GWB was the last decent man to serve in the White House. I believe he was a thoroughly decent man, and that history will show him overall to have been a very good president on the key issues he was faced with during an extraordinary time in US history.
He was not evil; he was, however, on several points very poorly served. And at the top of the list of those who serve him poorly were McClellan, Martinez and Rove.
Still, the buck stops in the Oval Office, and that poor advice that Bush chose to follow got us Obama. I don’t know who can deny that.
I agree with most of what you’ve said. But, to say that one president leads to another is a non-started because that argument can be made of many election cycles. Unfortunately, without a conservative windfall in the Presidency, we may be on a 8 on/8 off cycle for a while.