Time photog: A cult of personality grew up around GW Bush post 9/11

"As a photographer I looked for moments when Bush was alone," says Time photographer Christopher Morris in a superbly moving and insightful photo essay, "Photographing the President," musing "There was always something about him alone that was very evocative of him as a historical figure. There was a sense always that Bush was a man of determination and resolve who would go it alone, regardless of the consequences." (Images are from the Time video)

"The success of Mr. Bush's surge made it possible for President Obama to warn terrorists on Tuesday 'you cannot outlast us,'" writes Karl Rove in a rousing tribute to his former boss, speaking fondly of "the thoughtfulness and grace so characteristic of this wonderful American family" even as he mounts a vigorous defense of the Bush legacy. "It’s nice that he’s loyal, but for now all he can do is preach to the choir," notes The Anchoress, who rightly points out that "The haters don’t want to hear it and won’t be convinced. Not for decades, if ever." But for us choir members, Rove's words are music to our ears:

A video tribute [viewed by family and friends on the plane ride home to Texas Tuesday] produced warm laughter and inevitable tears. There was no bitterness, but rather a sense of gratitude — gratitude for the opportunity to serve, for able and loyal colleagues, and above all for our country and its people.

Yet, as Mr. Bush left Washington, in a last angry frenzy his critics again distorted his record, maligned his character and repeated untruths about his years in the Oval Office. Nothing they wrote or said changes the essential facts.

To start with, Mr. Bush was right about Iraq. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. And the former president was right to change strategy and surge more U.S. troops.

"A legion of critics (including President Barack Obama) claimed it couldn't work," continues Rove:

They were wrong. Iraq is now on the mend, the war is on the path to victory, al Qaeda has been dealt a humiliating defeat, and a democracy in the heart of the Arab world is emerging.

"For me he was a fantastic subject. He was controversial, he was animated, he was loved, he was hated, misunderstood, and most of all he was our president," says photographer Brooks Kraft in that Time photo essay referenced above, making a provocative point that perhaps anticipated the excesses of Obamania. "September 11 happened, and … we traveled across the whole country, and I saw the whole cult of personality that was building up around George W. Bush, and it's something that I had seen in other countries, this kind of nationalism and patriotism, and it was initially quite shocking for me to see it in America."

We're intrigued with Time presidential photographer Brooks Kraft's field observations (see caption above) of a "whole cult of personality that was building up around George W. Bush" in the wake of 9/11. We hadn't thought about it that way, having been, after all, a card-carrying member of said cult ourselves at the time.

"Bush's emotions would emerge spontaneously at times," says Time photographer Christopher Morris. Images like this one of "Mission Accomplished" flyboy GW shaking hands with members of the deck crew following his dashing tailhook landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln May 1, 2003, thrilled Bush fans like us and sent Bush haters into paroxysms of Bush Derangement Syndrome months before Charles Krauthammer identified the disorder.

We remember being ravished by Dubya's later much-maligned "Mission Accomplished" photo op (above) aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln back in May of 2003. Was our infatuation of a kind with the swooning behavior of the Obamaniacs today? Probably distant points on a spectrum, but with an important difference. Beyond the dashing image of conquering hero, we knew in our heart and in our mind, from his fearless, sometimes controversial leadership following 9/11 that George W. Bush was, in Rove's words, "a person of integrity who did what he believed was right." Despite wall-to-wall multi-media coverage these last two years and counting, the jury is still out on Barack Obama. Spengler [via Miss Kelly] gets the gist just right:

I have never met the man, but I have interviewed a fair sampling of his supporters, and conclude that Obama learned the power to cloud men's minds, like the Shadow on the old radio show. Apart from ambition, there is no "there" there. There are as many Obamas as there are interlocutors. He is a hollow man, I concluded, a Third World anthropologist studying us with engaged curiosity but complete emotional detachment. In this respect he is unpredictable.

Mission yet to be accomplished

Update: Miss Kelly links.

Comments

[Steve]

Great post!

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[Laura Lee Donoho]

Beautiful Sissy. I wonder how long Time will keep the photo essay up? Viewing it brought tears to my eyes and I'm sure that's one reason why Newsweek and Time were so stingy with these touching photos throughout the eight years of Bush's presidency.

Why didn't they want to show the powerful images of 9/11 and the aftermath? Why did the Democrats go nuts over the Mission Accomplished photo and President Bush's carrier landing and his secret Thanksgiving trip to Iraq?

They had nothing with which to counter President Bush. The Democrats and their lackeys in the media had to take him down. Then the doofus, John Kerry invited Barack Obama to speak at the 2004 Democrat Convention and I believe from that moment on George Soros and company groomed the man to be the answer to George W. Bush. The new Bill Clinton. They knew Hillary just didn't have it.

[Sissy Willis]

Spot on, Laura Lee. The left's deliberate, self-righteous declaration not long after 9/11 that we should not keep playing and replaying the images of that horrific day take on new, ominous meaning as we look back knowing what we now know about BDS. Early on they were starting to airbrush out the the horror and the existential threat the burning towers represented, in favor of getting back to their multi-culti, p.c., Bush-scapegoating narrative about Western Civ as the root of all evil.

As for George Soros & Co, you are right again. Check this out for historical landmarks along that road to hell paved with "good" intentions:

How Soros Financed Obama's Campaign

[goomp]

Do what you must to get what you want, do what you must do to achieve the closest to what is right, do what is right regardless of results. I believe the middle course is the best that can be followed with honor and practicality. That is what President Bush did.

[retriever]

Thanks for the post, and the pix, which captured and pointed to some of the many ways this good man so faithfully served his country. I have been near apoplectic at the revolting way the press has treated him, particularly on his way out. Base ingratitude for tireless service. As I have intoned to my children in times of discouragement with the political alignment of our country these days, quoting Yeats "The best lack all conviction, while the worst, are full of passionate intensity" As a New England Yankee, I prefer character and hard work, love of country and a sense of duty to "passion, compassion" the mindless pc mantra. What do they mean by it except that they will be going after somebody's money for one of their pet causes again. But I digress. Thanks again for your wonderful combination of photos, posts and links. A daily treat! Hope the pain of your lost BC eases soon. .

[Kris, in New England]

George W. Bush is a true patriot, in every possible sense of the word. His love for our country is undeniable - and that's something the left just doesn't understand.

They never will, more's the pity for the next 4 years.