Ehrlich on Washington column, January 20, 2002

с NEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Rood, Suit* 304 Lullwrvilla, Morylond 21093 3 1 5 Cannon Нош» Office Building Waihington, D.C 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of January 20, 2002 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. President Bush: Possessing the Strengths of Presidents Past The war on terror now facing George W. Bush, and the resources and tactics he uses to meet it, are unlike any previously employed by an American President. For the first time in its history, America wages war against a network rather than a nation, and mobilizes a digital world, as well as the military, to hunt down its enemy. Despite these unprecedented changes, I see time-tested strengths in President Bush that he shares with two past presidents who helped define modem America’s greatness. President Harry Truman, the forgotten vice president during most of World War II, ascended to the presidency following Franklin Roosevelt’s death. Charged with guiding America through an uncertain post-war world, Truman was vastly underestimated by millions of Americans and critics in Washington. Likewise, less than a year ago, some Democrats scoffed at George W. Bush as an illegitimate president following a bitter dispute in the Florida election fiasco. Both Truman and Bush were disregarded by our nation’s self-proclaimed intellectual elite for lacking the “towering intellect” they believe is needed to be president. Yet both men changed the world in their first term as president. Each man led his fellow Americans into an uncertain, open-ended conflict that he believed would dictate the fate of the free world. They could not have been more right. President Truman, who saw the Soviet Union as a grave threat to freedom and democracy worldwide, dedicated America’s economic and military might to the reconstruction of Western Europe via the Marshall Plan. Had he lacked this vision, as did many in Washington at the time, the armies of communism may have occupied territory far beyond Berlin. In fact, it was another underestimated president, namely Ronald Reagan, whose commitment to America’s defense and communism’s demise helped bring the Cold War to an end. By following Truman’s lead, Reagan helped set the stage for an era in which freedom, democracy, and technology improve the lives of millions across the globe.