WASHINGTON — Wars. Recession. Bailouts. Debt. Gloom.
The unvarnished review of George W. Bush’s presidency reveals a portrait of America he never would have imagined.
Bush came into office promising limited government and humble foreign policy; he exits with his imprint on startling free-market intervention and nation-building wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Evaluating Bush’s performance has its limitations. History offers a warning about judging a president and his tenure in the moment: The wisdom and decisions of a leader can look different years later, shaped by events impossible to know now.
And it was one of Bush’s heroes, Ronald Reagan, who crystallized the way modern presidents are judged: Are people better off than they were when the president took office?
Based on that standard, the Bush report card is mixed at best. It is abysmal at worst.
Presidency had ups, downs
This is his tenure: eight years bracketed by the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history and the worst economic collapse in three generations.
In between came two wars, two Supreme Court appointments, a tough re-election, sinking popularity, big legislative wins and defeats, an ambitious effort to combat AIDS, a meltdown of the housing market, a diminishing U.S. reputation abroad, and more power invested in Dick Cheney than any vice president in history.
Bush got his tax cuts and education law in the first term, then swung hard and missed on Social Security and immigration in his second. He seized a bullhorn and united a country devastated by terrorism, but stumbled badly when a hurricane swallowed the Gulf Coast.
Many of his original campaign promises are dust. Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything.
In the heady days, Bush was the face of a party that ran the White House and Congress. Now Republicans hold neither. So much for a durable majority.
Bush pushed all legal limits in targeting terrorists. They have not struck America again.
The president’s defenders may well be right that his decisions will be viewed honorably over time.
For now, he is out of time. And realistic about his exit.
“It turns out,” he said, “this isn’t one of the presidencies where you ride off into the sunset.”
War and weakening economy
By any standard, the economy is in atrocious shape. More than 11 million people are out of work. The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 33.8 percent in 2008, the worst decline since 1931. One in 10 U.S. homeowners is delinquent on mortgage payments or in foreclosure.
People are losing their college savings, their nest eggs, their dreams.
The country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more broadly, against a threat of terrorism that predates Bush and still lurks from countless corners.
The Iraq conflict finally has an end in sight, but has cost much more in lives, time and money than even Bush expected.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government keeps spending money it doesn’t have. The current budget deficit stands at a record $455 billion. That hole will get deeper — probably more than a staggering $1 trillion — as the bill grows for bailouts and efforts to jack up the economy.
Huge numbers of people think the country is on the wrong track. Bush has had a negative approval rating for 47 months, the longest streak since such polling began. Almost two-thirds of people polled by the Pew Research Center said Bush’s administration will be remembered for its failures.
However, the president takes pride in getting an education law that demands testing and accountability; a Medicare law that provides a prescription-drug benefit; an AIDS relief plan that has helped millions of people in impoverished lands; and a policy of working with religious organizations as a way to help needy people.
Bush also shaped the conservative direction of the Supreme Court, likely for decades, with his choice of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
Still, for the most part, this has been a presidency dominated by war.
Bush lost the country’s faith when the war in Iraq had so many setbacks — the failed intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons in the first place, the botched postwar planning, the Mission Accomplished that wasn’t, the sectarian killing that seemed like a quagmire.
His unpopular decision to send more troops for security is now viewed as a success, and Iraq is much more stable and free.
But most Americans still think the war was a deep, costly mistake. This is where Bush takes a long view, one that many political scientists find rosy: the liberation of 50 million in Iraq and Afghanistan will lead to peace and democracy in a troubled region.
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