Here is a bet for you. If you’re old, we will just have to speculate on how and where we will settle it. If you are young and you want to bet, I suggest you clip this. Stow it where you can read it again ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

The bet is that President Bush will be called a great president. By folks who read a lot of history. And by a lot of the people who write history.

Here are a few reasons why I make the bet:

Harry Truman is highly regarded by a lot of people today. The Bush presidency is eerily similar to his. Each man was unpopular, Truman more than Bush. Gallup had Truman’s support at 22% vs. 39% for Bush. Even Truman’s mother-in-law was against him. And she told people so - including him.

Each man took us into unpopular wars. Each pushed on when the wars went against us. Each shuffled generals and tactics. Each faced a million armchair generals at home who knew better. Each was labelled “dumb” and “stubborn” by opinion makers of the time.

(Lincoln had a similar fate with an unpopular war. He changed generals and changed them again. He was called a fool and lampooned in cartoons as an ape.)