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George Bush is no Harry Truman
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Homegrown Democrat |
| Last Edited | Homegrown Democrat Jan 12, 2006 10:46am |
| Category | Opinion |
| News Date | Jan 04, 2006 06:05am |
| Description | The Bush administration is increasingly attempting to recast the president as a latter day Harry Truman. It is a theme that will be prominently on display in 2006. Wilson is out, Truman is in.
Indeed, you can see the new master narrative taking shape: a tough but beleaguered president facing down foreign threats, unappreciated at home in his day but vindicated in the end.
Condi Rice has increasingly invoked Truman and Acheson in her rationale for what the Bush administration is doing in its war on terror. It was the theme of her Princeton University speech in September. We confront a transformed and newly dangerous world much as Truman did after 1945. Today’s Cold War is the struggle against the fascists of our age – Islamic jihadists. This narrative helps legitimate the Iraq misadventure and tough love approach to allies as short-term costs incurred in the pursuit of a long-term vision.
The former NYT op-ed columnist William Safire hints at this emerging Truman-like image of Bush in his January 2 column of 2006 predictions: "As Bush approval rises, historians will begin to equate his era with that of: (a) Truman; (b) Eisenhower; © LBJ; (d) Reagan; (e) Clinton." Safire’s pick: Truman. (See column in The Honolulu Advertiser, 2 January 2006, p. A10 – it is the newspaper that arrives at my door in the morning here in Maui.)
But is Bush really following in the grand tradition of Harry Truman? Well, no. In fact, in many ways Bush is the perfect anti-Truman. Let us count the ways. |
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