...while closing the book on W

And so it ends.


George W. Bush is no longer the President of the United States. There were no riots, no armed conflict. Not even much in the way of bitter resentment. Once again, our system worked. The orderly transfer of power occurred. It will now be up to the historians to judge the work of the 43rd President. Not that that will stop us from giving an opinion.



First , the disclaimer. We know we will never satisfy the lunatic fringe, so we don't try. For instance, a recent CNN poll showed that 4% of respondents judged W a "great" president. C'mon, people. We appreciate the loyalty, but put down the pipe. Similarly, you over there on the far left -- the man was not Satan reincarnate. So we're not really writing to you either. OK, we are, but only because we like getting radicals on both sides all riled up.

In the interest of full disclosure, we remind you that we voted for W in 2000. When 2004 came however, we didn't feel he had done a good enough job to keep the job, so we didn't. While we have been pretty vocal in our criticism of the president, we have also tried to give credit where credit is due. After all, the presidency a pretty hard job. And make no mistake, there were areas where credit was due. Unfortunately, those instances were too few and too far between. Bush's mishandling of the economy, lack of foresight in the wars, utter inflexibility and disregard for accepted practices of diplomacy will more than likely be what he is remembered for. But that's not fair, because some good was done. We will try to highlight as much of that as we can, without going overboard on the obvious failings. That being said, here are our choices for the five best and worst things about the Bush presidency, in reverse order, as we'd like to finish on a positive note.



The Missteps



1) The Election of 2000.

The George W. Bush presidency got off to a bad start on Election Night and he never did shake the stigma of his presidency somehow being illegitimate. The appearance of impropriety in and of itself is often enough to indelibly taint one's reputation. Once it became apparent that the election was going to come down to Florida, Bush should have done two things: he should have called his brother, the governor of the Sunshine State and asked him to recuse himself from any involvement in the tabulation, re-tabulation or courtroom skirmishes to come in regards to the voting. The second thing he should have done was go on television and say, "I don't care what the procedures say -- I want every single vote counted and I will not accept the Presidency until they are." This would have been mostly a symbolic move -- and we believe he still would have been eventually elected -- but a necessary one to cast aside any doubt whatsoever about the outcome of the election. Remember, in 2000, the nation was just getting over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In the end, Bill Clinton was castigated -- and rightfully so -- for giving an answer that was legally truthful, but morally bankrupt. While his actions with Ms. Lewinsky may not have met the legal definition of sex, President Clinton knew what was being asked and knowingly gave a misleading answer. The worst thing George W. Bush could have done in late 2000 was go with the strategy that, "the law says the votes need to be counted by x date and since x date has passed, I'm president." Again, while legally correct, it cast a shadow over his presidency that never went away during his entire first term, and still hovered over the second, to a degree.



2) The War.

We do not believe that President Bush knowingly lied to the people of the United States about his reasons for wanting to go to war with Iraq. Having served in the Gulf War, we personally found it hard to believe that a country so devastated could possibly pose a threat to us a mere 12 years later, but we do believe that Bush believed he was telling the truth to us. His people clearly lied to him though. And that is ultimately his responsibility. We went into this war unprepared, without a clear objective and with no plan to end it. Any of the decisions made thereafter are immaterial to this point. We never should have invaded Iraq. We entered a sovereign nation and kidnapped their leader, which we feel sets a very dangerous precedent. All of this, of course, was against the advice of the overwhelming majority of our allies.



3) Screw You, World.

For at least 100 years, (some would argue since our very inception) the United Sates has been the Beacon of Hope, the proverbial City on the Hill. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, fate placed in the care of our nation a sacred trust. As the last remaining superpower, it was left to us to set the tone for how power should be wielded, how benevolence spread. With great strength should come great compassion. True strength is not shown by pushing everyone else around and doing what you want, regardless of their wishes; true strength is shown in using your power judiciously and in disavowing the notion that might is right. This is, in our opinion, the greatest failure of this administration -- the eroding of the reputation of this nation. Just because we are the biggest, the strongest and the richest does not make us right all the time. Often, we are. But not always. And the utter disrespect we have shown the world in the last eight years has been indicative of an administration that felt it was above reproach. An opportunity to truly make the world a better place was, in our opinion, missed.



4) Surplus? What Surplus?

Now, some will have you believe that there was no surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency. That it was all smoke and mirrors. OK, let's go with that. Even so, that would mean the numbers were close enough that a clever economist could work his hocus-pocus and make it look like a surplus. Can you do that today? Of course not. Clearly this has been an unprecedented explosion in national debt. The war spending was part of this, yes. But even that would have cost less had we had better planning going in. This administration presided over the largest financial collapse since the Great Depression -- a full eight years into their term. There is simply no one else to credibly point the finger at. In eight years, we have gone from at least close to breaking even, to the largest deficit in the history of man.



5) Selling Out the Right.

W was never really one of them. He wanted to open the borders. He wanted to actually spend money on education. During the primaries of 2000, there were more than a few conservatives who were very sceptical of George HW's son. Sure, he was right on the social issues. But they were a little leery when he started talking about all that Compassionate Conservatism. And here's the thing -- that's what got him elected. Because that's what most of us are -- compassionate conservatives. We, by and large, are a nation of hard-working people, who want to pay the bills and save what we can. After we take care of the basics, we are more than willing to help out a friend in need. But the bills need to be paid first. And that was what W was all about. Now, whether it was September 11th, the wars or just an inability to follow through on his program, Bush went completely off the rails. He spent more than FDR and LBJ. Combined. The last eight years, and particularly the last three, have been like working in a Monopoly money factory. There has been an unbelievable amount of spending, with little to no eye on the future. All of this, of course, has culminated in the free-for-all of the last six months. Every economic principal of the right has been absolutely shredded by George W. Bush. Conservatives believe that a failing business should be allowed to do just that. And it will be replaced by one that is better run. That is the fundamental core of our economic system. And ultimately, if the collapse of AIG was going to bring down the whole nation, then how is propping it up with money that does not exist going to do anything but delay the inevitable? What we are left with is one of two possibilities: either W has passed that buck on to a future president or it is not true that these bailouts were necessary. Our (real) money, such that it is, is on the latter.


But it's not all bad.


The Successes



1) No More Falling Buildings.

Bush will never get credit for this. Granted, we went from the birth of the nation until September of 2001 without an attack, so it doesn't sound like much that we made it another seven years without a followup. But that is grossly unfair to the work done by the folks entrusted with protecting us, from the air marshal, all the way up to the president. It's hard to prove a negative, so by definition, there's no evidence here with which to back our point. But we do not find it reasonable that there were not credible threats that were terminated during the last seven years. September 11th proved that it could be done -- and we guarantee you someone else tried. And were stopped. We will just never hear about it. If we had been attacked again, George W. Bush sure as hell would have taken the brunt of the blame. You can't have it both ways, folks. He also must be credited with helping keep us safe since that horrible Tuesday.



2) Stem Cells are People Too.

One of W's first moves will sadly be one of the first that will be undone by his successor. This was without a doubt the best decision he made as president and again, we will never know its true effects. We will never know the number of innocent lives that were saved as a result of his refusing to fund embryonic stem cell research. We believe in the sanctity of human life, from conception until natural death. We feel just as bad for Alex P. Keaton as anyone else does. But turning a human embryo into a tool in Dr. Frankenstein's lab is simply wrong. On top of this, evidence is mounting that adult stem cells can, in fact, be just as pliable as those of the embryos destroyed to procure them. Imagine that -- science on W's side.



3) The Surge.

The biggest failure in Vietnam was that we never went in full-bore. We did things half-assed, never gave our troops the full compliment of tools, training and support they needed to effectively accomplish their ,ission and as a reult, a lot of good men and women died. Many people feel that the biggest failure of George H.W. Bush was in stopping on the outskirts of Baghdad in 1990. A similar scenario of not sealing the deal was playing out in this war. Until the decision was made to surge. This was absolutely the right decision and the results speak for themselves. Sadly, this should have been the policy from Day One. If we are going to put US personnel in harm's way, we need to throw everything we have at the enemy and win convincingly. If not, we need to stay home until we are ready to do it the right way. The surge has saved lives and hastened victory.



4) You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

W may not be a good speaker. He may not be a competent administrator. But we believe he is, essentially, a good man. He clearly loves his wife and daughters and that was nice to see after what preceded him. While we disagreed with many of his decisions, we do believe that he followed the dictates of his conscience and truly did what he thought was best for the country. And that is all you can really ask of a president. Sometimes his decisions were best for the country. Sometimes they clearly were not. But in the end, we think George W. Bush is a good man. And a good man is hard to find. An honest one, even harder. And even when he knew his truth would be met with disdain, we believe he told it more than most. And for that we commend him.



5) A Graceful Exit.

George W. Bush created the first presidential transition committee on the outgoing side. He brought in all living presidents for an unprecedented luncheon with is successor. He withheld any major initiatives, such as requesting the remainder of the bailout money, until he was asked to do so by the president-elect. And with only one glaring exception (read Ramos & Campean), he refrained from the usual deluge of bogus 11th-hour pardons. And even with R&C, he merely commuted their sentences, leaving the convictions intact. There was no flurry of last-minute executive orders, no removal of the O's from the keyboards. This transition was a first-class operation, from start to finish. Any successes during the First 100 Days of the Obama administration will be in part due to the assistance of the outgoing president with one of the most orderly transfers of power ever seen. In the end, Bush left the White House a statesman.


History will judge the net result of the George W. Bush presidency and many will castigate any analysis of it. But in the end, that's what's great about our country. Think about it. Rachel Maddow and Ann Coulter live in the same country -- and neither one is going to jail for what they say. The United States of America is big enough to include diametrically-opposed ideologies. And strong enough to absorb anything fate throws at us. For at heart, we stand united.



Keep the Faith