President Bush – A Man Not Afraid To “Step Up To The Plate”

-+===

Readers know that I am a solid Dubya supporter, and about once every week-to-ten-days, I write a column basically reminding folks about what they personally owe this guy. I have to do this, you see, because there are so many more people trashing him on a regular basis, some of which pretend to be Conservatives. I’m just resetting a balance a little bit.

To some degree, this post will be a disappointment for some people, because I don’t plan on dwelling on this issue or that, because we’ve been all over most of it, and only a Democrat comes to a blog and carries an opinion without having a clue on the subject.

Back in February ’05, I wrote about the idiom “stepping up to the plate", and it seems a good thing to mention it again here. Folks may remember that Dubs was once one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, back when the team didn’t suck on a regular basis. In fact, a reasonable person might say that Dubs had a bit to do with bringing in the players who made the team fun to watch. I mention this, because I also love Baseball, and find it’s lessons salient and applicable all the time.

In that Feb 05 column, I wrote “Baseball is a good metaphor for Life, in no small part because the game will screw with you.” And we should all be able to agree that Life has been very much a mind-game of late. In discussing what makes someone a person who ‘steps up to the plate’, I also wrote “imagine you are standing in the batter’s box, waiting for a pitch which could come in at more than ninety miles an hour. You know that if you back off a little, you will be a lot less likely to get hit, especially since you get a fraction more reaction time. And the pitcher likes it, when you give him the whole batter’s box for his own territory, forfeiting areas which would be a strike, but you can’t reach by backing off. Or, you can crowd the plate a little, forcing the pitcher to be more accurate, pitch slower, or take the chance of hitting you and giving up a base. Trouble is, the pitcher won’t like that, and more than a few will throw a ‘brush-back’ pitch, which are no fun at all. On a bad day, the pitcher will send a lesson and put one into your ribs. So, it’s not easy to 'step up to the plate'; you may be sorry you did.

THAT’s what “step up to the plate” really means. It’s taking the chance you’ll get hurt for a small reward, doing the hard job because it’s necessary. There’s a lot of players who’ll choose to take the easy way, hoping someone else will do the job, and there’s plenty who’ll swing wildly and hope they get lucky. But a coach looks for the player willing to take on the tough job, to meet the responsibility when no one else will.”

Well folks, that’s Dubya. He’s taken a few shots, and some would say it’s his own fault for making the choices he has, but I say he’s just been gutsy enough to stay in the box when it matters. Sometimes it hurts him, but that’s how a team wins games.

Provided the other players can at least manage not to cheer for the other team.