[Reader-list] KARL ROVE'S VIEWS OF THE WHITE HOUSE ON HIS LAST DAY

[FOSAAC (KEVIN KAUL)]

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1 September  2007
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Issue: 1
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Welcome to Friends of the South Asian American Communities

Dear
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----- Original Message -----
From: White House Strategic Initiatives [mailto:OfficeOfStrategicInitiatives at whitehouse.gov]
To: info at kevinkaul.com [mailto:info at kevinkaul.com]
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 12:50 PM
Subject: "The Long View" by Karl Rove
The Long View

Advisory thoughts on the 43rd president.

By Karl Rove

National Review Online

The Washington Post scorned President Truman as a "spoilsman" who "underestimated
the people's intelligence." New York Times columnist James Reston wrote off President
Eisenhower as "a tired man in a period of turbulence." At the end of President Reagan's
second term, the New York Times dismissed him as "simplistic" and a "lazy and inattentive
man."

These harsh judgments, made in the moment, have not weathered well over time. Fortunately,
while contemporary observers have a habit of getting presidents wrong, history tends
to be more accurate.

So how might history view the 43rd president? I can hardly be considered an objective
observer, but in this highly polarized period, who is?

However, I believe history will provide a more clear-eyed verdict on this president's
leadership than the anger of current critics would suggest.

President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test
of the 21st century.

He will be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartime footing in
the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.

Following the horrors of 9/11, this president changed American foreign policy by
 declaring terror sponsors responsible for the deeds of those they shelter, train,
and fund. America, he said, will not wait until dangers fully materialize with attacks
on our homeland before confronting those threats.

The president gave the nation new tools to defeat terrorism abroad and protect our
citizens at home with the Patriot Act, foreign surveillance that works in the wireless
age, a transformed intelligence community, and the Department of Homeland Security.

And this president saw the wisdom of removing terrorism's cause by advocating the
spread of democracy, especially in the Muslim world, where authoritarianism and 
repression have provided a potent growth medium for despair and anger aimed at the
West. He recognized that democracy there makes us safer here.

President Bush will be seen as a compassionate leader who used America's power for
good.

While the world dithered, America confronted HIV/AIDS in Africa with the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has supported treatment for more than 1.1 
million people worldwide, over one million of them in Africa. While most of the 
globe ignored Sudan and Darfur or refused to act, this president labeled the violence
there genocide - and pressed world leaders to take action.

A wide range of human-rights issues - from the repression in North Korea, Myanmar,
and elsewhere to religious freedom to trafficking in persons - are kept on the international
agenda in good part because of this president's demands for action.

And President Bush met challenges with new institutions and methods. For example,
the Proliferation Security Initiative confronts the transfer of dangerous material
and information. And he has reformed America's foreign aid to focus on results, 
accountability, transparency, and anti-corruption and pro-democracy requirements.

President Bush promotes economic growth and understands free markets provide the
 best path to a more hopeful tomorrow.

The president inherited an economy entering recession. It was further weakened by
terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, natural disasters, and out-of-control spending
with discretionary domestic spending increasing 16 percent in the last fiscal year
of his predecessor. President Bush took decisive action, cutting taxes and ratcheting
down this spending. The results? The net creation of 8.3 million new jobs since 
August 2003; higher after-tax income and greater incentives for firms to invest 
and expand; three years where America's economic growth led the rest of the G7 economies;
and a budget on path to surplus by 2012 - despite the increased spending invested
in securing America's safety by standing up the new Department of Homeland Security
and fighting the Global War on Terror. In the four years since taxes were last cut
in 2003, the U.S. economy has grown 13 percent in real dollars. The additional growth
is larger than the entire size of the Canadian economy.

This president also understands our standard of living depends on selling to the
 globe. The 14 nations with which we have implemented free agreements represent 
7.5 percent of the world's GDP, but 43 percent of our exports. The growing number
of free-trade agreements concluded and signed under this president helps explain
 why American exports have risen 27 percent between 2004 and 2006, creating jobs
 and prosperity here at home.

History will see President Bush as a reformer who focused on modernizing important
institutions.

He is concerned with fundamental change that will - among other goals - strengthen
the ways our children are educated and health care is provided.

In education, "No Child Left Behind" introduced accountability into our public-education
system by ensuring every child's progress is measured.

Parents now know whether or not their child is learning - in their own schools, 
and compared to other schools. This new focus on results helped lead to more improvement
in reading scores in five years than in the previous 28 combined. This reform shows
that measuring leads to results.

Medicare was modernized with a prescription-drug benefit, now used by 39 million
 seniors. Giving seniors the drugs they need helped them avoid expensive operations
and long hospital stays. The result is better health care for seniors at a lower
 cost to them and at a lower cost than expected to taxpayers.

The president approached other tasks - such as legal reform, higher-education assistance,
transportation, and conservation and forest policy - with the same reformist spirit.
And he did so on issues which are controversial within his own party, such as comprehensive
immigration reform, which he has championed since he first started running for governor
of Texas in 1993.

He will be seen as an innovative conservative thinker with a positive, optimistic
agenda for action.

For example, his proposals to reform health care are drawn from his understanding
of the values of competition and markets. A standard tax deduction for health care
- similar to the deduction homeowners get for mortgage interest - would level the
playing field between those who get their health insurance from employers and those
who pay for it out of their own pockets and expand the number of families with coverage.

People should be able to save tax-free for out-of-pocket health costs. The Health
Savings Accounts the president signed into law are the first step toward this. HSAs
will help move health care toward a consumer-driven model and away from a single-payer
system. More than 4.5 million American families are benefiting from HSAs today.

More competition would be created by allowing insurance to be sold across state 
lines or small businesses to pool risk and would lower costs and increase access.

The president has a similar focus on bold changes when it comes to opportunity and
poverty. He emphasizes policies, such as welfare reform, that promote ownership 
and encourage personal responsibility rather than dependence on government.

His faith- and community-based initiative is encouraging social entrepreneurship
 to confront poverty and suffering. Billions of federal dollars can now be accessed
by such groups eager to serve a neighbor in need. Already, 34 Democrat and Republican
governors and more than 100 mayors of all stripes have created faith- and community-based
offices to build on the federal initiative.

On energy, the environment, and climate change, he is developing a new paradigm.
 Emphasizing technology, increased energy-efficiency partnerships, and resource 
diversification, his policies are improving energy security and slowing the growth
of greenhouse gases without economy-breaking mandates and regulation. The president
who won criticism by rejecting the failed approach of Kyoto has implemented policies
that enabled the United States to grow its economy by 3.1 percent and reduce the
 absolute amount of CO2 emissions (by 1.3 percent).

In these and other areas, history will see President Bush drove policy in new directions,
based on conservative principles.

He will be recognized as a strong advocate of traditional values.

He advanced a culture of life where every child is protected and welcomed.

He supported traditional marriage when it came under attack from the courts. He 
sought to strengthen families and encourage personal responsibility. And he understood
the necessity of appointing judges who know the proper and limited role of courts
and will provide impartial justice and faithful application of the Constitution.

President Bush had the political courage to confront the biggest economic challenge
America faces.

The looming fiscal crises in Medicare and Social Security will result in either 
the impoverishment of the American people through higher taxes and lower growth 
or through the inability of government to deliver on its promises.

This president has worked to restrain the spending growth of entitlements, and to
modernize Social Security and Medicare by injecting market forces and competition
into their operation. He proposed Social Security reform that would solve the system's
long-term financial shortfall while giving younger workers the choice to put some
of their own money into conservative stock-market investments.

He has made it impossible for future presidents and future Congresses to ignore 
this challenge. The president's proposal will be the starting point for reform when
it happens. When it does, Americans will be grateful President Bush made entitlement
reform an issue and will be aware that valuable time was lost because of the obstructionism
of his critics.

The outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan will color how history views the president.

History's concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment.
History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar
to what America saw after World War II.

America's persistence in Europe and Asia after that war helped Germany and Japan
 become democracies and allies in the struggle against Communism. If something similar
happens in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will change the region and the world. For the
first time, millions of citizens across the Middle East will see a working model
 of freedom in their region - and it will give them hope for a better future for
 their children by making America safer for them.

If the outcome there is like what happened in Vietnam after America abandoned our
allies and the region descended into chaos, violence, and danger, history's judgment
will be harsh. History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his
policy as mistaken - as George McGovern was in his time.

Beyond his policies and actions, history will take the measure of the man.

I have known George W. Bush for nearly 34 years and have had the privilege of watching
from nearby as history has placed its demands on him and our country. I know his
 humility and decency, his intelligence and thoughtfulness, his respect for every
person he comes in contact with, his unwavering commitment to principle-based decision-making,
and the quiet and compassionate hearts of the man and his graceful wife, Laura.

I have come to understand true leadership leans into the wind. It tackles big challenges
with uncertain outcomes rather than taking on simple, sure tasks. It does what is
right, regardless of what the latest poll or focus group says. History demands much
of America and its leaders and I am confident it will judge the 43rd president as
a man more than worthy of the great office the American people twice entrusted to
him.

- Karl Rove is the president's longtime adviser. August 31 is his last day working
in the White House.

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Kevin Kaul
Friends of the South Asian American Communities
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