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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
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Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 27, 2005
/ 17 Shevat, 5765
Bush's speech even beat mine
By
Dick Morris
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
President Bush's second inaugural address was, in my opinion, not only the greatest since JFK's but the best single speech I have heard in the past 40 years. And since that tally includes some I have written, it is heartfelt praise indeed!
It was great not only for its words, phrases and sounds but for its policy as well. Indeed, it was the first inaugural since 1936 in which a president articulated a new national policy and direction for his administration.
The quotes just roll off the tongue and lodge in the mind, probably forever. When the president spoke of Americans "by birth or by choice," it sent shivers up my spine. What a wonderful way to see immigration and immigrants! "Americans by choice."
How fundamentally true it is that "the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
And when the president refused to look the other way where there is tyranny, he said, "America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains or that women welcome humiliation and servitude or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies."
Until this address, we have seen freedom as un-fascism or un-communism. In the gigantic global confrontations of those eras, we were dominated by the thinking behind FDR's memorable characterization of Spain's brutal dictator Francisco Franco: "Sure he's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." Now we have no sons of bitches. Now we accept the divide of the free and the unfree as the demarcation in the world.
What a clarion message of hope for democratic reformers throughout the world that the president said that, even though they now are "facing repression, prison or exile," "America sees you for who you are — the future leaders of your free countries."
Intrinsic in the president's message is the idea that freedom spawns its own allies and generates its own power. "Freedom is the permanent hope of mankind," he said, "the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul." He noted that "history has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of liberty."
Cynics, hiding behind liberalism, will express concern at an imperial overreach. Some will equate the president's global crusade with others less worthy in our past. They will say that it reminds them of the Crusades or colonization and the white man's burden or the global march of communism. But there is a vast difference between an ideology, a theological system of belief or a racial plan of conquest and a worldwide effort to help people win the right to make their own decisions about their countries even when we don't like the result that eventuates.
Others will say that Bush has committed us to an agenda that we cannot hope to fulfill and that will lead to rash global interventionism. They may cite how JFK's commitment to "support any friend and oppose any foe … and to bear any burden … for the survival and the defense of liberty" led to Vietnam."
But Bush is indicating a direction, a vector, not a specific plan to achieve worldwide liberty by a date certain. And he recognizes that the force of the ideology of liberty combined harnessed by the peoples of other countries themselves must be the major propellant to liberty.
Bush's optimism and the liberal pessimism his speech has encountered makes one wonder when the left and the right traded places. Historically, liberals were optimistic about human nature and the right was pessimistic about the potential for human improvement. Their respective ideologies were founded on these premonitions of the capacity for human progress. But, since Ronald Reagan, the right has been optimistic about people and the left imbued with a pessimism that is unworthy of its heritage and history.
Will the world respond to Bush's appeal? France won't. Germany won't. Italy won't. Their histories dictate a pessimism and a passivity that make participation in global crusades of this sort impossible. But peoples who have always cherished freedom but have often been denied it— the Spanish, the Scandinavians, the Eastern Europeans and eventually the suffering multitudes of the Middle East, Africa and Asia — will come to embrace this chance at change.
Hail to Bush for the willingness to embrace and articulate eloquence. And hail to Mark Gerson for helping him to get there. It only makes me wish I could write that well.
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JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Because He Could". (ClickHERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.
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© 2005, Dick Morris
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