[Moose4]

Oh, I understand that completely. But I don’t think that lets George W. Bush completely off the hook for a whole series of government-expanding, budget-expanding initiatives (Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, TARP, etc.). In the end, “compassionate conservatism” sure wasn’t conservative, and I don’t think it was terribly compassionate for the folks who are going to pay for it down the road—you, me, and our kids.

GWB doesn’t deserve anywhere near the hate he gets from the left or the right (and it sure looks like Bartlett thinks he ran over his dog or something). But at the same time, let’s be clear-eyed about the mistakes he made in addition to the fantastic job he did against Islamic terror.

}:-)4

[LS]

No question from 2005 on, domestically, he came unglued. For whatever reasons---I think it was a misplaced but genuine compassion, but I wish it was simply misjudgment about trying to "buy" support for the war---he just went the wrong way domestically. It got him absolutely no credit from the lefties--Obama bashes the presc. drug bill even now! Outrageous, as that's a 100% leftie bill.

But I think as more unfolds about his admin, we're going to see that he did an astounding job defeating AQ and keeping us safe.