by For eight years George W. Bush was the president of our fair nation and led in a way that I would not exactly describe as bipartisan — he reached out to and embraced the right, the far right, and the so far right that it almost wraps around and touches the other side. One would think that as a retired former President that he would continue to do so — speak out on behalf of the GOP, speak out against the pinko communist plots hatched up in the Soros powered hive mind that infests the current White House, and kissing every baby boy named after the late Ronald Reagan.
Since having his memoir published this last November, former President Bush has done exactly the opposite of that — not doing so much speaking for the GOP and trying whenever possible not to criticize the current president. I find this to be a most honorable and impressive fact.
“I don’t want to be on these talk shows, giving my opinion, second guessing the current President. I think it’s bad for the country, frankly, to have a former president criticize his successor.”
It is entirely possible that Bush is following the example of former President Clinton who, despite much work in campaigning for Democratic efforts, avoided criticizing Bush.
When I think back upon the vitriolic articles and journal entries that I wrote during the Bush administration, it occurs to me that much of my anger and disappointment was misdirected. I believe what we should be learning from this decision from Bush is that we should not spend our time criticizing the President and bellyaching about what is being done.
Rather, if we are really upset or disappointed, we should work on our own agenda and ideas for what could be getting done instead. Instead of pointing fingers and labeling health care programs as Obamacare and saying that they are evil and must be entirely overturned (adding 230 billion to the deficit along the way) we should work with the law, learn what it is actually called and try seeing if perhaps changing it would be an acceptable alternative to throwing away billions to try to overturn it?
Let us look to the example of former President Bush and know that standing around the water cooler whining about how the President of the United States is from Kenya and has an evil communist agenda is not going to get us anywhere. Let us look to the future and of what we can do to positively change it, not destroy it.
I’m not certain why Bush would complain, Gordon. Obama has followed all of his policies to the letter. Even Cheney loves Obama:
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/cheney-supports-obama-afghanistan-strategy-9833649
I would think he would have criticized the Health Care Reform.
I don’t think Bush cares one whit about healthcare or poor people or the middle class. His only concern is the popular perception of the neverending wars he started — because that’s what he’s hanging his entire legacy on in the history books, and if that failing notion in any way becomes a necessary reality, then he’s terrified of risking the unravelling of all his lies — and yet Obama fell right in line where Bush left off by continuing all those deadly war policies and human rights abatements that are bankrupting our nation afar from the Middle East.
That’s a sharp analysis, David, and it makes me sad thinking about it.