Comments on: A Class Act To The End http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/ Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:48:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kevin D. http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/comment-page-1/#comment-167650 Kevin D. Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:28:14 +0000 http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/#comment-167650 The willingness to act is not itself a courageous thing to do.  Indeed, choosing not to act is itself an act.  So, I'm not willing to give Bush a pass simply because he decided to do <em>something</em>. The $700 billion bailout is now turning into the $1.02 trillion bailout and everybody and their brother is coming out of the woodwork looking for a handout. You call it an ideological position to take a stand against the Federal government overstepping its Constitutional powers?  I call it taking a principled stand. Roosevelt's New Deal made the Great Depression worse.  Why is your idea of gross government spending any better? We're in this position because of bad decision making.  Why is the federal government taking my money and throwing it at it?  It has no right. The willingness to act is not itself a courageous thing to do.  Indeed, choosing not to act is itself an act.  So, I’m not willing to give Bush a pass simply because he decided to do something.

The $700 billion bailout is now turning into the $1.02 trillion bailout and everybody and their brother is coming out of the woodwork looking for a handout.

You call it an ideological position to take a stand against the Federal government overstepping its Constitutional powers?  I call it taking a principled stand.

Roosevelt’s New Deal made the Great Depression worse.  Why is your idea of gross government spending any better?

We’re in this position because of bad decision making.  Why is the federal government taking my money and throwing it at it?  It has no right.

]]> By: Dean Esmay http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/comment-page-1/#comment-167625 Dean Esmay Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:17:51 +0000 http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/#comment-167625 Ron: All I can say is that Bush answered his critics on the right pretty well a week or two ago, when asked why he had signed off on major government interventions that supposedly went against his "conservative" principles. He said it<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/12/raw-data-transcript-bushs-white-house-press-conference/" rel="nofollow"> in his last press conference</a>: <i>The question facing the president is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem?</i> <i>And I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression. So I've told some of my friends who've said -- you know, who have taken an ideological position on this issue, you know, "Why'd you do what you did?" I said, "Well, if you were sitting there and heard that the depression could be greater than the Great Depression, I hope you would act too," which I did.</i></i> Make of it what you will. I'm still glad I voted for this guy. Twice. Ron: All I can say is that Bush answered his critics on the right pretty well a week or two ago, when asked why he had signed off on major government interventions that supposedly went against his "conservative" principles. He said it in his last press conference:

The question facing the president is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem?

And I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression.

So I’ve told some of my friends who’ve said — you know, who have taken an ideological position on this issue, you know, “Why’d you do what you did?”

I said, "Well, if you were sitting there and heard that the depression could be greater than the Great Depression, I hope you would act too," which I did.</i>

Make of it what you will. I’m still glad I voted for this guy. Twice.

]]> By: Ron Coleman http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/comment-page-1/#comment-167623 Ron Coleman Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:07:32 +0000 http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/#comment-167623 Dave, you get credit for having the nerve to write something so true and, really, objectively undeniable.  His time in the White House and the end of that time was so much more dignified than both who preceded him as well as who could not countenance him -- that unquenchable left-wing insistence that the political is personal, and any departure from its norms is evil defined. With those basic instincts of dignity and restraint, however, GWB could have done much more though, and left us far less bad off than we are, mainly in the area of economic policy.  In this regard his sins, mainly of omission, may not be enough to place him above at best the middling rank of Chief Executives. <em>Ron Coleman's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LikelihoodOfSuccess/~3/517097055/' rel="nofollow">Instapundit » Blog Archive » THOUGHTS ON leaders as readers. “Is reading to pick out the parts that fit your pre-existing vision…</a></em> Dave, you get credit for having the nerve to write something so true and, really, objectively undeniable.  His time in the White House and the end of that time was so much more dignified than both who preceded him as well as who could not countenance him — that unquenchable left-wing insistence that the political is personal, and any departure from its norms is evil defined.

With those basic instincts of dignity and restraint, however, GWB could have done much more though, and left us far less bad off than we are, mainly in the area of economic policy.  In this regard his sins, mainly of omission, may not be enough to place him above at best the middling rank of Chief Executives.

Ron Coleman’s last blog post..Instapundit » Blog Archive » THOUGHTS ON leaders as readers. “Is reading to pick out the parts that fit your pre-existing vision…

]]> By: Dean Esmay http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/comment-page-1/#comment-167620 Dean Esmay Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:12:58 +0000 http://deanesmay.com/2009/01/19/a-class-act-to-the-end/#comment-167620 Unusually honest, unusually principled, and unusually firm in his convictions. History will be kind to this man: our generation's Harry Truman. I was pretty sure that Bush would cave and give Scooter Libby a pardon, simply because Bush's weak point has always been loyalty to those who work for him. But, Scooter didn't ask for one, and Bush didn't issue one. Probably because Scooter shouldn't have been pardoned: Scooter Libby obviously panicked and lied when he had no need to lie. A foolish choice by a guy who should have known better. And obviously, he did know better, or he would have asked for a pardon. Unusually honest, unusually principled, and unusually firm in his convictions. History will be kind to this man: our generation’s Harry Truman.

I was pretty sure that Bush would cave and give Scooter Libby a pardon, simply because Bush’s weak point has always been loyalty to those who work for him. But, Scooter didn’t ask for one, and Bush didn’t issue one. Probably because Scooter shouldn’t have been pardoned: Scooter Libby obviously panicked and lied when he had no need to lie. A foolish choice by a guy who should have known better. And obviously, he did know better, or he would have asked for a pardon.

]]>