Despite the highest oil prices in the country's history, a housing and financial crisis, two unpopular wars, and one of the lowest job approval ratings in history, President Bush still called his time spent as President a "cool experience for Laura and
I."
Long known for ineloquence in his verve and an undeterred belief his actions and policies are sound - irrespective of criticism from experts - Bush's comment should surprise no one. And yet his flagrant minimization of an experience at the helm of the modern day Roman Empire sits uncomfortably at the least and incomprehensibly at the worst.
To work at the same desk as Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy; to wander halls decorated by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; and to be briefed where Harry Truman made the horrifying decision to use atomic force against the Japanese in the midst of a World War: one would think these intimate and tangible connections with the nation's history would provoke a deeply moving and humbling awe, the likes of which can be felt staring out from a mountain top or walking into the Colosseum. But perhaps if you're the son of a President whose rise to power was all but handed to you on a silver platter, your time in the Oval Office could just be another "cool" thing to do for a while.
It's hard to imagine how such a blasé attitude wouldn't affect your work, which in this unfortunate case involves running a nation. A better psychologist might surmise the policies approved by the most-vacationing President in history could only be given as much reflection as the CEO of America gives to his own job. And that begs one final question: Have Americans paid the price for the President's tour de power?
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