Punting In the Panhandle State
Michael Bechloss has paused in the midst of his perpetual book tour to give George W. Bush a pass on Iraq.
Alighting in Norman Oklahoma, America’s best quaffed “Presidential Historian” discussed Iraq with University of Oklahoma President [and former Senator/Governor] David Boren.
In a display of the agility for which he is renowned, Bechloss lowered the bar for President Bush while simultaneously kicking the can down the road.
The Norman Transcript [via HNN] reports that Bechloss said Bush “… told the American public they were going in for weapons of mass destruction… If he really believed that, history will understand, he said. But if he only used that as a pretext, historians will judge him.” 
“Only President Bush knows that, and that’s why we have to wait 30 or 40 years,” Beschloss said.
So crackpot intentions may trump actual disaster! Enjoy the wait!
You can’t find your place in history when someone shuffles the pages
From washingtondecoded via historynewsnetwork comes a new interpretation of Lyndon Johnson’s decent into Vietnam: LBJ, the Best & the Brightest’s first victim.
“What Did LBJ Know About the Cuban Missile Crisis? And When Did He Know It?” pivots on the fact that Johnson was cut out of the final deal which settled the Missile Crisis. Johnson was somewhat involved in Kennedy Administration policy making during the events, but nobody told LBJ the US pulled it’s missiles from Turkey in trade for Soviets taking theirs from Cuba. Then or later.
Leaving the Sage of the Pedernales to buy the hype: cool, calm JFK masterfully staring down the blinking Russians. 
Que Vietnam! 
“False history led to mistaken lessons, including a belief in the efficacy of calibrated force, which helped prevent Johnson from seriously entertaining the concessions necessary for a negotiated political solution to the Vietnam War… not only was LBJ deliberately shut out as vice president, but the tape recordings show that he was still in the dark years after he became president, when he was presumably entitled, and urgently needed, to understand the knowable truth behind Kennedy’s spectacular success…. LBJ’s unspoken presumption was that the same men who were at Kennedy’s side in October 1962 would surely see Johnson through to a similar, unmitigated victory, regardless of the differences. And if they could not, conversely, that suggested something LBJ did not want to countenance: that the only real difference was in the president who led this assemblage of the best and the brightest.”
The race to the bottom continues for President George W. Bush:
“…Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.”
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071106/a_iranpoll06.art.htm
Oh, How We Laughed
It was a simpler era. America was at peace, thanks to Congress tying the President’s hands.
Then the passage of time dimmed memories, and somehow allowed a bland two year interregnum to become America’s lost years of innocence.
Now an exciting new coffee table book of Ford Era photos is offered up for your page turning pleasure.
Richard Norton Smith, Presente!
[and what’s the deal with him being on the White House web site?]
Digging deep
Chris Wallace is shaking things up at Fox News Sunday, launching a cutting edge new interview series called “American Leaders.”
Let Chris explain:
“we want to expand the conversation on Sunday talk shows to reach beyond the Beltway and hear from some of the most compelling voices in business, culture and religion.”
But they could get George Bush [41].
Reaching all the way to College Station, Texas, where the senior President Bush is flogging the triumphant reopening of his Presidential Library.
A sampling of the Wallace fact seeking juggernaut in action:
“Where do you and your family — where did you get this commitment to public service?”
“And as grandpa or poppy — what are you?“
“Volunteerism has had quite some staying power in the last 20 years, hasn’t it?“
Great to see the hard hitting style he showed in his Nancy Reagan take-down hasn’t dulled.
Punting In the Panhandle State
