This being the Last day of President George W Bush being in office, I'm sure that Dubya and his family are at the least a little relieved to pass our country's many problems on to the next leader of the free world, Barack Obama. As Bush has done his many exit interviews and has given his final farewell address on national TV I'm sure that he's spent a good amount of time contemplating his legacy. Understandably he's concerned with how history will judge him. I don't have an answer for that however I can tell you what this Liberal thinks about our 43rd President.
If anyone has ever read any of my posts then you know that I've never been a huge fan of the Bush administration. Since Obama became the president-elect, I've been doing a lot of thinking. Bush was the right president, for the right time in history for America. Immediately after the horrible events of 9/11, Dubya was there to lead us through a tough time while putting our enemies on notice: "We'll hunt down the enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere!" It's in the execution of "The War on Terror" that the wheels come off of the wagon. No matter how many times Senator Lindsey Graham sings the praises of "The Surge", the fact is that we should not have invaded Iraq. 6 years later and the Iraq war is still a distraction from bringing the ones responsible for the U.S. attacks to justice. The tax payer money used for this dumb war could be put to far better uses.
In my opinion, Bush wanted to do the right thing. Or at least what he believed to be the right thing. Consider the work he's done to reduce the HIV/AIDS epidemics in Africa, stop the spread of Malaria, and rebuild broken nations from their genocidal pasts. He initiated PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Program, which was a commitment of $15 billion over five years (2003-2008) from the United States to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.
I would have to strongly disagree with anyone who says that Bush is pure evil. He's got a good heart, he's just not that bright.
Bush's downfall is the same as the Conservative, Republican downfall. It's the "take care of the wealthy, companies and corporations-ignore the working/poor class and it will all work its self out- my church knows whats best and not living by my so called values should be illegal-if you don't agree with me and my party then you're un-American-be very afraid for your life if you don't support me because only I can protect you from scary people" philosophy that doomed the McCain/Palin ticket in November 2008. And it all started with Ronald Reagan.
The problems that we're facing today, economic inequality, deregulation in the financial markets and a divided red state versus blue state nation started with Reagan. Bush was just the unlucky one to be president when years of "Reaganomincs", policy based on "Reagan Conservatism" and the mismanaged "War on Terror" culminated in the financial meltdown that we're seeing today.
Going back to Bush being the right President at the right time in U.S. history, if it were not for Bush doing his part to bring America to it's knees then I'm not sure that Obama would enjoy the success that he has now. The majority of America's so desperate to change direction that Democrats and a good amount of Republicans want Obama to succeed. Even Dubya has warmed up to him. I guess that everything happens for a reason.