President George W. Bush: An evaluation

Four years ago I wrote a column evaluating George W. Bush's first term. I relayed a tale I remember well. During a stump speech, when Bush sought the authority to launch Operation Iraqi Freedom, the president stopped in Cincinnati. He described the atrocities of Saddam Hussein, and the magnitude of the threat Saddam's regime posed. Then he put forth the notion that we Americans could choose to do nothing about it.

"That's not the America I know," Bush said. "That's not the America I serve. We will not live in fear."

I described that line as Bush's public insistence that he did not run for president — put his family through the magnitude of garbage that comes with high office, put his own life in the hands of history — to watch a madman go unchecked. I described that moment as my favorite George W. Bush moment.

It still is.

And my evaluation of Bush's performance after 8 years hasn't changed from what I thought 4 years ago. Bush was a good president, though not a great one.

There are a few things that could well prove disastrous: Deficits and added debt, his failure to reform Social Security or control the border, and socialization of the finance industry.
But there have been other big, big battles to fight. Taxes have gone down, defense capabilities are up, al-Qaeda is reeling. Late term abortion. Idiotic gun control measures. The Supreme Court. On those Bush has been mostly right, most of the time.

Some used the "are you better off than you were 8 years ago?" argument during the recent election campaign. There's no single answer that applies to everybody — I know I am better off today than I was then, but I just went to college and not everyone has my story.

There is, however, a single answer to that question as it applies to the world as a whole. If we look at Afghanistan and Iraq, and especially at their previous governments, we can see that the world today is a better place than it was in 2001.

Reasonable people can't ask much more than that.