The Legacy of George Bush

With eighteen months remaining on his second term, evaluators of presidential effectiveness are beginning to open the discussion to what the legacy of George Bush will be. With the Iraq war continuing and immigration being a divided issue, this president borders on irrelevancy in the nature of historic, landmark moments that pushed this country forward twenty years. It is this level of leadership that underpins a legacy.

Americans across this continent are divided as to the impact that George Bush has had on making this country better. In the aftermath of September 11, we saw the best that George Bush had to offer. And in the days after Katrina, we saw the worst that George Bush had to offer. And yet, these two best stem from the same presidency.

Historians are beginning to browse through the varied collections of writings and none of them comes away completely at ease with grasping the legacy of George Bush. His eight years in office could be called, the tale of four terms, dividing his presidency in time sequences between major events.

Certainly his first two hundred plus days were uneventful. With the stock market continuing its slowdown and into an extended correction, President Bush was saved in the fact that the blame for the change in the economic climate was going to fall at the feet of his predecessor, William Clinton.

The second term begins with September 11, 2001. Probably the darkest day in America since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon announced a shift in the way we engaged the world around us. No longer from a policy standpoint did we negotiate until we were blue in the face. Passiveness went out the window and aggression became our modus operandi. During this six to eight month period, President Bush was at his best. Galvanizing a nation, embodying everything that is good about our country, we saw in George Bush, a leader of the people. When Saddam Hussein was found, a debt to those who had died on September 11 was seemingly paid.

As great as those two occasions were and the speeches that President George Bush made in-between, we were blindsided by the next term in office of this president. In a word, this term could be called casualty. As the numbers of killed and wounded soldiers began to mount and 'stay the course' became a daily blurb on the presidential sound bites, as a nation we were aghast and shocked at the seeming lack of stability that ensued. No one thought the war would still be raging as we had into the summer of 2007. Yet it is raging and it is undeniable, this term in office was probably the most painful our nation has had to endure since Watergate.

The last term for this president begins after a decision has been made about the surge that was recently launched. Whether it succeeds or fails, in the aftermath of judging the strategy President George Bush will begin the descent down the mountain ascribed to every man that has called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home. For this president that walk will take him back to Crawford, Texas.

There is no right way to judge a president's tenure in office. Very few of us have the courage necessary to sit in that seat reserved for arguably the most powerful man in the world. Even fewer of us, could have made the decisions to confront terrorism and to go to war against Iraq. Those decisions, whether popular or unpopular were made by that guy, George Bush. And he alone will be judged by them.