In a column for the Wall Street Journal. . .

. . .Bill McGurn, former speechwriter to President Bush, shows how the Washington press corps has consistently "misunderestimated" the president, and how, when the facts eventually bear him out, how they simper on to the next story which will remove any doubt that they were correct about him all along. Of course, this isn't exactly breaking news to anyone who holds any respect for the man. Those of us who admire him for his perseverance have done so resigned to the notion that history will be a more equitable arbiter than the current pack of pecksniffs charged with issuing the verdict on his days in office.

Still, near the end of the column, there's an important piece of wisdom which the President imparted to his speechwriters early in McGurn's tenure that ought to be remembered by all conservatives as we hash out our differences during this election cycle:

During one of my first meetings in the Oval Office, the president told me and my fellow speechwriters that we must always be mindful of how his words would sound to the enemy -- and how they would sound to the young Marine risking his life against that enemy in some dusty town in Afghanistan or Iraq.

President Bush hasn't always been right. But he's been right on the things that matter most, and he's been willing to take the heat. I, for one, admire him for it.

As things currently stand, we have a choice between a man who will carry that legacy forward, and two people who would take all that has been accomplished to the benefit of America and conservatism in the last eight years, throw it on a heap of kindling, and reduce it to a smoking pile of ash and embers.

So, as we debate the direction of America and conservatism over the next several months, and the consequences of the choice we face in either falling in behind the man that voters have chosen as our leader, or sending a convoluted mishmash of messages denoting a litany of disaffections, it seems to be very much worth considering, as McGurn was reminded by the President, how those messages "will sound to the enemy, as well as the young Marine risking is life against that enemy in some dusty town in Afghanistan or Iraq."