Farewell Mr Bush

Farewell Mr Bush and apologies for our new President's insensitivity and lack of tact. I'm a left wing liberal Democrat but I winced at some of his lines directed your way. Oh no, I can hear my former colleagues and friends utter, she's gone soft in her old age. No, I haven't, honestly. I just think there is a time and place for strong criticism and it isn't in front of someone's proud family when that someone has a foot out the door anyway.

Not since FDR, according to David Sanger of the New York Times, has an incoming President so directly criticized his predecessor in an inaugural address. There is a precedent for grace under these circumstances. President Obama did display grace by escorting the former President and his wife to the helicopter, and he did thank him for his service. I actually didn't mind some of the harshest lines like, "restore science to its rightful place." Even the bit about "our collective failure to make hard choices" I felt was as much a criticism of our legislators as our former President and perhaps had a place in the speech. But I was embarrassed by the "ready to lead once more" remark as well as a certain negative tone.

Do I think George W. Bush was a great president? Am I prepared to defend his decisions while in office and carry on about his well noted graciousness upon leaving. Not at all. However, call me old fashioned but I do think there is a respect for the office that should be observed during historical moments like inaugurations. Besides which, I think it distracted from an otherwise careful speech and message of hope.

Unfortunately, these will be the phrases people remember, along with "false the choice between our safety and our ideals." I was disappointed in our new President who has a well deserved reputation of a master of words. I wanted to hear a strong message of change and hope. Something that would ring in our collected minds and hold him to a promise. I think the President's actions on his first day in office were enough to say loudly and clearly that his administration was rejecting decisions made by the former administration, without having to resort to harsh rhetoric. I'm proud of his decisions to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to halt the practice of torturing prisoners. Those decisions and the flurry of other orders he made in the first day or two are the reason I and so many voted for him. As it turns out the candidate who many criticized as being all speech and no substance, were wrong.