“But Bush did a great and noble thing in overthrowing Saddam and his attempt to bring democracy to a Mideast tyranny is one of the finest acts of US foreign policy ever. And despite the false starts and wasted months before the arrival of Petraus, Bush has won his Iraq war with a historically low number of US casualties.”
The country did not agree with your appraisal. History shows that the majority of Americans do NOT like to have to go to war.
Leading up to our entry into WWII the GOP opposed our entry. The majority of Americans opposed entry, until Pearl Harbor.
Vietnam was unpopular, and hurt both parties-Johnson, and then Ford.
Taken in that light, Bush made a blunder. There were alternatives.
The blunder opened the door for the dems who recognize America’s dislike of wars.
What I just wrote will not go down well here, but “here” is not at all representative of the whole country.
Plus going to unpopular war peels off the Ron Paul and Chuck Hagel factions of the GOP.
Iraq and the economic meltdown doomed any GOP candidates this time. On the economy: Bush and the GOP led budget busting, failed to head off the mortgage excesses, and therefore get blamed.
While the mortgage housing bubble had seeds going back decades, Bush people did nothing, even when any sane person could see the writing on the wall.
Bush took credit for his administration attaining record levels of home ownership, when his advisors knew or should have known it was built on a pending crisis.
Bush is a good man, but left his party with a lot of repair to be done. I disagree with those who predict history will one day judge him well.