Here is a bet for you. If you’re old, we will just have to speculate on how and where we will settle it. If you are young and you want to bet, I suggest you clip this. Stow it where you can read it again ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

The bet is that President Bush will be called a great president. By folks who read a lot of history. And by a lot of the people who write history.

Here are a few reasons why I make the bet:

Harry Truman is highly regarded by a lot of people today. The Bush presidency is eerily similar to his. Each man was unpopular, Truman more than Bush. Gallup had Truman’s support at 22% vs. 39% for Bush. Even Truman’s mother-in-law was against him. And she told people so - including him.

Each man took us into unpopular wars. Each pushed on when the wars went against us. Each shuffled generals and tactics. Each faced a million armchair generals at home who knew better. Each was labelled “dumb” and “stubborn” by opinion makers of the time.

(Lincoln had a similar fate with an unpopular war. He changed generals and changed them again. He was called a fool and lampooned in cartoons as an ape.)

Truman did not consult with allies when he committed us to protect Greece and Turkey. Or when we dropped the atom bomb. He did not consult with congress when he pledged our help to South Korea. Doesn’t that sound familiar today?

The eastern elite despised Truman. They scoffed at his southwestern accent and rough mannerisms. Sound familiar? The high society crowd in Washington belittled him. He, in turn, ignored them and their balls and dinners. His idea of a grand evening was to watch the sun descend with Bess. Frosting on that cake was to go to bed at nine.

Bush keeps similar habits and similar bedtimes. He ignores the fancy dress crowd. And he is rarely moved to have a state dinner.

Truman was reviled then but is widely respected today. The biggest reason for his redemption: He had to make decisions that altered the fate of huge chunks of humanity. Today most folks think those decisions were the right ones.

He decided we would defend South Korea. He decided we would commit our fortune to the Marshall Plan. To help war-ravaged Europeans recover. He decided we would defend and assist other nations against communists. He decided we would sustain West Berlin with an airlift. One that spat in the face of Joe Stalin. He decided we would recognize and support the infant nation of Israel. He decided to drop atom bombs to end the war.