Molly Ivins on W in 2000

I has the pleasure of attending the tribute to Molly Ivins at the Texas Book Festival last weekend. It was nice, as tributes go, but neither as rollicking or profane as Molly would have preferred, possibly because it was held in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church. Needless to say, there was almost no alcohol consumed at the tribute, which begs the question of whether it was really a tribute at all. Scholz's Biergarten always was, and always will be, a more appropriate venue for celebrating the rich melange of humor, insight and passion that was Molly's take on Texas and national politics.

In any case, ruminating on Molly led me to the Time Magazine Man of the Year issue for 2000. The honoree was none other than George W. Bush -- a distinction I'm sure they'd like to get back. He may get an award 90-some years for now for Fuck-Up of the Century.

The Time magazine coverage includes an essay by Molly which good-heartedly proposes that we should give W a break and wish him well as he begins his presidency. Says Miz Molly, echoing what many of us believed at the time:

I frankly don't expect much from him; neither do you; and that's the best thing he has going for him. If he so much as clears a matchbox, we'll all fall back in wonder. Think how pleasantly surprised we're going to be when we discover George W. is, as he has been all his life, sort of adequate. Not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but he'll do.

This was the Conventional Wisdom at the time: W would be an OK President, just as he'd been as OK Governor -- certainly not a visionary, not particularly attuned to the daily lives of Texans or the nuances of policy, but not a clueless Neanderthal like Bill Clements. In short, he'd be like his Dad -- someone we'd have fond memories of, if we could remember him at all.

Of course, Bush turned out to be one of the most momentous Presidents of our times, for better or worse. I frankly thinks it's for worse, but I'll let history be the judge of that.

Molly must be laughing as she thinks about how W suckered all of us and our bigotry of low expectations.