Bush II: The president of everybody
Liked this bit: "We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," President George W. Bush said in an interview which appeared in yesterday's Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me." Hello, what's that noise in the background? Could it be the gnashing of teeth in the blue states and in the capitals of Old Europe? Sure sounds like it. And here's a sentence that must have had the gargantuan propagandist Michael Moore and the payola blogger Daily Kos chewing their plush carpets: "It's important for people to know that I'm the president of everybody." It is this simplicity and certainty that sends Bush haters into paroxysms of rage but they shouldn't forget that 61 million voters liked his style when the "accountability moment" arrived.
Favourite part of the WaPo interview? Here goes: "As for perhaps the most notorious terrorist, Osama bin Laden, the administration has so far been unsuccessful in its attempt to locate the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Asked why, Bush said, 'Because he's hiding.' " In the last three years, millions of paragraphs have been written about bin Laden, his whereabouts, his strategies and his targets, but Bush summed it up neatly in three words. The fact is that the jihadist who would wage a victorious war on the infidel is now confined to a burrow and there he'll have to stay for the rest of his days.
So what can we expect during Bush II? Lots of resolve and seriousness of purpose is the forecast here. This means the president will not subject his decisions to any kind of "global test" as proposed by John Kerry and neither will he be swayed by opinion polls. Iran and North Korea will be the great challenges. Preventing the malevolent mullahs getting their hands on nuclear weapons and stopping the crazy Kim Jong Il from deploying his would be daunting tasks at the best of times but they'll be made all the more difficult because Bush will have to take them on in the face of hysterical opposition from Europe, the UN, the global media and his own foreign policy elites. It won't be easy, but what George W. Bush has in his favour is that his opponents constantly underestimate him. That's why he's running a superpower and they're not.
