WHAT IF HE'S ACTUALLY THE MAN IN THE YELLOW HAT, AND WE'RE THE CHIMPS?:

Canada should be more curious about George: As baffling as the president's success is to many of us, there are lessons in his success to our politicians (Douglas Fisher, 3/20/05, Ottawa Sun)

[A]fter almost three weeks in Georgia and Florida -- listening to radio, viewing TV, reading papers, going to church, and listening to Americans in conversation -- there is no mystery in what the majority of Americans recognize about Bush.

He is in a remarkably strong position in the backing he has from tens of millions of plain Americans. Why? Because so many see in him what their country and the world needs: A strong, clear, straight-talking leader, one who offers plain, understandable conceptions of democracy, human liberty, and a free economy. And one who does, or tries to do, what he has openly undertaken.

At home, George Bush is now a leader who has proven himself by bold use of American military force and social and economic aid abroad in routing and replacing tyrannical regimes that also harbored and exported terrorists. In pursuing an idealized, working democracy for all nations, the Bush presidency seeks allies but does not wait and stall and plead, either one-on-one or at the UN.

This is clearly the popular mind-set in the U.S. since the recent defeat of the Democrats' choice for president, John Kerry, and the successful holding of a national election in Iraq.

Bush and his American warriors have gotten rid of evil regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq and have set in motion the difficult and costly building of workable economies and democratic institutions and processes there. Almost as icing on this Bush-made cake has come the best opening moves in several decades to settle peacefully the wretched dilemma of the Palestinians.

At present, and not surprisingly given huge federal spending, the American economy seems so strong, and more obvious than I can recall. The day-to-day life of America races along richly in its chasing of today, tomorrow and next week through the common obsessions with glory and infamy in sport, politics, television, the Internet, entertainment and crime. Even anti-terrorist items are as commonplace as concerns over the weather.

But there is not an incessant drumbeat of patriotism every day, nor much carping over casualties in Iraq . Indeed, there is little public outcry as their was during Vietnam.

Of course, it's taken for granted in Bush's America that God blesses it. Such assurance is the essence in his twinkling grin.

Bet he didn't hear anyone so much as mention Canada during that fortnight either.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2005 3:35 PM