Daily Inspiration Quote by Rich Lowry

What’s doing the work here is the word “wobble” - a loaded little diagnostic that smuggles character judgment into what’s ostensibly an observation. Rich Lowry, writing as an editor and partisan interpreter, frames George W. Bush’s post-presidency posture as a kind of moral posture: steadiness as virtue. The sentence is built like a reassurance meant for an anxious audience. “If anything, the opposite” doesn’t just negate doubt; it reverses it into a positive trait, turning stubbornness into backbone.

The detail “Right after hello” is the tell. It paints Bush’s certainty as involuntary, almost physiological: he can’t even clear the social pleasantries before reaffirming the righteousness of his choices. That’s a narrative move, not a transcript. It’s meant to feel candid, the kind of behind-the-scenes vignette that converts access into authority.

Subtext: Bush may be unpopular, history may be unkind, but he is unshaken - and that’s supposed to count as legitimacy. In the shadow of Iraq and the broader reckoning with the “decisions” of the War on Terror, Lowry sidesteps the question of outcomes and relocates the debate to temperament. Conviction becomes a substitute for proof.

The line also reveals the conservative media project of that era: insulating a leader from accountability by reframing criticism as mere second-guessing. “Never been more convinced” isn’t argument; it’s emotional armor. Lowry’s intent is to make certainty itself persuasive, betting that confidence can outmuscle evidence in the court of public memory.