Tony Snow

I'm sure that pretty much everyone is aware by now that former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has died. He was just 53 years old. He struggled through a long battle with Colon Cancer, through which he always kept a good attitude, and never stopped being who he was.

There are those who didn't like him, simply because he worked for the Bush administration, and some have even suggested (if not flat out stated) that he deserved the Cancer because of all the "lies" he told on behalf of the President. I guess if you are going to say something like that, then saying that they didn't like him is something of an understatement. Vitriolic hatred would be more accurate... but I digress.

I think the thing that really struck me about Tony Snow during the time when we all first learned about the Cancer, was how high his Spirits were. He would do an interview on one show or another, and they would ask him about his health, and he would kindly tell them what was going on, and how he was going to beat it, and then say, "But I'm here today to discuss..." and then whatever the issue was.

As most people know, I'm neither a Bush fan, nor a Bush hater, but even when I disagreed with the President, I never got upset with Tony Snow for defending him, I just figured that he was doing his job. And let's face it, he did his job very well. Sometimes I even felt bad for the guy, because he had no choice but to deliver the administration line, and you just knew that he was too smart to really believe what he was telling us, but he had to say it, and make it sound good. Probably not a job I could do, but I guess it has to be done by someone.

For me though, I gained the most respect for Tony Snow after he had left his post at the White House. Listening to him as he filled in for Bill O'Reilly, or did interviews on various shows. It soon became clear what an honest man, and intelligent man he really was. A true Conservative, looking for the real answers to real problems, and, as I said before, someone who was willing to do what it took to deal with reality, which is, after all, what true Conservatism is all about, doing what works.

It's been well known for years that he had been battling Cancer, but I had not heard that he was back in the Hospital again, but it seemed to me that he tried to keep such things quiet. So, it was a surprise to me to see that he had died. I saw on the news, right before I left for work the other night that they were doing a story about him, but the sound was down, and it didn't dawn on me that there was any sort of a big deal going on. The, after I got to work, I saw the headline that he had died. It was a sad thing to see. I wasn't personally devastated, or anything like that, because he wasn't someone that I knew personally, but I was saddened none the less.

My prayers and thoughts are with his family is this trying time, and I wish and pray the best for them.