In response to a question about the swine flu outbreak, President Obama just went out of his way to salute President Bush and legislators of both parties for buildling the pandemic response infrastructure over the last few years.
He was right to do so. There's a longer, more complicated story here--about long-standing calls to improve public health infrastructure and a determination to do so, largely in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But the bottom line is exactly as Obama just put it: Bush and congressional allies, from both parties, did what needed to be done. And we're better off for it.
--Jonathan Cohn
