It?s only fitting that TIME?s last potshot at George W. Bush ? at least the last one aimed during his tenure as president ? would mix snark with some misstatements of important facts. I?m speaking of ?The Moment,? a feature that has provoked past responses in this forum.
He is the free-market apostle who wound up ordering massive government intervention. The clarion of free trade and lawful immigration who leaves office with protectionism and isolationism resurgent. The would-be uniter with the wedgelike effect.
Free-market apostle? Wrong. The whole idea of ?compassionate conservatism? signaled Bush?s willingness to use the federal government to achieve his desired ends. Clarion of free trade? Tell that to the critics who bashed him for his support of steel tariffs early in his tenure. Tell it to Bruce Bartlett, who wrote a book calling Bush an ?impostor? before it was wildly popular to kick the 43rd president. A would-be uniter? That much is true, but the circumstances of his electoral victory over the Goracle probably made that goal impossible from the start.
