Another reader adds:
(1) I admire his beating Hillary Clinton!! Seriously. He is quite probably the only person in the country who could have saved us from our unpleasant dynastic tendencies.
(2) I admire what I understand to be his successful, consensus-building tenure on the Harvard Law Review. As an ex-law review executive I can tell you this is not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish.
(3) I admire that he had the poise and self-confidence to turn down a clerkship with Abner Mikva and the near-certainty of a Supreme Court clerkship. The world of elite law schools is so circumscribed and echo-chamber-y that it takes a genuine sense of self to reject that which everyone around you regards as the most desirable achievement possible. (I am ashamed of how my own personal value system got so bent out of shape during law school -- in three years I went from being unable to name a single federal appellate judge to feeling like a complete failure upon not being hired by one, at least on my first go-round.)
(4) I admire that he had the courage to write frankly (and lyrically) about his sense of personal racial dislocation and his youthful drug use. To me, GWB is at his most personally compelling when he talks about his struggle with addiction; imagine if he had had the courage and humility to own up to the complete truth?
5. Voting for CAFTA against the trial lawyers association
6. Risking his life to run for office (this is rarely mentioned but the threats he gets are real and he consistently puts himself in front of huge crowds because he believes he is best suited to change this country and he loves this country).7. His opposition to the war for the right reasons.
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