by Lance Thompson

The once-popular president was nearing the end of his second term.  The press of the opposing party pilloried him.  The members of his once stellar cabinet had been replaced by less-capable, less-qualified second stringers.  His foreign policy decisions were leading to riots in the streets.  Scandal, internecine feuding, and intrigue plagued his administration.  His successor was widely praised as a welcome change and improvement.  Worst of all, George Washington had no predecessors to blame his circumstances upon.

Since George Washington left office, his assessment by historians has improved steadily (until the revisionists took over the textbooks in the 1970's, and the Founding Fathers were all dismissed as heartless slave holders in powdered wigs).  But during his tenure as President, Washington suffered the same fate as all American chief executives who finish their second terms.  The populace that twice swept them into office wearies of them and becomes anxious for somebody new–often, anybody new.

Dwight Eisenhower presided over a period of unprecedented economic growth, domestic tranquility and American hegemony.  By the end of his administration, he was just a tired old guy who liked to play golf, let the CIA off its leash in Iran and Guatemala, and had to apologize to the Soviets when they shot down one of our U2 spy planes. 

Ronald Reagan revived a stagnant economy, cut taxes, rebuilt the military, and prevailed against the Soviet Union in the Cold War.  Reagan’s  economic recovery was the most robust and longest-sustained in recent history.  By the end of his second term, his administration was soiled with the Iran-Contra controversy, and the Democrats were calling his diplomatic victory over Gorbachev in Reykjavik a missed opportunity.  One of the most popular and successful presidents of the 20th Century left office looking tired and ineffective.

Bill Clinton was in charge during most of the 90's, an era of general prosperity and seeming calm overseas.  By the time this successful president left office, he was the only one in the 20th Century to be impeached and left office in a state of ignominy.

Which brings us to the current president.  Vilified by the liberal press, despised by the Left, and now unpopular even with many of his own party, George Bush would seem to be a president destined for perpetual disdain.

Yet he began his presidency by defeating a sitting vice president in a close election (despite the Dems’ insistence on recounting until they got a favorable result, repeated recently in Minnesota).   In the 2002 midterms, Bush campaigned hard for Republicans and was rewarded with an unprecedented GOP gain in both houses of Congress.

Bush’s first year in office was marked by the most devastating enemy attack on American soil in our history.  He responded to this by going to war against a terrorist enemy who had been making war on us for years.  In 2004, despite relentlessly negative reports on our military progress, Bush won reelection.  His determination in Iraq, when the press, the Democrats, and many Republicans were all calling for surrender, resulted in the victory that has replaced a state sponsor of terrorism and dictatorship with a stable Middle East democracy.

He pushed through tax cuts despite fears from both sides of the aisle that the economy, suffering from the terrible blow of the 9/11 attacks, could not afford such cuts.  The economy instead achieved remarkable strength from reduced taxes, as it always does.  Bush named two justices to the Supreme Court–Roberts and Alito, who have proven with their decisions to be excellent choices.

George Bush was blamed for every calamity that could be reported or invented–back-to-back storms of the century on the Gulf Coast, the increasingly insupportable make-believe of global warming, setbacks in Iraq, and the recent financial crises caused by liberal over-regulation of the lending industry.  Conservatives fault his open-border policy, his expansion of government, his enabling of an overspending Republican Congress.  Liberals blame him for everything else.   Thus George Bush will leave office with dismal approval ratings from an electorate that is ready for someone new.

All Presidents hope that history sees them in a more balanced light than the contemporary press does, and usually this is true.  George Bush was President during an era in which the modern news media gave up all pretense of objectivity, and Bush had the misfortune of being on the wrong side.  And yes, he did err in the decisions the conservatives have criticized.  But on the most important issues facing us during his administration–terrorism, taxes and the economy, Supreme Court appointments–George Bush has served his country well.

If the historians don’t immediately recognize the achievements of the 43rd President, he still has reason for optimism.  As with other Presidents whose final days of their second terms were defined by missed opportunities and declining approval, they always have one advantage.  Chances are, the next guy will make them look wonderful by comparison.