Farewell, Mr. President

I am proudly in the minority of people who are willing to say this: I will miss President George W. Bush.

While many in our nation and the world are in paroxysms over Barack Obama’s election victory and coronation tomorrow, I am reflective. We will be trading a man of great character, for a man who avoided character development at every turn, and took the easy or salacious route in his political and personal alliances. Obama is now the leader of this nation, and will receive my prayers. Part of my prayers for him is that these next four-years will burnish in him the character that he has long avoided—for the sake of the country, his daughters, and himself.

Whether you have agreed with President Bush’s leadership of America, or spent the last eight years despising his policies and his person, does not matter. He deserves this much credit: he made tough decisions and didn’t shy away from or balk at challenges and criticism. He took a strong stance against the terrorism that threatened us, and upheld the standard of Commander-in-Chief, in not hanging the military and our fighting men out to dry, but supporting them and revising policies to ensure victory, not defeat.

Here are the four documented reasons that he was born for such a time as this.

1. We have been safe for seven years:

The President has kept us Safe

Bush made the World a Safer Place

2. Terrorism worldwide has seen a decline:

Terror on the wane, Al Qaeda on the run, and other headlines you won't see

3. He supported Africa’s sick and poor with his policies, not just his words:

Geldof and Bush: Diary from the Road

4. He supported the nation’s poor—homelessness went down because of his policies

Bush Program curbs chronic Homelessness

I believe history will vindicate President Bush, not vilify him. As he fades into the twilight, I give him his due.

“Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” Romans 13:17