Brass balls and legacies

I, being a practicing Catholic surrounded by heathens, pagans and secularists (present company included!), heard this very letter read aloud from the ambo of my local parish by Father Rick three Sundays ago. Jacob (the 5-year-old) heard it explained in his CCD class right after Mass. The tragedy here isn't that these kinds of words and ideas aren't forwarded by the mainstream media... the tragedy here is that people aren't IN THE PEWS to hear them discussed each and every Sunday!

I'm not in the mood to quibble with you about Bush's legacy. You like 80% of everything he did... I don't like 80% of everything he did. I DO want to get one thing straight, though...

Your conviction that Bush's legacy will be that we "kicked ass" on the perpetrators of 9/11 is a far cry from "sure and certain". As you used an historical example, let's follow that track...

Legacies are the perception of a President's time in office as seen by the people following after him. Very rarely do you see an objective view of ANY President in the first few years after the end of the term. This is JUST as true for Republicans as it is for Democrats... so no pissing and moaning about "bias" either...

You used Truman as an example, but I feel he is on the cusp of that "historical objectivity" that only time can bring. Let's look to CICs of a more recent vintage...

I have heard both Wilkow and Hannity use the "Carter years" as an example of an economic downturn that was worse than now, but far more recent than the Great Depression... and they were accurate in that assessment. Where they erred was in the numbers they used to back up their interpretation of Carter's legacy.

From Jan 1977 (Jimmy's inauguration) to Jan 1981 (Ron's inauguration), they BOTH (Wilkow and Hannity) claimed that unemployment was over 9%. The highest it got was 8.2% and that was in Dec of 1980. The fact is, unemployment FELL every month for the first 3 years he was in office, and only climbed again (measurably, at least) in the last 6 months he was in office.

Over the next 8 years, Ronald Wilson Reagan never saw a national unemployment average LOWER than Carter had during his first three years! Not ONE MONTH! In fact, the highest unemployment has been EVER since 1968 is 10.8% and that was in Nov-Dec of '83.

All sources found HERE.

Why is Carter remembered as the Pres with the highest unemployment figures? Why does no one recall the "recession of '83" as a negative on Reagan's legacy? Because it is the VICTOR that writes the history... and Reagan won. In fact, Reagan is STILL winning...

We have had two GOP Presidents since Reagan (ironically, father and son... what are the odds, I wonder? Really?) and neither lived up to the "conservative" footprint made by Ronnie. No GOP candidate has yet even come close (although Dole had the principals... he just lacked the personality)... so why do we imagine that Bush will fair any better, ESPECIALLY in an environment where everything associated with him draws hatred and disgust from such a large facet of the population (and it doesn't matter if they know what they are talking about or not... they still respond to polls and surveys, and that is what legacies are based on)?

Maybe 50 or 75 years from now, people will be able to "objectively" look at Bush and see his success for what it was, and understand his failings for what they were. We'll just have to wait for 90% of everyone living today to DIE first, that's all...