"Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. . . But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him." President G. W. Bush, January 28, 2003 As I look back on those words I can't believe what I hear from Democrats who are attacking President Bush. They claim that he said the threat from Saddam Hussein was imminent and that's why we went to war in Iraq. Some who attack Bush on this claim that anyone hearing that speech would think he said the danger was imminent. He also said that if Saddam did not fully disarm we would attack. He spoke of weapons of mass destruction earlier in the speech but not a word about them in the statement about attacking Hussein. I watched that speech on television and I never thought he said Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States. It's nice to be able to go back and look at what Bush said, exactly what he said and not what his enemies say he said. I'm not a big fan of President Bush, I think there are many area where he could be more presidential. Even though I feel that way I'm glad he's our president considering who might have been president during this time. No one is ready to be president when they are elected. The office changes a person who holds it and some grow to meet the challenge and some crumble. I think Bush is one of the ones who grow into the job. Lyndon Johnson was a good congressman -- he helped bring electricity to rural areas with the Rural Electrification Act. He also did many other things to make himself noteworthy, even if he had never become president. However, he did become president and the office overwhelmed him. There are other presidents I could name who were affected in the same way. On the other hand there are presidents like Harry Truman. Truman wasn't much as a senator and he wasn't much of a business man. If not for Franklin Roosevelt plucking him from obscurity, no one from outside Missouri would remember him. Truman was thrust into the presidency at a pivotal time in world history and he grew into the office. He overcame a monumental lack of information on exactly what was going on. He was kept out of the loop on many things, intelligence data gleaned from Japanese and German encoding machines, details about agreements with our allies and details about the Manhattan Project, the development of nuclear weapons. He confronted these problems and he overcame them. He was faced with the awesome decision about whether to use nuclear weapons after just learning of their existence. Whether or not he made the right decision is still debated, but no one can fault him for his courage in making it. George W. Bush has grown in office and I believe he has done an excellent job of directing the war on terror. He's no saint, he has his faults, and if someone wants to point them out that's one thing. If Democrats want to confront him on domestic issues because they think their programs are better that's their right, as long as they stick to the truth. But to claim he made statements he never did and to distort the record is beneath contempt. The same people who tried to cover up Bill Clinton's lies and sexual misconduct are the same ones trying to make the truth seem to be otherwise. The next year will be interesting, the campaign for president will really heat up and people, some who don't care if the country is harmed as long as they benefit, will start spinning their webs of deceit. The problems facing this country are too big for us to allow partisans of either the Democrats or Republicans to hijack the debate and try to spin history to their benefit. Look at the record, not what people claim the record is, and then make a decision.