The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

It's worth remembering this:

We need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you have low expectations, you're going to get lousy results.

It's one of the few things the president has said which for which, I think, history will speak well of him.

Also, it gives me a way to underline this:

With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.
Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote.

and this:
A White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan has concluded that wide-ranging strategic goals that the Bush administration set for 2007 have not been met, even as U.S. and NATO forces have scored significant combat successes against resurgent Taliban fighters, according to U.S. officials.

The evaluation this month by the National Security Council followed an in-depth review in late 2006 that laid out a series of projected improvements for this year, including progress in security, governance and the economy. But the latest assessment concluded that only "the kinetic piece" -- individual battles against Taliban fighters -- has shown substantial progress, while improvements in the other areas continue to lag, a senior administration official said.

So lets run down our checklist of success:

Removed nuclear WMDs from hands of people threatening America: Not Found
Removed non-nuclear WMD from Iraq: Oops, we gave them to him in the first place.
Received Candy and Flowers from Iraqis: Nope
Built a Stalwart of Democracy in the region: built Islamic Republic incapable of self-governance
War pays for itself by 2004: Est. $2,000,000,000,000 price tag by 2008
...
Stability in the green zone: sporadic peace
24 hours worth of electricity and water in Iraqi Cities (after almost 4 years)? Yes! 24 hours per week though, not per day.

Captured OBL dead or alive? Still At Large enjoying proceeds of enormous personal fortune.

Yes, a rousing success. Only the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy(tm) is keeping us from hearing all the Good News.