God's Gonna Cut You Down

President Bush, in a recent interview recapped in an article published on Yahoo news, admits that he made mistakes. The two the article mentions are his "mission accomplished" declaration shortly after the invasion or Iraq and his "bring 'em on" challenge to Iraqi insurgents. This is the first time that I'm aware of that Mr. Bush has publicly admitted mistakes. At any rate, the rest of the article comments on Mr. Bush's thoughts on his recent visit with President-elect Obama:

It was interesting to watch him go upstairs....He wanted to see where his little girls were going to sleep. Clearly, this guy is going to bring a sense of family to the White House, and I hope Laura and I did the same thing. But I believe he will, and I know his girls are on his mind and he wants to make sure that first and foremost, he is a good dad.

It is quite possible to see such comments as so much political hay. Anyone with a sense of public image--and I think Mr. Bush has a very strong sense of public image--knows that token expressions of humility and gracious acknowledgment of an opponent's virtues look good. But maybe his statements also signify a new, genuine humility.

I don't know and it's not my place 1) to decide if Mr. Bush has attained a new humility from performing his duties as president or 2) to judge Mr. Bush in that particular at any rate. Humility, to my mind the highest virtue (if properly defined), is an almost divine quality and only God (if he exists) has the prerogative to judge that quality.

As a random musing, however, I might state that it's possible that having a post that requires one to carry out any responsibility--let alone the office of the presidency--can be humbling, can create humility, a realization that one is not sufficient to oneself, nor "an island, entire unto itself." Maybe this is a positive development.