BROKAW: He's the man who lost his job in the Bush Administration because he said we will need more troops in Iraq than Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld thought we would need at that time.
OBAMA: He was right.
It will be nice if "he was right" continues to be something that qualifies one for a job in the Obama administration instead of the cause for dismissal it was under Bush.
By making a deliberate effort to reward those who got it right -- on Iraq, on the economy, on global warming, on health care -- Obama will not only send a message that the days of Bush Darwinism are over, he will also puncture the White House's favorite defense, especially on Iraq, that "everybody got it wrong."
No, they didn't. And it's vital that the Bush apologists, in the midst of their Bush Legacy Project, not be allowed to rewrite history.
Recognizing and rewarding Those Who Got It Right also makes it far more likely that the next Eric Shinseki will be willing to step forward and speak up. Obama's appointment of Shinseki is a solid first step.
It's plenty OK to disagree with those who disagree with you. You argue your side and may the better horse win the race. It is not OK to destroy careers to instill fear into others so they keep their mouths shut (I think an exception can be made in the case of right-wing gasbags). At least Shinseki had a hefty pension, but that's not the point. The point is that oppressively silencing voices that speak truth to power may have been one of the worst crimes of the Bush administration. Among many.
If the freedom to speak one's mind without fear of retaliation is returned to our citizens and our representatives and, perhaps more importantly to the press, then Obama's presidency will be a success.
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