"Such, too, is pure leadership"

Following the transfer of power to the new guy just after noon, the Bushes "slipped the surly bonds of Earth" and headed back to Midland, Texas aboard Air Force One. Screenshot of GW and Laura Bush waving goodbye.

"We are ready to lead once more," asserted soaring rhetoritician and newly-minted President Barack Obama during his inaugural speech midday. What's this bit about leading "once more"? We guess whatever President Bush has been up to these last eight years doesn't measure up to Obama's definition of leadership. As we wrote in comments at the Journal's transcription of the speech:

A brilliant speech corrupted with subtle digs at President Bush throughout … He’s setting himself up to take credit for the coming fruits of Bush’s labors.

"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions," he continued, implying that Bush was all shock and awe and somehow deficient in the "alliances-and-enduring-convictions" department:

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

Has anyone shown greater humility and restraint than President George W. Bush in dealing with the relentless trashing of his every move? Oh, never mind. A few more excerpts of President Obama's speech, with our comments in brackets, and then on to some further thoughts about leadership:

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more [arrgggh!], we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin [Try "have already begun"] to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet [Don't ask]. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you [Not bad. Not bad at all].

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return [Again, arrgggh!] to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task [Again, not bad. Not bad at all. But that's where George Bush has been at from Day One, President Obama, sir].

Sigh. Go read Laura Lee's soulful and touching tribute to POTUS 43 and weep.:

I’ve often wondered if I were the only one who could see the spiritual side of the fight that President Bush has had to endure in his sacrificial presidency to protect and defend our nation but no, there are some who do. Taking a step back from politics is helpful for one to see the other aspects of the job of a commander in chief.

Paul Kengor in the American Thinker writes of the sacrificial Presidency of President Bush and compares it to Aslan at the Stone Table in the movie "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

"Not only did Bush's self-ascribed enemies frequently turn themselves into ogres, but they joyously ripped into the man while he quietly accepted it all," writes Kengor in his must-read essay. It's the scapegoat thing we wrote about the other day. Kengor on leadership:

… a stoic, turn-the-other-cheek, faith-based, upward-looking response, as they twitched and plunged into him. It enraged the rabble all the more when he never moved, sticking unshakably to his mission, resigned to his fate, seeming a little sad, but neither angry nor afraid — nor deterred. His faithfulness, more than anything else, set them seething, especially the secular among them. I know he acutely identifies with Christ's passion. He understands that one who stays true to principle, who tries to do right, and who stumbles on the way to his destination, sometimes cannot earn his rewards until his earthly life is finished.

Such, too, is pure leadership. Americans, whether they realize it or not, have just witnessed eight years of remarkable presidential leadership, especially compared to the poll-driven president who preceded Bush. Sure, there's much George W. Bush should have done better. As someone who has studied Ronald Reagan, I wish Bush had a sliver of Reagan's communication skills to win hearts and minds, to shape public perception. I wish he had better people working for him on Iraq in the bad years. Still, this was leadership.

"It's hard to argue that during the Bush presidency many difficult decisions were put off," Fox News anchor Bret Baier is commmenting to Britt Hume, referring to what may qualify as the first among equals among Obama's relentless run of disingenuous disses directed at his predecessor:

But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

The new prez is playing to his audience, of course, but it didn't sound presidential. Class will out, and the Bushes have it in spades. Bret Baier got it just right: "The president seems to be at peace with himself."

Update: How could we have forgotten this gem, another contender for top disinenuous diss, where President Obama is apparently channeling FDR:

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

He's right. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That, and maybe a few suicidal religionists looking to blow themselves up in our back yard.

Update II: The Anchoress gifts us with an exhaustive linked list of blog reactions to the speech, including our own.

Comments

[goomp]

A smile and a statment of hopeful rhetoric will not solve the economic and cultural problems which face us today. Mr.Bush had a clue as to the problems and struggled honestly to confront them despite the unthinking criticism heaped upon him by an ignorant and arrogant intelligentsia. Good luck to Obie, but I don't think he has a clue as to what made the USA the nation which attracted people from all over the world to want to come here and share in our freedom and our prosperity.

[pam]

Excellent post, though I did burst into tears at the top photo...

I'll follow the links when I can see again.

[Elizabeth]

I was surprised at a largely backward-looking speech: there were a few "fired up, ready to go" kind of pitches towards the future, but overall it was more negative than I expected. Perhaps that was in an effort for profundity; perhaps it would make the contrast between the last admin and the new one all the more pronounced. He was not as gracious to George W. as the newcomer, as McCain was to our new President as the defeated candidate. But he was, indeed, playing to his audience.

The poet made me yearn for the days of Maya Angelou's Inaugural pieces!

And who stuck poor Ray Romano to do standup at the Neighborhood Ball, trying to get laughs - right after President Obama "left the building" after his first dance of the night? What an impossible act to follow, in that room! And then stick a very white, Italian guy from Queens in front of everyone? I felt bad for him!

[Laura Lee Donoho]

I really tried to stay away from all of it yesterday except for Sissy Willis and some other blogs, but reading the news this morning just took my breath away. President Obama has ordered a halt to all the military trials at Gitmo, including that of the mastermind of 9/11.

Yesterday I read on this by Jonathan Foreman at The Corner:

"The Shabbiest Moment in the Obama Inauguration Address was when he did his shout out to the military and referred to those sacrificing for freedom at Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy, and Khe Sanh ... but avoided mention of not just Iraq but also Afghanistan. I doubt it will have won him friends among today's military ..."

This is the change he is bringing. Not good. Not good at all.

[hnav]

Thank you President GW Bush.

Amazing, as the Democrat Partisans reveal again they have no class, even when they win elections.

A new President who has to bash the past one on his Inaugural?

Wow.

Democrat Partisans are living in a real denial, and it is ugly to watch.

They are winning elections on the dehumanizing, the criminalizing, the slandering, etc., of others.

And it should not be accepted.

Even more amazing, Hillary Clinton who lied about dodging sniper fire, made ugly ethnic jokes about Gandhi and Gas Stations, impugned the integrity of General Petraeus, is the Head of State?

At least she isn't in the Senate anymore...