Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Thinking about the Presidency

I saw and heard the speech, and it was stirring. The inauguration was so fraught with meaning that it transcended the people involved, and I saw most of that meaning as wonderful and some of it disturbing. (Not a mention of abortion anywhere in the speech, for example. Maybe he thinks it will go away. I hope it will go away too, and in fact there is less of it in the US than ever, praise God.)

A friend of mine posted on her Facebook page that she was so happy that now we could have a President she could be proud of. Facebook is personal and that's the place where one has permission to assess events in terms of one's emotions. But maybe it would be worth it to read the case for the Bush Presidency by his chief speech writer Marc Theissen when things calm down. I don't really think about whether I am "proud" of President Bush or not, or even whether I "like" him. I think about his performance - how did he do? He certainly made some mistakes and did things with which I disagree. But I think that the majority of Americans will come to appreciate his successes, as Theissen argues.

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