by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
When someone screams about a terrible policy of the present administration, just pose four questions:<\/p>\n
First, was the controversial decision taken with bipartisan support? Second, were there precedents for such action in prior Democratic administrations? Third, will such polices continue under the newly elected Obama administration? Four, have the media changed their position on the issue since the November election?<\/p>\n
If the answer is yes to these questions, then the acrimony was probably about politics and style, not principle and substance.<\/p>\n
Take the so-called war on terror. The Patriot Act passed Congress in October 2001 by majorities in both parties \u2014 and was reauthorized in 2006. The original versions of the FISA wiretapping accords were enacted under the Carter administration in 1978.<\/p>\n
Both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were given authorization by Congress. The pre-9\/11 precursor for the removal of Saddam Hussein was the unanimous passage of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act \u2014 prompted by then-President Clinton’s warnings about Saddam’s dangerous weapons: “Some day, some way, I guarantee you he’ll use the arsenal.”<\/p>\n
President-elect Barack Obama no longer believes that the controversial FISA accords should be repealed. And the retention of George Bush’s secretary of defense, Robert Gates, along with the impressive appointments of Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and former Bush Mideast envoy Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser \u2014 all of whom were in favor of removing Saddam \u2014 suggest that those who once supported the Iraq war will have more foreign policy influence in the Obama administration than those who opposed it all along.<\/p>\n
Talk of a shredded Constitution and the need to immediately shut down Guantanamo Bay are no longer daily fare in the U.S. media \u2014 particularly after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Suddenly we have sober reflection about how to stop such a paramilitary attack here in the U.S. \u2014 and what to do about monsters in custody in Guantanamo, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Like it or not, radical Islamic terrorism antedated George Bush and will continue after him. And while we may lament how Bush sometimes conducted or articulated his policies, his support for beefing up homeland security, hitting terrorists hard abroad, supporting Democratic movements in the Middle East, and replacing two odious tyrannies with consensual governments once appealed to a broad number of Americans.<\/p>\n
Because they are largely sound strategies, they will not change much under a more charismatic President Obama \u2014 who for at least a while will enjoy the benefit of the doubt when confronting the same old nasty lose\/lose choices.<\/p>\n
On the economic front, we can apply the same type of critique to the present meltdown.<\/p>\n
The origins of our current mess were threefold: high energy costs, reckless borrowing and skyrocketing housing prices that squeezed family budgets. Promiscuous lending at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae created undue risks and increased foreclosures. The lack of proper oversight of Wall Street speculation ensured that a ripple of worry soon became a torrent of panic.<\/p>\n
But deregulation of Wall Street finance accelerated first under Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Radical risk-taking at Freddie and Fannie was overseen by former Clinton officials and heartedly supported by Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, the chief Democratic congressional watchdogs.<\/p>\n
The controversial Bush bailout plan will be continued \u2014 or expanded \u2014 by a President Obama. We may see Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remain in office in the manner that Bush extended Alan Greenspan’s eight years under Clinton.<\/p>\n
Faulting Bush for the wild climbs in oil prices to $147 a barrel would mean also praising him for reducing gas costs below $1.50 a gallon as oil in tough times crashed to less than $50 a barrel. In truth, American dependency on foreign oil and vulnerability to wild swings in price have been chronic since the first Arab embargoes over three decades ago. Note that President-elect Obama has dropped talk of a windfall-profits tax on omnipotent oil companies. Supposed energy cabals that jacked up gas prices have now morphed into clueless oil companies that can’t stop them from crashing.<\/p>\n
Many of our unpopular policies concerning terrorism, energy and finance are of long duration. They resulted from collective decisions by Congress, past administrations \u2014 and us, the people, in our daily lives. They were no more the fault of George Bush than they can be easily solved by Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
We should remember that fact in 2009, when the once-messianic Obama will become all too human, as he is overwhelmed by structural problems of terror, war and money not all of his own making \u2014 and the once-demonized but now retired George Bush will seem downright competent.<\/p>\n
\u00a92008 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Furor has arisen over President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s charges that our intelligence agencies are politicized. Spare us the outrage. For decades, directors of intelligence agencies have often quite inappropriately massaged their assessments to fit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6935,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/duty-and-the-taint-of-the-tell-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":3174,"position":1},"title":"‘Duty,’ and the Taint of the Tell-All","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Gates's insider memoir is the latest in a dishonorable genre. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 For all the hysteria over former defense secretary Robert Gates\u2019s new insider memoir of his tenure during the Bush and Obama administrations, the disclosures are more breaches of trust than earth-shattering revelations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Literature","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6088,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lies-subvert-demovracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3174,"position":2},"title":"Lies Subvert Demovracy","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama and his team have subverted the government they pledged to serve. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Truth is the lifeblood of democracy. Without honesty, the foundations of consensual government crumble. If the Internal Revenue Service acts unlawfully, our system of citizens\u2019 computing their own taxes implodes. Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democracy"","block_context":{"text":"Democracy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/democracy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1309,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iraqs-christians-near-extinction\/","url_meta":{"origin":3174,"position":3},"title":"Iraq’s Christians Near Extinction","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine A\u00a0recent\u00a0Fox News report\u00a0tells of how \"a rash of attacks on Christian-owned businesses in\u00a0northern Iraq\u00a0has raised troubling questions about the future safety of the country's shrinking Christian community, particularly as US forces withdraw completely from the nation they've refereed since 2003.\" In fact, \"questions about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1163,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/three-wars-little-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":3174,"position":4},"title":"Three Wars, Little News","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services It is a busy time in America. The Major League Baseball playoffs are competing with the upcoming midterm elections for the public's attention. The rescue of courageous miners in Chile has for a time overshadowed even the latest psychodramas of Lindsay Lohan and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2010"","block_context":{"text":"October 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/october-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2617,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-ii-vs-obama-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":3174,"position":5},"title":"Obama II vs. Obama I","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner I\u00a0don't think it has occurred to the divine ones that the administration now is at odds with the sort of ideology and attitudes Obama himself espoused on the campaign trail. They call for patience and for confidence in Iraq \u2014 and not, in prior\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2009"","block_context":{"text":"July 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/july-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}