Emmett Tyrrell has an interesting column at townhall.com today on President Bush's resurging reputation. In a nutshell, President Bush should be fondly remembered by history for his steadfastness and tenacity.
Through the past three years of gloomy news, he has been called "bullheaded," but the evidence from Iraq, the economy and various other precincts -- for instance, advances in stem cell research -- suggests a different adjective, to wit, "resolute." Moreover, in Iraq, we see not only a resolute president but also a flexible president. Last spring, he changed his tactics in Iraq, and the change has been successful.
Liberals are loathe to admit the surge has worked--they constantly want to point to barometers measuring 2005 as opposed to 2007--mainly because to admit that the liberation of Iraq is going well or was worth the costs would require them to admit their shortsightedness and partisanship.
But the signs are everywhere that Iraq is more peaceful and even the government is starting to get its act together. Congress' game-playing with troop funding has backfired (remember the slow bleed strategy?), and now they are scrambling to find a new way to lose the war, as sick as that idea is.
Tyrrell goes on to note that President Bush's success goes beyond the war, into other various skirmishes.
The economy is strong with steady growth, low unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates and only one sector in doubt -- housing -- which, in an economy as enormous as ours, can be endured for a while. The president's reluctance to fund federal research on embryonic stem cells has been vindicated with the announcement that scientists have discovered how to use normal skin cells to serve their research purposes. And now comes a National Intelligence Estimate, concluding that Iran decided to abandon a 15-year program to develop nuclear weapons just months after our invasion of Iraq. At the time, Libya gave up its nuclear arms program, too. What desert potentate wants to suffer the fate President Bush arranged for Saddam Hussein?
It's been interesting watching the lefty blogs try to spin the NIE into a defeat for the president when the information contained therein doesn't support that conclusion. What it does support is the notion that Iran had spent 15 years working on its nuclear weapons but abandoned the program after "shock and awe." And even at that, the NIE says Iran could have nuclear weapons as soon as 2009. Do liberals actually think we should wait until Iran has nuclear weapons before we do anything about it? And how good is the NIE anyway? Democrats scoffed at the NIE which said Saddam Hussein had WMDs. Do they seriously expect us not to notice the political gamesmanship they engage in here?
The truth is, no president looks as good in the present as they do in hindsight. President Bush was elected in 2000 as the "not Clinton" candidate in large part because he promised not to waiver and govern by polls. He's kept that promise, even when others have condemned him for it, whether the subject was Iraq, stem cell research, the economy, or tax cuts. Future generations will wonder why so many on the left opposed him.
UPDATE: So much for the Democrats tying strings to troop funding.
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