"George W. Bush is the most daring, transformative president since FDR," writes Tony Snow, reviewing John Podhoretz' Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane:
Yet he is also the most traditional and archaic. He has advanced a vision of American destiny that shows off our signal virtues - our courage in fighting determined enemies such as al Qaeda, our selflessness in taking on despots like Saddam Hussein, our decency in spending billions to combat AIDS and our idealism in seeking to spread democracy throughout the most benighted lands on the globe. Who else would articulate a foreign policy that embraces both pre-emption and democracy?
The book advances a clean, simple thesis: Democrats loathe and misunderestimate the president, and keep their bile boiling by embracing eight myths about him. They regard the commander-in-chief as a moron, a puppet, a fanatic, a Nazi, a cad, a wastrel, a cowboy and a lying thief. (The book is a bonanza for Bush lovers and haters, because it gathers together some of the most fevered and hilarious vitriol aimed at the president.)
Podhoretz unravels the libels in slow, delicious detail, basting them with proper portions of amused detachment. According to his portrait of the president, Bush loves for enemies to think ill of him - and even goads them into new frenzies of disgust by incorporating drawls that would appall a Snopes or firing off a Bushism that vindicates their view that he's an illiterate, faux-amiable, vicious, conniving, puppy-torturing cur. Such contempt is catnip for any worthy Southern politician because it provides ample opportunity to operate more freely and thus to effectively shape the political landscape.
[via Lucianne]
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