July 20, 2004

Words from the wise

Either President Bush took Peggy Noonan’s advice or she’s a prescient woman. Or it might be pure coincidence. But either way, President Bush called himself a “peace president” today, a wise move Noonan (eloquently) urged in her Wall Street Journal piece last week:

Here is a criticism I have spoken of but not written of regarding President Bush. When you are president and you are doing hard things in history like making war, and you are doing it in the jingle-jangle of the modern media environment, you have a kind of moral responsibility to make it clear that you hate war, really hate it, and love peace. This would seem obvious, but is not. Men and women in the midst of planning war forget to say it and insist it. Sly old FDR didn't forget, though. Lincoln didn't forget it either. He always made it clear he thought the impending and then ongoing war a painful tragedy. Mr. Bush has not made it clear, or has not repeated often enough, that he hopes for peace, yearns for peace, loves it. He seems part of the very drama he has been forced to wage, and seems sometimes to enjoy it.

Today the president did just that. He took a softer, more pensive tone when speaking of America’s War on Terror. "The enemy declared war on us," he said at a rally in Iowa, according to Reuters. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president."

Before Bush can be a peace president, though, he must win the war. And he needs time to accomplish that goal. President Bush has taken great and gallant strides toward securing America, a struggle for which history likely will give him great credit.

The threat of terror remains, though, and the battle wages still. President Bush, even in another four years, likely cannot declare victory in the War on Terror — no more than Ronald Reagan could sew up Soviet defeat of the Cold War during his two terms.

What we know, though, is that Bush is willing to get the job done. And John Kerry is not the man to inherit this monumental clash of good and evil.

— Brady Creel

| Jul. 20, 2004 | 5:36 PM