Opinion: In today’s pages: Will Barack Obama rescue Bush?
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Columnist Jonah Goldberg wonders if a President Obama would make President Bush look good:
[I]f only a fraction of what [Bush] had to say was remotely accurate, then the conventional bleats about unilateralism, war lust and cowboyishness will go down in history as the excessive caterwauling of an imaginative and hyper-partisan opposition.Indeed, President Bush’s reputation is not as solidified as his detractors and fans think.If Iraq becomes a stable and democratizing nation, his presidency will look much better than it does today. But if Iraq Balkanizes or Lebanon-izes, then Democratic rhetoric about the ‘worst foreign policy blunder in U.S. history’ will gain descriptive heft. Only time will tell.
Contributing editor Ian Buruma says soccer fans’ rabid nationalism is transforming into a European spirit. Author Benny Morris says Israel’s swap of live terrorists for dead soldiers might embolden terrorist groups. And author Dinah Lenney ponders what to tell her daughter as she graduates from high school.
The editorial board notes that today California will start ticketing drivers talking on cell phones without headsets, and warns everyone to look out for drivers fiddling with said headsets. The board also urges China to help save the dwindling wild tiger population, and says eight years and billions of dollars have done little to reverse coca production in Colombia:
It was probably unintentional, but ‘The Incredible Hulk’ is much more than a summer afternoon’s escape; it’s clearly a satire, a perfect depiction of Washington’s boneheaded belief that firepower can resolve any problem. Although the creature is obviously bulletproof, soldiers shoot him anyway. They get bigger guns, then tanks. He survives. They get cannons. They shoot and shoot. The Hulk sulks for a bit and then is fine. Unfortunately, combative redundancy is also our strategy for fighting drug trafficking.
On the letters page, readers discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on the D.C. gun ban. La Habra’s Bobby Florentz is surprised: ‘Well, what do you know. Someone has forced a slim majority of the Supreme Court to listen to a reading of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.’
*Cartoon by Matt Davies, The Journal News