Another glance back at the historical record of the modern conservative movement’s enthusiastic embrace of the most disastrous president of modern times. Today, let’s consider John Podhoretz’s book, Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane. Like all the best conservatives, Podhoretz has never really shown any ability whatsoever. Instead, he’s the son of an important conservative father and an important conservative mother, through which connections he got an unimportant job in the Bush I administration and thence proceeded through a series of positions at a variety of movement-controlled publications until eventually arriving at his current perch at Commentary. He didn’t impress anyone with his ability at any of his jobs, but he kept moving up in the world anyway, because, hey, that’s how it works.
A taste from Podhoretz’s first chapter:
One might conclude, from his conduct over the past three years, that George W. Bush was put on this earth to do two things:
First, to lead the United States into the third millennium, with all its terrifying challenges and wondrous opportunities.
And second, to drive liberals inane.
He’s succeeding brilliantly at both.
[…]
This would be an astonishing list of accomplishments for a president who had served all eight years in office. Bush has done it all in just three.
I’ve actually read this book in its entirety for professional purposes. It’s really an extraordinary testament to an extraordinary moment in American history.