Also from Howard Kurtz today, it looks like Noonan is trying to topple Krugman in the partisanship race.
<<Marshall Wittmann's Bull Moose column hits Bush's free-spending ways: "The Moose muses that, up until this point, the previous presidency may be viewed as more conservative than the current one.
"Politics moves in mysterious ways. President Bush has already signed into law a dramatic expansion of the federal role in education. He has violated free trade principles by signing on to increasing trade tariffs (taxes) for steel and lumber. W is about to put his John Hancock on a monstrous farm bill that reverses the conservative reform farm legislation passed a few years ago. After a period of surpluses, we now have deficits as far as the eye can see.
"Contrast that with the Clinton years. President Clinton bucked his party and supported free trade and helped pass NAFTA. He signed an historic welfare reform bill that ended the federal entitlement to welfare. He signed the soon to be reversed Freedom to Farm Act which reformed agricultural subsidies. Along with a Republican Congress, he agreed to a balanced budget that helped eliminate the deficit and create surpluses.
"Of course, the Moose acknowledges that Clinton only acceded to Republican pressure to sign some of these measures. Sometimes, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming. Moreover, in his first two years, he unsuccessfully advanced a massive government health care plan. However, given all of the aforementioned, who can deny that there were some significant conservative advances under his presidency?"
Peggy Noonan provides a far rosier view on OpinionJournal.com:
"What is the key to Mr. Bush's popularity? . . . It is that he does not need the job. He did not lust for it and does not hunger for it. He does not need the presidency to fulfill a romantic sense of personal destiny. He does not have a neurotic fixation on the office. He does not love having or wielding its power. He views the presidency as a responsibility, and sometimes a burden. But he tries each day to meet it. Sometimes it is pleasurable for him, sometimes not.
"There is with Mr. Bush an almost palpable sense that he would rather be at the ranch. He would rather be enjoying life and having fun with baseball teams, he would rather have privacy, he would rather go for a drive. He radiates a sense that he has given up a lot to be president. He radiates a sense that he will enjoy it when he gets back what he gave up. But right now he has work to do.
"I do not mean to suggest that Mr. Bush is or seems ambivalent about the presidency. I don't think he is or does. He means to be a good president, that is obvious. He works hard, is committed, ambitious and serious. He means to win the war. He is capable of wielding the power he has to wield, and one senses he has enough vanity to believe he is as good a wielder of it as any, and maybe better than most. But . . . he doesn't need it.
"He doesn't love celebrity, doesn't gravitate to the glamorous, doesn't seem to think fame can bestow magic, gladness, personal contentment. I watched him sitting on the dais Saturday night [at the White House Correspondents dinner]; he looked like he was thinking about whether the jeep needs tires. He was not excited to be surrounded by the glittering prizewinners of Washington, who were arrayed in tuxedoes and gowns before him. His wife, also on the dais, smiled pleasingly at everyone, but her smile is unvarying, almost inexpressive, and still seems to hide more than it reveals."
Future bumper sticker: "Joe Smith – He'd Rather Not Be President.">> |
