George W. Bush was no dummy. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but he did give us two excellent Supreme Court justices.
He also flew F-102 fighter jets. That set him far apart from most folks.
I would agree, and he and his family all look at the long term and the future.
Bush came to power when the world was a much different place. I remember reading something very early - possibly before the 2000 election - about his stance on immigration and why he (they) was favorable toward it. A person who was close to him explained that neither economics nor politics was behind it. No, instead, in conversations, Bush asked the question: how does a 300 million person free market country ever hope to compete militarily with a billion person free market economy and hope to survive, should relations sour. He knew that we couldn't rely on Europe. Basically, he thought that we needed many millions of industrious people to even pray to compete with China. Who could disagree with the math?
That was then and this is now. The better hope now is to ally with India (a non-starter back then when India itself was a mostly socialistic non-aligned nation which had 5 decades of pandering to China and the USSR). The most likely outcome, though, is that the US will continue to head toward bankruptcy and the question will become moot.
“George W. Bush was no dummy. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but he did give us two excellent Supreme Court justices.”
He was forced by conservative grass roots to appoint Roberts and Alito. W wanted RINO AG Gonzales (pro-abortion) and WH crony Harriet Miers.