The End of the Bush Presidency

What was that Nick Lowe song? “Time Wounds All Heels?”

Anyhow, I’ve been tossing around ideas for a post on the final days of George W. Bush’s presidency. And it’s hard to really know what to say.

Despite the fact that I’ve been very critical of the man, I did not hate him. I thought there were elements of his life and personality that were admirable, or at least humanizing. Bush, in my opinion, is an example of how it doesn’t take a monster to do terrible things. It only takes bad judgment, bad influences, or in this case, a rather advanced case of willful ignorance.

Bush seemed to be a man who had a core set of principles and beliefs, and he developed an uncanny skill of tuning out anything that challenged or contradicted those beliefs. I think one of the reasons he became so immensely unpopular is that people grew sick of the arrogance, the disinterest in things outside his bubble, those characteristics that are so much a part of his personal style.

Of course, he had his enablers—those bad influences I mentioned above. I suspect that when historians look back on the Bush years, they’re going to identify Dick Cheney as the real villain. Cheney had an inordinate amount of influence and control of the Bush White House, and his fingerprints are on all kinds of policies that range from merely short-sighted to starkly immoral.

One of the most striking ironies of the Bush presidency is how he delivered the opposite of what he promised. He promised to be a uniter, not a divider. Yet it’s hard to imagine a more divisive president. He promised that his economic policies would bring jobs and prosperity. That turned out not to be the case. And he promised to restore America’s prestige overseas. The scenes of jubilation at the election of Barack Obama, and the change in direction he represents, said volumes about how America’s prestige has suffered during the Bush years.

People on the right will continue to argue that Bush kept us safe after 9/11, and I expect that debate to continue. What we do know is he did not do much of anything to keep us safe prior to that day, and his response has largely been a series of catastrophes and blunders that will take years to overcome.

In the end, it’s hard to feel much besides sadness and dismay at the 8 years of poor leadership we’ve had to suffer through. Thank God that’s over.