Time will ultimately judge President Bush

It is almost a week after the inauguration of President Obama and the liberal political pundits are still bashing President Bush.

It seems like every day since the inauguration the Sun Sentinel has run an editorial or article (really a discussed editorial) on how Bush may have been the worst President in history.

In my opinion, columnist Robert Watson went over the edge on Sunday. He talks about history judging Bush and then practically names him the worst President ever. He even gave the results of a recent History Channel poll of historians where 107 out of 109 said that Bush was a failure.

The truth is we will not fully understand the impact of Bush for probably 20 years.

Did Bush do some good things? Yes. Did he do some bad things? Yes. He will probably not be revered like Reagan for turning the economy around and ending the cold war. As we look back at Reagan we can really appreciate how he helped our country prosper.

On the other hand, he was not Nixon who committed crimes and was impeached. (Watson surprisingly moves Nixon out of the failure category because of his China diplomacy - I am not sure that is enough given his crimes and the bad economy during that time.)

Bush did what was needed on the international front to protect our country after the tragedy of 9/11. Pundits say that the world did not like us - so what. We have allies like Great Britain, Australia, and Japan who believe we need to keep the world safe from terrorism.

When you were in grade school, did everyone like the class bully? Probably very few did. (Most of the ones who did like the bully probably lied...) The bullies of the world are countries like Iran, Korea, and Venzuela and terrorist organizations like Hamas and al-Qaida. Who really cares if they like us.

Bush probably did fall short on the economy by allowing continued government expansion and increased spending but Congress should also take some blame for that. But he did protect individual rights (as best as possible while fighting terrorism) by supporting the rights of the unborn, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and the freedom of religion.

Time will ultimately be the judge for the Bush Presidency.

Years from now we will see what the long term effects are in the war on terrorism. We will also see how bad and long the economy suffers. That is what will define the Bush Presidency, not a poll from the History Channel.

Just like the name of the liberal organization pushing the left's agenda, it is time to "Move On". We need to come together as a nation and address the economic challenges in front of us.