Karl Rove - Bush's Brain

The Left insists on portraying our President as a dullard, someone who will not be able to function without Karl Rove. Karl has been called President Bush's Brain. Personally I think this underestimates our President. It is more accurate to credit President Bush with the idea and vision for America, which Karl Rove was able to politically package for maximum effect.

It is probably safe to say that President Bush is more Average than Genius in the GPA and IQ departments. By way of comparison, we forget that while his GPA was not stellar, it was higher than John Kerry's. US News And World Report's This Week's article from June 12, 2005 contained this paragraph.

As they bid for the White House, Democratic candidate John Kerry was often painted as a pompous, French-speaking intellectual, while George W. Bush was portrayed as a simpleton who routinely flubbed the English language. Bush also took his lumps for being a lousy student at Yale, where he graduated with a gentleman's C average, according to a transcript published in the New Yorker in 1999. Kerry, on the other hand, didn't release his grade report until last month. And? Surprisingly average , reports the Boston Globe: an unremarkable 76 grade-point average--a point below Bush's GPA.

But any GPA equals IQ comparison is not a fair measure Leadership abilities. Leadership is where our President excels. Leadership is Creativity, Vision and Logical Reasoning, combined with the ability to clearly envision the effect of present actions on the future. Future consequences is the measurement for History. History will judge Bush 43 much more favorably and more visionary than current events suggest.

It was with interest that I read an article published by Karl Rove on his last day as part of the 43^rd Presidential Administration (The Long View).

President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century.

He will be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartime footing in the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.

Mr. Rove continues the article with examples of President Bush's Leadership. Leadership in the foreign policy, economy and other areas outside the Iraq War.

While the world dithered, America confronted HIV/AIDS in Africa with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has supported treatment for more than 1.1 million people worldwide, over one million of them in Africa. While most of the globe ignored Sudan and Darfur or refused to act, this president labeled the violence there genocide — and pressed world leaders to take action.

The Bush accomplishments are all the more astonishing in light of the situation he inherited from his predecessor.

The president inherited an economy entering recession. It was further weakened by terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, natural disasters, and out-of-control spending with discretionary domestic spending increasing 16 percent in the last fiscal year of his predecessor. President Bush took decisive action, cutting taxes and ratcheting down this spending. The results? The net creation of 8.3 million new jobs since August 2003; higher after-tax income and greater incentives for firms to invest and expand; three years where America’s economic growth led the rest of the G7 economies; and a budget on path to surplus by 2012 — despite the increased spending invested in securing America’s safety by standing up the new Department of Homeland Security and fighting the Global War on Terror. In the four years since taxes were last cut in 2003, the U.S. economy has grown 13 percent in real dollars. The additional growth is larger than the entire size of the Canadian economy. [emphasis mine]

That last sentence says a great deal about the politics of the President. However, George Bush is not perfect. He has made the largest mistakes where Immigration and Border Security are concerned. The conduct of the Iraq War following the invasion, but not the reason for invasion, another mistake. Hurricane Katrina, while primarily the fault of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, is a small mistake attributed to the Bush Administration.

In the end Karl Rove is correct about History's judgment of the 43^rd President.

The outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan will color how history views the president.

History’s concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment. History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar to what America saw after World War II.
...
If the outcome there is like what happened in Vietnam after America abandoned our allies and the region descended into chaos, violence, and danger, history’s judgment will be harsh. History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his policy as mistaken — as George McGovern was in his time.