Remember, W Bush never had the capacity, wherewithall, or WIT to ever defend himself when insulted or maligned during his entire time in office. Reagan would have had a witty retort if it were him..and that’s one of the reasons that W Bush ended up disgusting me...after I voted for him twice. I have no respect for him...he’s a phony, two-faced a Rino if there ever was. I’ll say what I posted yesterday,....that we haven’t had a REAL PRESIDENT since Ronald Wilson Reagan.
There were a lot of problems with W as a president, but when he was in office early on there wasn't much pressure to hold his feet to the fire.
We gave him a pass early on. He used it. And we complained about him afterwards, forgetting maybe that we didn't demand more from him early on.
You're right though that he didn't show much ability to defend himself, especially towards the end. He just sort of crumpled up.