This is why I now also dislike him while I used to admire him very much. He LET the enemy defines him, conservatives, and Republicans. As I mentioned in another thread, Dubya seems to suffer from Martyr complex. He takes the beating from the Dims as accomplishments, without much effort to counter them. You can counter the enemy hard without killing them. Dubya only looks forward when history judges him better than today. As de facto leader of conservatism and Republicanism, he didn't do much to defend the movement nor the ideology that makes the movements. In same cases, he even seemed to resent them. As a result, now the whole movements got the blame, and Americans are in danger of electing the most leftist President ever.
Honestly, I think you have— and many maybe most conservatives do— have a weak rationalization for why you don’t defend this President. The nice thing in my own mind is that regardless of who wins, I think you will get clarity on how foolish you were to indict this man of great character. McCain is going to throw you under the bus so much you are going to be more familiar with the transmission than the seats on his straight talk express.
Bush took the hit on bailing out the banks. McCain could have gone either way on that and Bush would have accomodated him as he has throughout this election.
Here again I ask all the Bush bashers. Where has all the Bush bashing by McCain and Palin done any good for us. Why has it not sprung McCain more clearly into a lead? McCain and Palin agree that the economy is horrible— which it is not. McCain and Palin agree that Bush’s foreign policy is highly flawed— which it is not. All of these things are gifts of a man with character and wanting his friends to thrive at his expense.
This won’t have to last much longer and I have little doubt that history will vindicate him. History really has no choice. We will either live as free people aware of history or we will be radically subjugated under forms of fanatical statism that make history and meaningless concept.
Bush has won. He took the side of freedom at incredible cost.