Joe Scarborough Shows That Common Sense Resides in the Center

Joe Scarborough will never be confused with a Democrat. Wait, I should temper that, in these days where Richard Lugar is considered too centrist I guess it is possible that somewhere there is someone who might not agree with that assertion. I still stand by it however.

Joe has a column that he writes for the Politico website that is well worth your time. One of the best things about Scarborough is that he has an affinity for the center, if not in all things at least in those that require nothing more than common decency and common sense.

A couple of weeks ago in back to back articles Mr. Scarborough showed this very clearly.

On April 25th he wrote about George Bush and his unlikely admirers on the left. The subject came about as a result of a recent interview Bono had with Jon Stewart in which he extolled the former President as a hero to the cause of African aids relief saying that as a direct result of Bush the younger's leadership over 5 million people are alive and living profitable lives. Sir Bob Geldof of Live Aid fame has also said that he is " pissed off" that Bush as the subject of much ridicule of the left does not the credit he deserves and states unequivocally that Bush " has done far more than any President" to help.

Does that mean that Bush was a good President. Does it mean he is a good man. I cannot say. I never thought he was a bad man, I just thought he was a bad President. Even so even bad Presidents make good choices. Jimmy Carter was a bad President but most agree that the Camp David accords he achieved with Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Begin were an achievement beyond compare at the time.

What it does mean is that when we stick to the prescribed course of opinion we miss much of the intricacies of character that these men have, that we all have.

In his next article he spoke of the recent book The President's Club, a book which I am currently reading. He spoke of the relationship Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover developed. Hoover, in the wilderness in the Roosevelt years, was a confidante of Truman and in fact did help Truman negate the right's attacks on him.

Scarborough specifically mentioned Mitt Romney's recent attack on ex President Jimmy Carter when he asserted that " even Jimmy Carter would have ordered the attack ( on Bin Laden.) Scarborough admits to being critical of Carter for the last forty years but wonders if the statute of limitations might well have expired on attacking the octogenarian former President. And coincidentally or not he praised the recent Bush's respect for the Presidency by remaining muted in his criticisms of the present administration.

Both of these are common sense opinions from the center. We need more of them. One can be from the left or the right without being in contempt of members of the opposite party.

We need more people like Joe Scarborough and perish the thought perhaps like ex President's Bush and Carter.