I was just answering the comment you made. George W Bush would not be my first choice but the ones I would have chosen ahead of him were not on the ballot. George W Bush does have some qualities I admire. Unlike the previous occupant of that office he is not driven by polls, he is willing to take unpopular actions and positions if he thinks they are important enough to fight over. I think he, like many of the great leaders of the past, is willing to do what needs to be done even in the face of opposition from the glitterati and our so called allies. I think he, like Reagan, will be judged much better by history than he is by the partisan press. Throughout history the great leaders of democracies were often despised by large portions of the population. I recently reread Winston Churchill’s work “A History of the English Speaking Peoples,” and was reminded that many of those who we now consider great were often driven from office by their opposition.

George W Bush is not a great speaker, because of that he is often ridiculed. But, he is not swayed by the passions of the moment or the vagaries of opinion polls, nor is he easily intimidated, that is why he is hated by those oppose him. If, in the end, he is proven right about Iraq, he will be counted among our great or near great presidents. If he is proven wrong, or he caves in and turns Iraq over to Al Qaeda, he will be a failure. Reagan was called the same things by the same people. The lefties in America and Europe hated him with a white hot fervor. But in the end he was proven right. The way to defeat the Soviet Union was to stand up to them, not to acquiesce in their attempt spread the tyranny of Communism. Ask those who lived in Eastern Europe about Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. Twenty years from now there may well be people living in the Middle East saying the same things about Bush and Blair. It’s amazing how Reagan’s reputation has soared since he left office considering what was said about him while he was in office. There is a good chance Bush’s will too.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.