Captain Bush
Farewell the foundering ship of state
Tribune Editorial
sltrib.com
Updated: 01/16/2009 07:06:09 PM MST
George W. Bush is exiting the White House a smaller man than when he entered it eight years ago, dwarfed by the mountainous mess he's leaving behind.
Two unfinished wars, a cratering economy, towering national debt, record home foreclosures, plunging markets, disappearing jobs, soaring health costs, crumbling infrastructure, environmental degradation, a warming planet -- for starters.
Everyone, it seems, of every political persuasion, has their own bill of particulars for this administration. And there are plenty of grievances to go around, plenty of directions to point fingers. And plenty of people, left and right, who are convinced that our 43rd president is worse than all 42 of his predecessors.
People are asking themselves -- and heaven knows we should -- why we allowed this (choose your our own nouns and adjectives) to turn the United States into a deeply troubled country that we, and our traditional allies abroad, barely recognize.
The obvious answer, the shortest, and the most painful, is that most of us sat back and let him do it. This page bears, and surely deserves, the ignominy of having endorsed Bush in 2004.
As to the question of how the Bush debacle happened, we've learned not to expect frank and honest answers from the most secretive administration in our history. Being The Decider, you see, doesn't require that you also be The Revelator.
Indeed, Bush's exit interviews and farewell speech told us only what we already knew: He is not departing Washington a wiser, more introspective, more trustworthy, more intellectually rigorous man, a president justly chastened by disasters of his own making and willing to fully acknowledge and assume responsibility for them.
Far from it. In his parting words to the nation Thursday night, Bush held form. Yes, he allowed as how there had been "setbacks," some "things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right."
You may choose to believe him or not. At this stage, it makes little difference.
George W. Bush is not the only president who failed to grow into the job, to learn from mistakes and chart a new course for the ship of state. But we don't know of any others who threw the old chart overboard and paid no heed to the rocks. |
