Election '08

So the election is over and my side lost... not that I wasn't expecting it anyway. I thought it might be a little closer, but the experts were right: it was an electoral landslide for Barack Obama, but the popular vote was close (52%-46%) and the Democrats didn't get their 60 seats in the Senate. So as we get ready to close the book on our 43rd President, I wanted to post a link to an article that I found interesting. This article was written by a former intern on John F. Kerry's legal team during his 2004 presidential campaign.

My opinion of President Bush has changed over the years and I really do think that history will look at him differently 20 years from now. The article is written by a Democrat and I agree 100% with every word he says. The only thing he has left out is the fact that there hasn't been another attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, while numerous plots have been foiled along the way. If you told me 7 years ago that we wouldn't sustain another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, I would not have believed you. I would venture a guess that most people share that belief, whether they want to admit it or not. So while I don't think Bush is the most popular president we ever had or will ever have, I think he has unfairly received criticism from both sides for trying to be bipartisan in his second term as president. It will be interesting to see the reaction to President-elect Obama when he tries to reach across the aisle, if he does try to do that. I think, in the end, we will look at President Bush in the same way that we look at former President Harry S. Truman: someone who faced extraordinary scrutiny in the wake of a national disaster and a war. Someone who tried to unite the country during an economic crisis, but received too much opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, and ended up strengthening the opposition and alienating his own party, of no fault of his own.

The truth is, we should be ashamed of ourselves. This man was still the leader of the free world and he deserved our support. He was the commander-in-chief and he did his job better than 99% of people in this country could. And all we could do was scrutinize and insult him, rebel against him. Read the article; it's short and it just might give you a different insight as to the trouble he faced in his presidency.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html