An interesting article on CNN: “Obama and Bush not so far apart.” I think it’s a great premise for an article (juxtaposing Obama’s own actions with his accusations of McCain’s tight alignment with Bush) but I think the majority would agree with Bush on many of those points. Here is a bullet-point summary of the issues mentioned:

• Abstinence: They both agree on contraception plus abstinence education.
• Affirmative action: They both agree it needs to focus more on impoverished people in general as opposed to people of a certain race.
• Budgets: Obama voted for 19 of Bush’s spending bills.
• Capital punishment: They both believe in it.
• Education: They both support charter schools.
• Economics: They both support the $700 billion bailout bill and tax cuts for the middle class.
• Energy: They both back alternative energy investments.
• Faith-based initiatives/fatherhood: They both support expanding these initiatives (hopefully not too far, Senator).
• FISA: They both supported, in very similar language, the purpose of the FISA bill.
• Gay marriage: They both are against it.
• Global AIDS: They both see it as a huge problem (Obama commended Bush on his investment in combating the issue as President).
• Health care: They both think current problems are a result of rising costs.
• Middle-class tax cuts: They both fundamentally support them (though Obama wants to fund them by taxing the richest, smallest class of our nation; a stark difference between him and Bush).
• Minority homeownership: They both believe in increasing the number of minority homeowners to shore up equality and increase lasting wealth among minorities.
• National security: They both supported the PATRIOT Act.
• Offshore drilling: They both support doing this (Obama having switched sides on this one only recently).
• Racial profiling: They are both against it, Bush having mandated his Attorney General to ensure it wasn’t occurring within the U.S. Government.
• Religion: They are both openly men of faith.
• Supreme Court ruling on gun ban: They both support the decision.
• Welfare reform: They both want to refocus the system on children and families.

I don’t think the author accomplished what she wanted to (painting Obama as Bush-like, too). These points, as I mentioned, are ones a majority of Americans would agree with. The disagreements Obama has with Bush–and McCain–are on matters of present consequence, where difference matters.

What the article did accomplish (for me, at least), was to highlight that Bush wasn’t a total failure–only on the issues most pressing to our nation.