where the Shift key is on his keyboard. "Big people" know how to use capital letters in their sentences. And I bet that Dinesh also knows the difference between "your" and "you're". Maybe you should stay out of these discussions until you're old enough to vote.
Stan at 9:42AM on Dec 14th 2007
9. Tenacity? Didn't you mean inability to admit failure? The man can't admit to his mistakes and that is NOT a favorable trait when running a country. He is a corrupt, hypocritical, self-serving, childishly stubborn and unintelligent excuse for a political leader. But as always, Dinesh, you will twist the facts in favor of your poorly constructed argument. Luckily, some of us have the brains to see through that.
emma at 9:42AM on Dec 14th 2007
10. you liberals are spineless worms who grovel in the muck. clouds without rain. your a shame to manhood and valor and dignity. spineless i tell you just spineless. the greatest generations should have made you a little tougher instead of such whining spineless worms. you have no back bone. instead of berating bush if you don't like him vote for a demon-crat next time. they will certainly duck and run.
brian at 9:43AM on Dec 14th 2007
11. Yea, brian, let's all be kind like you, accepting of all views, non-judgemental and driven by logical thought...
emma at 9:46AM on Dec 14th 2007
12. Lower case brian needs people to hate.
I feel very sad for him.
Ryan Anderson at 9:49AM on Dec 14th 2007
13. Once again the left is making Mr. Dsouza's point for him.
Instead of a persuasive debate, we get coercion.
To RMWiersema, taking quotes out of context from the bible doesn't make an argument.
People on the left, if you wish to claim a superior morality, you need to start by not letting your emotions get to you.
pd at 9:53AM on Dec 14th 2007
14. This is a joke, right?
The most basic dolt in government knew that Iraq and Iran balanced each other out. You take out Iraq, and, coincidence of coincidences, Iran is beating its chest, holding holocaust-denial conferences, and threatening nukes. Why elevate them by taking out THEIR ENEMY AND AL QAEDA'S ENEMY, ie: sadaam hussein.
WHY KILL THE ENEMY OF OUR ENEMY?
WHY???
stuart joshua at 9:54AM on Dec 14th 2007
15. Amazing that fellows at stanford are no smarter than mid-america conservative blatherers, who think that guts is all it takes to be a great leader. Do we only care if our leaders have guts and stay the course??
DO WE NOT CARE WHERE THEY LEAD US??
By dd's logic, the first lemming off the cliff is a great leader. He has many followers, right? and lots of guts and a sense of committment, right??
stuart joshua at 9:55AM on Dec 14th 2007