"HOW COULD HAVE A MAN THAT DUMB BEEN RIGHT?"

In probably the closest The New York Times Editorial Board will ever come out in support of President Bush’s foreign policy, we get today’s lead editorial, Mideast Climate Change. I started reading it in trepidation of what magic fairy they would pull out of the air to credit the positive changes happening in the Mideast, so imagine my surprise when I read this:

“Still, this has so far been a year of heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the West thought it had any realistic chance. And for all the negative consequences that flowed from the American invasion of Iraq, there could have been no democratic elections there this January if Saddam Hussein had still been in power.”

Ok, not lavish praise or heartfelt thanks, but about as good as we can expect from The New York Times (or not expect, as I did). I can picture the board, hands in their pockets, kicking at the dirt with their heads down, saying,

“Yeah, I guess he was right”

Hey, maybe miracles can happen.