Last Friday, in the immediate aftermath of the Fort Hood terror attack, President Obama was no-doubt conducting focus group surveys to determine the possible political fallout as a result of the first terror attack on our soil since 9/11, while former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, went in secret to personally console the victims’ families.

As Fox News reported the next day, their visit was without any press coverage at President Bush’s instruction.  The former first couple traveled from their ranch in Crawford, Texas a couple of hours away from Fort Hood to meet for hours with the grieving families of Hasan’s victims.

This action was in keeping with the scores of letters I’ve received over the past three years from service members and their families telling of private incidents where President Bush gave personal comfort and a heartfelt hearing to their grief, their problems and their stories of valor in the field.  Not much news was ever made of any of this.  No public credit was ever given that I’m aware of, but isn’t that the mark of a truly humble man with a good heart?  I think it is.

I’m frequently reminded of an anecdote related by Indira Ghandi about her grandfather.  She said that he had once told her:  There are two kinds of people in this world, those who do the work and those who try to grab the credit.  Always try to be in the first group, he told his granddaughter.  There’s far less competition.

George W. Bush was generally a man who stood in the first group, doing the work we paid him to do, putting America’s interests first and standing firm in his oath to protect our citizens from all enemies foreign and domestic.  Yet, for eight years, he was constantly berated in print and in front of cameras for beastly qualities.  When he went to NYC right after the 9/11 attacks and with a simple bullhorn in hand, rallied a startled, grieving nation, not flinching in his sworn duty, he was a real class act.  And he continued to do his job, never perfectly, but always with diligence and deep, abiding love for our Country.

As this secret humanitarian visit to Fort Hood once again proves, both he and Laura are still a class act.  And every day, more Americans wake up to how foolishly they were taken for granted by so many.

The old saying goes, you never know what you have until you lose it.

It took President Obama of the empty suit to make Bush’s star shine.  Unfortunately, that says a lot more about us as a people than it says about either man.

Hopefully, we’re learning how to better judge character and to put character before celebrity glitz.  When one is in a fight for survival, as we definitelya are, character actually counts while celebrities just get in the way and get innocent people killed.