Rehabilitation of Bush Legacy Well Under Way

Need proof? See Obama's early moves, writes Krauthammer

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 16, 2009 10:08 AM CST

(Newser) – Nixon aside, no president since Truman has left office as unpopular as George W. Bush, writes Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer. But while it took decades for Truman's reputation to be restored, "Bush's rehabilitation will come sooner—in fact, it has already begun." The proof? Barack Obama deferential transition, "a startlingly early sign of a newly respectful consideration of the Bush-Cheney legacy."

It's not just that Obama has kept on Robert Gates at the Pentagon and given the Treasury to Tim Geithner, who Krauthammer calls "instrumental in guiding the Bush financial rescue." More than that: Obama is now understanding the virtues of warrantless wiretapping, "enhanced" interrogation techniques, and even detention without trial. "The very continuation by Democrats of Bush's policies," writes the columnist, "will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgment of how much he got right."

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

President-elect Barack Obama finishes speaking about the economy, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

In this Jan. 7, 2009 file photo, President George W. Bush, right, and his father, former President George H.W. Bush at the White House. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush during a meeting with former presidents earlier this month. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President-elect Obama talks on his cell phone after boarding his plane at Washington's Reagan National Airport after meeting with President Bush Monday, Nov. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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By having personalized the responsibility for the awfulness of the war, Bush has done his successor a favor. Obama enters office with a strategic success on his hands—while Bush leaves the scene taking a shoe for his country. - Charles Krauthammer

The Democrats now own Iraq. They own the war on al-Qaeda. And they own the panoply of anti-terror measures with which the Bush administration kept us safe these past seven years. - Charles Krauthammer,
Washington Post columnist

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Rehabilitation of Bush Legacy Well Under Way