>> GW Bush was most assuredly an incompetent president........one of the most hated in US history.
Single handedly saved more lives than any president -- American or otherwise -- in history.
Even hardcore liberals like Elton John have changed their tune, and they will continue to do so as time marches on. Just as I predicted, history has begun to look at Bush much more favorably, and within 20 or 30 years he will receive the accolades he is due. While the Elton Johns of the world still can't understand complicated issues like the Freedom Agenda, how tax cuts saved the American economy throughout the Bush years, and why the Iraq War was essential, as they have with his anti-AIDS agenda, they will come around over time.
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Asked directly what President has done more than any other to combat AIDS, John answered without hesitation: "George Bush."
Elton John, who has been a leading activist on AIDS issues since the 1980s, gives President Bush credit for launching the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) a $15 billion program Bush signed into law in 2004 to provide treatment and prevention for millions of HIV-infected people in Africa.
Prior to that, John had been among President Bush's harshest and most acerbic critics.
"I wasn't a big fan of his policies," John said. "I was very against the Iraq war. So, you know, his policies didn't sit well with mine."
But not long after Bush launched his anti-AIDS effort, Elton John had a chance to meet him in person. The occasion was the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors.
"At the Kennedy Center concert we spent some time in the intermission with the President, George Bush, and he was an amazingly informed about AIDS," John recounted. "He treated us with such kindness. I had so much respect for him, especially when the PEPFAR thing was announced when he gave 15 billion dollars to AIDS. He knew what he was talking about."
Politics aside, personal interaction caused John to change his view of Bush.
"One of the old adages in life is never judge someone until you meet them," John said. "I didn't like his policies but I have to say when I met him, I found him charming, I found him well informed and I found him determined to do something about the AIDS situation so I changed my opinion of him. And his wife was astonishingly kind to us well. So it was -- I learned a lesson."
Less surprisingly, Elton John gives President Obama high marks too and says he's doing "a great job." |
