Soccer Dad

The first african president?

Maya Angelou famously called Bill Clinton the nation's first black president.

Maybe, it's time to acknowledge George Bush's role as the first African president.

A half year ago, rocker and activist Bob Geldof wrote about his travels with President Bush in Time Magazine. While I wasn't entirely impressed with the article, Geldof showed appreciation for the President's efforts to help the African continent.

More recently a Washington Post editorial praised President Bush.

IN HIS 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush surprised many when he proposed to take the fight against AIDS to Africa. At the time, slowing the spread of the disease seemed quixotic, particularly on a continent where only about 50,000 of the 30 million infected people received antiretroviral treatment. But Mr. Bush's proposed "work of mercy beyond all current international efforts" has had a profound impact. After five years and $15 billion, 1.7 million people are receiving treatment. Encouraged by the progress, countries in sub-Saharan Africa have spent more of their own money to combat HIV-AIDS. The disease still ravages millions of Africans, but it is no longer an automatic death sentence.

Yes the Post was asking for even money, but at least it acknowledge President Bush's contribution to fighting AIDS in Africa.

Roger Cohen, while studiously avoiding giving President Bush any credit observes:

In my lifetime, conditions have grown immeasurably better, freer and more prosperous for a majority of humanity, yet hand-wringing about the miserable remains the reflex mode for most coverage of planet earth.

Nowhere more so than in Africa, from which I'd just returned when the e-mail landed. During a short stay in Ghana, which will hold free elections in December, Vodafone had bought a majority stake in Ghana Telecom for $900 million (entering a fiercely competitive mobile-phone market) and I'd heard much about 6 percent annual growth, spreading broadband and new high-end cacao ventures.

Accra, the capital, is buzzing. Russian hedge funds are investing. New construction abounds. Technology enables people in the capital to text money transfers via mobile phone to poor relatives in the bush.

I don't think that picture is exceptional these days for Africa, where growth averaged close to 6 percent last year and I sense a fundamental change in attitudes to governance, trade, the private sector and political accountability.

Now Instapundit writes (in respect to an op-ed)

That sounds like the "nation-building" that George W. Bush derided in 2000, but I think we've learned better since then.

And President Bush has acted accordingly. And even if he hasn't solved every problem on the African continent and Darfur still festers, he hasn't ignored the continent. If the Washington Post and Roger Cohen notice it, it's probably a sign that things have improved.

Yet I hardly expect to see President Bush receiving the adulation that was heaped upon the president who served as genocide was committed in Rwanda. Could you imagine Maya Angelou calling President Bush the first African president?