President Bush is a leader of uncommon moral vision and clarity of national purpose.
And in his farewell address to the nation, delivered January 15, 2009, President Bush made his valedictory exhortation on liberty and America’s responsibility: “In the 21st century, security and prosperity at home depend on the expansion of liberty abroad. If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led. … America must maintain our moral clarity. … Good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.”
I disagree. Reagan was a "leader of uncommon moral vision and clarity of national purpose", Bush was ok. He has 3 major things to his credit, IMO - 1) the tax cuts, 2) the GWOT and 3) the appointments of Roberts and Alito.
Those things aside, his presidency will be characterized by the fact that it took him the majority of his first etrm to learn how to spell "VETO", understand its meaning and use it!! In his second, term, he lurched much farther to the left, in SPITE of the fact that the left detested him and everything he stood for. He did his utmost to appease them and all he got for his efforts was more disdain and derision from them.
His "moral vision and national purpose" didn't seem to extend themselves to rotecting our southern border and protecting America from the invasion from the south. They also didn't protect us from out of control spending by the Congress, the massive earmarks and, ultimately, the meltdown our economy is currently experiencing.
So, I find him likeable as a person, but as a president, he gets about a "C-" in my book. He missed too many opportunities to be a true and genuine conservative leader.