An Awesome Leader

By Special Guest Blogger, John Hindrucker


John Hindrucker edits the popular conservative blog, Right Thinkers.

I recently had the honor of seeing President Bush speak before a small group at the White House. He was in fine form - the best I've ever seen him. Maybe the best I've ever seen anyone. It had to be one of the four or five greatest experiences of my life. No, on second thought, it was the greatest experience of my life (let's hope my wife isn't reading this). The president is not commonly perceived as a great orator. But in person, he has the kind of charisma that makes Reagan, JFK, Churchill and Samuel L. Jackson look like retards.

Right from the moment he invited us on a special tour of the Oval Office, the president showed he's still very much on top of his game. "Mi Casa, Su Casa," he said, demonstrating the multi-ethnic flair that made him such a hit with Hispanoids and other minority voters whose registrations we left unchallenged. If the president thinks of himself as a "lame duck", he's definitely not letting on, or maybe he's not familar with that phrase. It's one reason why he'll be stumping for Republican candidates all over the country this fall, whether they want him to or not.

With the midterm election just ten weeks away, the president gave us a little pep talk. For me, and I'm sure, everyone else in attendance, there is just one word to describe his remarks: awesome. He spoke with force, clarity and the kind of confidence you would expect from a man who has weathered the harshest attacks the Left could muster and still has a third of America on his side.

Most importantly, he once again reiterated the central tenet which has guided his foreign policy thinking since the beginning: America is awesome. On this, he has never wavered. It was right there in the initial bombing campaign of the Iraq war, which you may remember was called "shock and awe" - awe being the root word of awesome. As the president explained it, at every awesome moment of our awesome history, America has acted and acted awesomely. We awesomely stood up to the Nazis and said, "You are not going to conquer Europe and kill millions of Jews without hearing from me, pal." Then the war ended, and we awesomely confronted the Soviet Union: "If you even think about subjugating millions to political oppression and centralized planning, we're going to take you down, bro." Now we face a new threat: terrorism that originates from the Muslim world. Or as I like to call it: Islamic-anti-awesomeness.

By habit or ideology, much of the Arab world has chosen to reject awesomeness. This anti-awesomeness is at the root of their America-hatred. In the tradition of past American leaders, President Bush has taken a stand and said, "Arabs have a right to be awesome too." But like the Nazis and the Soviets, the Islamo-anti-awesomenists aren't going down without a fight. Of course, it would help if the Democrats shared the president's resolve in this matter. Unfortunately, they've chosen to reject our bipartisan history of awesomeness and become Neville Chamberlain-style appeasers, as I've written before (cf. "The Democrats Are Against Awesome", The Weekly Standard December 2005).

That's why this coming election is so important. Does America want to "cut-and-run" or "stay-and-awe"? Ok, maybe the phraseology needs a little work. But I'm sure Karl Rove and the president's other advisors will think of something good. 'Cus those guys are awesome.

Like the president.

A Defense Of Bush

Less than two hours from now, President Bush will address the nation live from New Orleans. And not too long after that, anxious aides will address the president: "For Christ's sakes, don't drink that!" This speech from French Quarter - or as GOP Congressmen will soon rename it, "Freedom Quarter" - culminates nearly two weeks of damage control by the beleagured administration. But should this really be necessary?

Now, regular readers of Lomblog know that I've long been a fierce Bush critic. In fact, I once wrote, "If George W. Bush is elected president, the strong economy of the Nineties will disappear, he will bungle his way through a needless war in the Middle East, and large portions of the Gulf Coast will be destroyed." Pretty spooky, isn't it? What's more, I wrote that in 1989, when Bush was merely part-owner of the Texas Rangers. I guess I just have a way of sizing people up - in the same piece, I predicted that Richard Grieco's film career would go nowhere. However, I also suggested big, big things for Simply Red. Oh, the fickle ways of prophecy.

Anyway, I still think some of the hits the president has been taking lately are unfair.

For instance, all the talk about his famous five-week vacation. He was accused of insensitivity because he biked with Lance Armstrong during Cindy Sheehan's anti-war protests and plucked a guitar with country star Mark Wills during the earliest days of Katrina. But such revelry is far from unusual for a president facing a crisis.

Once again, history puts it all in perspective:



Here's FDR, just hours after Pearl Harbor, enjoying some friendly competion with one of the country's earliest racing stars.

What of "the Great Communicator", Ronald Reagan? He memorably eulogized the Challenger astronauts after they "slipped the surly bonds of Earth", but not before jamming on keytar with the lead singer of Norwegian supergroup A-ha.




And then there was JFK. During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the fate of the world itself hung in the balance, he was photographed having a three-way with Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickenson.



Insensitive? I call it "balancing work and play."