Happy Days (Part 1)

The Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy was robust, optimistic, and filled with hope. Old style liberalism. These liberals believed in America’s future, embraced America’s power, and used that power—including our military strength—to help build a better world.

After Kennedy and his brother were assassinated, Democrats’ mood turned darker. Talk was more about the enemy within—fellow Americans who undermined our better nature—than about America’s greatness of in the face of a still-undemocratic world. I think media drove the internal enemy storyline, even making it work for Democrats on occasion, though Republicans have won the White House 7 of 10 times since Bobby Kennedy died.

In the spirit of darkness over hope, the media have lead Democrats to ignore the biggest success story of 2007—Petraeus’ Iraq surge. Michael Barone says the surge taught us 1) no mission is impossible for the U.S. military; 2) societies are transformed from the bottom up, not the top down, and most of all; 3) never bet against America. As Barone writes, while some of “Bush's critics seem to have relished the prospect of American defeat . . . it appears that they have ‘misunderestimated’ him once again.”

While TIME overlooked Bush’s General—Petraeus—in naming its “person of the year”, Britain’s Telegraph has forthrightly corrected the error and from London, proclaimed Petraeus “The Sunday Telegraph's Person of the Year.” According to the article, “The critics said it couldn't be done, but [Petraeus’] vision and determination . . . have brought greater security and cause for optimism to the people of Iraq.” Thanks Telegraph for telling the truth we don’t read here.