The Bush Legacy

Wow, does it seem like the Bush/Cheney years never happened? In just his first three days, Obama has pretty much done all he can to erase any memory of Bush being in office. Every executive order and other directives he has issued to this point have been aimed at making people forget Bush was even in office.

It has been said that history will not be kind to Bush and that he will quickly disappear as he left office with a dismal approval rating. But it's too early to write the history on Bush yet. I'm not convinced, even with all that went wrong, that he will be judged as harshly down the road.

As for his remaining years, Americans have a tendency to like their leaders, popular or not when they leave office. Carter was a disaster as a president, whose own party turned on him and paved the way for Reagan. But as an ex-President he's been considered one of the best. Look at Nixon. After resigning from office, in his later years he still commanded lots of respect for his foreign policy expertise. George H.W. Bush, unpopular in 1992, has remained quite popular in the years since leaving office. Bill Clinton's legacy was slightly tainted during Hillary's campaign but still can wow an audience.

As for W, I think the same will happen to him, even though right now you won't hear anyone giving any kind of favorable review of his adminstration. But time has a way of making people forget and rethink things. Although it may be hard to see it now, I think Bush will someday return in a favorable light as he now joins the popular club of our ex-Presidents.