Jonah Goldberg:

Michael Barone has a good op-ed on Bush's inauguration and second inaugurals in general. What I find particularly interesting is his suggestion that Bush's address will most resemble Woodrow Wilson's. Which reminds me of something that's been rattling around in my head for a while.

Intellectual honesty should force us to at least admit that A) Barone's right and B) the comparison should be at least a little troubling to conservatives. Wilson, by my lights, was the worst president of the 20th century and did more damage to that century than any other American statesman. Much of the damage he caused wasn't deliberate, but a great deal of it stemmed from his idealism and his arrogance. He got us into an idiotic war for high-fallutin' reasons and his incompetence in handling the aftermath created a parade of horribles we are still reviewing as it passes us by (He also laid the groundwork for the Welfare State, the National Security State, and the Corporatist State but that's a topic for another time).

That these traits and mistakes echo complaints about Bush is significant.

However, he goes on:

But I think we can draw important distinctions as well. Despite being a political scientist, Wilson's ideas were based on shockingly little empirical data about democracy and how it actually works. Wilson unleashed nationalism in not one nation but many and then refused to do the hard work of cleaning up the mess. Bush, on the other hand, is sticking it out to do exactly that. No one who denounces the "propaganda" from the Bush administration as if it is unprecedented or novel knows what he or she is talking about. Woodrow Wilson was the first president in American history to actually set up a bona fide propaganda ministry complete with secret agents and provocateurs. FDR's propaganda efforts were also obviously wildly more extensive than what should more properly be called Bush's PR offensives. And if you dislike the Patriot Act and other alleged civil liberties infractions, you must loathe the horror show that was the Wilson Adminsitration. If you think what Bush "does" to his "enemies" is bad you must shudder at the thought of what Wilson did to his. Valerie Plame may or may not have been "outed" in retribution, but Wilson would have undoubtedly put Michael Moore in prison.

Bush: "not quite as bad as Woodrow Wilson."

Bush: "not yet imprisoning his political enemies."