Every president has successes and failures. Every president is termed the “worst president ever.” President Bush could not be an exception.
So how will history judge President Bush. The Left will write the history, so the answer is “not well.” Iraq will be figured prominently, as indeed it should. But the positive and negative aspects of Iraq deserve attention, although the former will not receive their due. The calculus will be Bush=Iraq, unless Iraq is a stable, good ally.
Conservatives should be upset with the Bush presidency. For most of it, Republicans held the Hill. Yet, no progress was made stemming the tide of illegal immigration, eliminating affirmative action, or any of the other measures that would please the Republican base. Just the reverse, Republicans in power govern like moderate Democrats on domestic and social issues.
After 9/11, Bush had a chance to make progress in domestic policy. For example, to illustrate the absurdity and perniciousness of multiculturalism and to restore sanity on immigration policy. His great failing as a president was that he did not act when he had the opportunity.
The time is now to change the Republican leadership and restore conservative principles to the Party.
What was the Bush presidency? A very good one in foreign and defense policy. Leaving the ABM Treaty was a positive step. One that allows America to be partially protected from ballistic missiles. That work continues in Europe, with the construction of the European site for missile defense in the Czech Republic and Poland. The list continues: Forging the 9/11 coalition of states; de-escalating the tension between India and Pakistan; expanding NATO; forcing Libya to surrender its WMD and rolling up the A.Q. Khan network; calling attention to North Korea’s uranium enrichment facilities (started under Clinton); and readily assisting after natural disasters.
On domestic policy: He was a failure–marked by lost opportunities to make progress.
What was the Bush presidency? A Bush presidency. You knew how he would govern in 2000.
Let us hope that he is not the last Republican president.
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