No Legacy for You

The Washington Post declares:

The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. . . .  Yet none of this has particularly impressed the public at large, which remains skeptical that anything meaningful has changed and still gives Bush record-low approval ratings.

No, not if the Washington Post does not choose to make it so.  There is so much unintentional insight  about  our journalistic and  political classes  in those brief sentences.  Think of it.  Kim Jong Il throws the switch on one of his nuclear facilities to the “off” position, however briefly, and he’s “dismantling his nuclear program.”   Mr. Kim, here (but not here)  is your legacy.

Yet George  W. Bush, who sacrificed his principles and the support of foreign policy conservatives to do exactly  what liberals have demanded for the duration of his presidency,  gets no public  credit from liberals for it.  Sorry, no legacy for you.

Chris Hill and  Nicholas Burns  will get their book deals no matter what happens, but for Bush, the question ought to be  whether he should  wager his place in history on his principles or on Kim Jong Il’s integrity.