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George Bush, now America’s most loathed president, likened himself to Harry Truman. That bizarre imagery was seconded by Sen. Norm Coleman, practicing the conservative compulsion to spin-up losers such as Nixon, Reagan and, now, “the Shrub,” as deceased journalist Molly Ivins characterized Bush.
Truman is spinning too — in his grave.
Truman’s famous desk sign, “The Buck Stops Here!” was for real. The trenchant Missourian ended a World War, fostered the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, busted Russia’s Berlin Blockade and pushed back Communist aggression that set the tone of the Cold War.
Truman also moved the Congress to oppose racial/social injustice, forged war weary America into a respected, trusted and moral international leader. Truman knew what he was doing, and toiled at it.
Clearly, Bush is what a president must never be. He traded Truman’s honesty and integrity for shallow loyalty and expediency. Truman’s openness and awareness became insincere, politicized governance under Bush that crippled America
with its chaotic polices, abandoned diplomacy, decimated military, undermined security, trashed law and bankruptcy.
The “torture” president condemned moral relativism; the Bushmaster of scripted appearances and king of vacations is like Harry S? Please.
If “the Shrub” was ever exposed to the integrity and substance normally attributed to thoughtful personsnand acceptable political leaders — it did not stick. So approaching his father’s stature was never a possibility, much less remotely comparable to real decider, hands-on, honest Harry.
Bush legacy? (He recently begged the Saudis to pressure Palestinians into a peace pact, because “I’ll be out of office soon.”) How presidential.
If lame duck “Duh-bya” worries about flying into obscurity, his concern is misplaced; he has earned well his place in history’s dung heap.
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