Back in 1992 one of the complaints about then President George Herbert Walker Bush was that he didn’t “understand” the American people because he had never before seen a supermarket checkout scanner. Bill Clinton’s campaign successfully portrayed the president as “out of touch” because he didn’t frequent the local Georgetown grocery store.

It’s amazing how quickly times have changed. 1992 seems so long ago and yet it was only a year after the first Gulf War. One would have thought that the quick rout of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait by American forces would have ensured President George H.W. Bush’s reelection but it didn’t.

Although not a clear majority, enough Americans were annoyed at the mere perception (painted by the New York Times) of a technically deficient president that they elected the smooth talking Clinton who “felt our pain” at grocery store scanners. The next eight years brought us the Fleetwood Mac generation.

While undisciplined and self centered Clinton skillfully used his personal charm to give an appearance of wonkishness which enabled him to control the media. Throughout the nineties the MSM never focused on the mounting terrorist acts which Clinton and his administration treated as criminal offenses. “Evil” was not a term employed during the days of Clinton except for describing characters like David Koresh.

Although President George W. Bush’s opposition continually attempts to cast him in the role of the “out of touch father” they’ve been largely unsuccessful because most Americans appreciate the fact that he understands his chief role as president is to protect and defend the American people. He understands that evil never takes a vacation.

Lorie Byrd’s article in the Examiner reminds us that President Bush is committed to fighting the evil we face and that’s what we need in a President in times like these.

Those are the times I am thankful for a president who not only recognizes the evil we face, but is committed to fighting it. President Bush declared the murderous actions of the jihadists “evil” immediately after Sept. 11 and was often ridiculed for using the word.

After all we have now seen, it is impossible to deny the evil that we face, although there are still some who try to justify or diminish it. Some even try to do so by equating the evils of terrorism to the criminal actions of a few American soldiers. Thankfully the current administration does not.

Lorie Byrd is a clear thinker and her piece is a must read.