Submitted by Don Carlson, Sep 24, 2007 18:58

I admire Mr. Barone, but I've noticed he has a weakness found in many American 'conservatives:' he hesitates to compliment the president--and if, by chance, he does compliment the president, he suggests alternative explanations for the act, position, or disposition complimented, a sort of sop to those many journalists and academics right and left, who resent and disparage George Bush. I suppose it's natural for even right-wing members of the intelligentsia to be put off by the man: he is religious, he didn't do significantly better at college than Kerry or Gore, he is not a veteran of combat in any of America's wars, he did well in business, he speaks with something like a Texas accent, he used to drink too much (but quit), and he doesn't do what the right-wing pundits tell him to do. Clearly, George W. Bush is not presidential timber, and to hint or allow or suppose-maybe that he has intelligence or strength of character, or that he will stand his watch with anything like determination, or that his decisions are guided by anything like principle, well, that's too much for any really intellectual dude to gracefully accept--I suppose. But Mr. Barone should go ahead and pay the president a simple, clear, unqualified compliment sometime, and see if it doesn't feel good to acknowledge admiration for someone like the president without worrying about the approval of one's peers or readers, if one has any.

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