Andrew Sullivan gets all excited about Bush in his year-end round-up. Is it because of Bush's policy decisions? Hardly. Sullivan writes:This was George W. Bush's year. Slowly building toward ridding the world of Saddam's threat, shrewdly identifying North Korea, Iran and Iraq as an axis of evil, demanding democracy from the Palestinians, presiding over modest economic growth despite a terrible global outlook, winning an almost unprecedented vote of approval in the November elections, capping it all with a Philadelphia speech that was a watershed in the GOP's struggle with its own internal demons - by any measure, this was a spectacular performance. The high-point? The U.N. speech. Notice how many of the items are speeches or speech-related (like the election barnstorming). That's all our boy does reasonably well - read speeches. Forget real policy issues, like SEC enforcement, acquiescing to the hawks, environmental decisions, the budget outlook, or judicial nominations. Sullivan would have you evaluate Bush by what Michael Gerson or David "axis of evil" Frum puts under his nose to read. |
