I have long believed that stock markets are the best barometer of the health, wealth and security of a nation. And today's stock market message is an unmistakable vote of confidence for the president. Even the best low-tax, limited-government economic policies can be thwarted if the men and women going to work in the morning can't get safely back to their homes and families at night.
And the fact that the world economy is experiencing the greatest economic boom in history is a direct rebuke to jihadists everywhere. Al-Qaida despises our country and its capitalist freedoms. And unless stopped cold in its tracks, it will strive to destroy the U.S. financial system and free-market development around the world.
The spread of free trade, the free movement of capital, low taxes and the breathtaking rise of the Internet -- these are generating more jobs, wealth and prosperity than ever before. And this amounts to a collective thumbing of the nose at the terrorists. It's as though world markets are saying that history is on our side and that the crazed self-proclaimed terrorist clerics will ultimately be defeated.
Free-market capitalism, 10; al-Qaida, 0.
And just as Bush won't give up on the surge, he's not about to default to the Democrats on the supply-side investment tax cuts that helped deliver a near six-year economic boom.
"I'm not going to raise taxes," he told me in a recent White House meeting of conservative columnists, and he pledges to veto non-defense appropriation bills that exceed a $933 billion line in the sand. He also vows to work overtime to get a free-trade deal with the pro-American countries of Colombia and Peru, not only to expand economic activity, but also to counter the anti-American and socialist policies of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
The media like to paint Bush into a bunker, making him the victim of a torrent of criticism from which they say he can't recover. But here are the plain facts: The president's tax cuts helped reinvigorate investors and businesses. The nation has been safe from attack for nearly six years. And Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq just may be working.
In other words, Bush deserves a lot more credit than most are willing to give him.