Farewell Mr. President – You’ve been Mis – underestimated

(Originally Posted 1/16/2009)

I have a feeling we will not fully appreciate President Bush until he is gone. With all the hype over the coming of President Elect Barack Obama, President Bush’s farewell address of last night hardly got any ink in the papers this morning.

Still, there is something off in the perception that Bush is all plunder and blunder whereas Obama is hope.

A bit earlier in the day, President to be Obama made a speech on the economy and his plans to revive it. Nothing of hope, change, or optimism was mentioned. This is nothing new, unnoticed, but not new. These elements are most lacking when Obama mentions Americans. He often speaks of the tired blue collar worker without money to pay bills, or the elderly without adequate prescription coverage, or the family who cannot get health insurance, or failing school systems. Never a hope or a change. Never a vision for a brighter future.

Compare this to George W. Bush last night who spent time in his farewell speech lifting up the names of a special few who made great contributions to our country. In his speech was the celebration of a marine who saved the lives of three fellow Marines. He spoke of America and the character of Americans as our hope going into an uncertain and unbalanced future. Said Bush, “We see America's character in Dr. Tony Recasner, a principal who opened a new charter school from the ruins of Hurricane Katrina." We see it in Julio Medina, a former inmate who leads a faith-based program to help prisoners returning to society. We see it in Staff Sgt. Aubrey McDade, who charged into an ambush in Iraq and rescued three of his fellow Marines.” Without knowing and paying tribute to our commitment to our country and each other, how can there be hope. As long as we know that we are still trying, still excelling and accomplishing, can’t we do anything. The economy is not stronger than our American character and our will to press on. We cannot allow it to be.

Thank you, President Bush, for your service and your commitment to the American dream and the American faith these last eight years. It could be that we are losing a President that really does get it, or more importantly, gets us. We may be losing our last hope – the hope that bets on America not against her.

A few of us do understand.