The Measure Of The President

On his way out, affable, unflappable, courteous, a gentleman-politician. Concomitantly a despised war-monger, a failure at international relations, an absolute dolt in decision-making, responsible for the deaths of countless people in far-off lands, and responsible too for the dimming of American regard from within the global community.

His legacy looks decidedly unappealing: a collapsed economy; an immense debt; two wars, one partially settled after huge casualties, another raging into inferno status; and forlorn bitterness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But he is adamant he has lost no sleep over his presidency, is complacent in having produced a job well done, and that history will be kinder to him than the current 30% approval rating he enjoys.

Enjoyment was part and parcel of his two-term stint as president of the great United States of America; he revelled in the job, took joy in it. As though it were his personal toy. While his decisions impacted deleteriously throughout the globe, as U.S. troops were deployed to a foreign country to invade it and rescue it from another dictator. And home came those body bags.

With calamitous results, costing countless lives in an anarchic bitterly sectarian Iraq, and in the process unleashing atrocities and ongoing violence that still rampage through the country. He reacted to the need of the times, he claims, and washes his hands of responsibility for the outcome of his decisions. He faced enormous challenges and discharged his duties. Well.

In his gambits and game-playing responses to the intrusions of world events, he demonstrated an inability to recognize the gravity of his position and the import of the prosecution of his way or none at all. With him or agin him. "You know, presidents can try to avoid hard decisions and therefore avoid controversy. That's just not my nature."

His nature is good-nature. He smiles readily and easily. Basically, a kind and generous man. At least he isn't a racist. Under his administration two blacks were appointed to the very highest level of executive office. Colin Powell was utterly humiliated in the manner in which his base values and decency were exploited by Bush through Rumsfeld and Cheney.

But Condoleeza Rice proved far more amenable to producing the results her chief executive officer demanded of her. And there is always that lauded funding for AIDS in Africa, even if it came tagged along with an admonition for abstention. Something akin to Ronald Reagan's refusal to fund Third World family planning programs unless abortion was taken off the table.

Weapons of mass destruction? Shrug. That really was a shame. Afghanistan? Who might have imagined that the initial charge wouldn't have discharged the threat of ongoing Islamist fanaticism. Katrina? His supervisory selection to oversee New Orleans had done a splendid job. Above all, 9-11 was a tragedy, but who can foresee such things?

Well, the CIA might have, and did, advising him of the imminence of a terrorist attack. He did, doubtless, thank them for their concern before sending them ingloriously on their way. The economic mess? Well there were 52 preceding months of charge-on financial strengths, remember?

Everything is just simply splendid. Keep the details. Less said the better. Tough, that transition from Republican to Democratic, but that's life, right? Imagine, an untutored, untried, not particularly bright nor politically interested individual even accessing the ultimate seat of power. So much for antiquated electoral systems in the heart of participatory democracy.

It is - or was, let's hope, reminiscent of the age of mediocrity. Where the response to 9-11 was the encouragement to get out there and spend. Business as usual, defaulting to the embrace of the lodestone of U.S. culture: unbridled consumerism. Not to be sidetracked by a cataclysmic atrocity.

Signing the death penalty in Texas actually, was a lot less problematical.

Nice man, though.