Sunday, December 05, 2004

Who is Bush?

Fred Barns lists what he considers the outstanding characteristics of President Bush, which will help explain him to those who "misunderestimate" him.

Activist
...it means he has a lengthy agenda and is impatient about enacting it. And it's an agenda–Social Security reform, altering the balance on the Supreme Court, tax reform, reversing cultural trends, a crusade for democracy around the globe--for change.
OUTSIDER
Bush is an alien inside the Beltway. His election was the equivalent of getting a green card to work in Washington....What separates him from the Washington crowd? More than anything else, it's religion. Bush is the first president who's a product of the modern evangelical movement, which means his Christian faith is personal, intense, and all-encompassing. It's not a part-time, Sunday-only thing.
PRESS-BASHER
He views most reporters as political opponents eager to pepper him with gotcha questions.
SURPRISER
Bush likes to defy the conventional wisdom. He often does it without even trying.
VISIONARY
...in speech after speech, Bush has laid out a vision of democratizing the Middle East, then the world.

Perhaps the hardest thing for any cynic to comprehend is a person who is not a cynic. A cynic, it has been said, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Those who assume Bush values only his own political career will continue to "misunderestimate" him.

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