Yes, I know, I’m shocked too. Never thought I would say that, but in this instance I actually do. At the World Economic Forum he spoke about the Middle East and how they should accept democracy, tolerance and equality, to achieve maximum economic and cultural prosperity. George W. Bush, self-proclaimed “war president,” said something insightful and smart. Where’s the brandy?!¹

Of course, it was all pretty clear he would be sucking up to us at the end of his term. He has about seven months as President of the United States, and any idiot — even a Bush, knows that leaving office on a positive note is the best way to go.

Does that disqualify the integrity of his statements? No, even though I don’t agree with him on almost every political stance, I think you can’t deny the fact that Bush is a follower of the democratic principal. It is funny what he said about the conservative Muslim principles though, when you connect it with, oh off the top of my head, his Christian-conservative look at homosexuality.

“In our democracy, we would never punish a person for owning a Koran, [..] and we would never issue a death sentence to someone for converting to Islam. Democracy does not threaten Islam or any other religion. Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.”²

In other words, it’s not okay to be intolerant of other religions and he believes democracy is the only system of government that guarantees the protection of religions; yet on the other hand, it’s okay to be intolerant of gay people and it is also okay that American democracy doesn’t provide the guarantee of protection to their principles and way of life.

Oh well, lets not get into that. Lets end this on a positive note, George W. Bush has said something insightful and maybe, just maybe, he has given me hope to believe he’s not a complete idiot.