On the contrary, Bush was popular for much of his tenure as the article points out.
It was only when the Democrats targeted the "worst economy since the Great Depression" (which it wasn't but both dems and conservatives believed it) that his popularity faltered.
We had both prosperity and security for most of Bush's terms.
The HST record was really bad too, but Goldwater did a lot to resurrect the image of HST. We might have been better off with Thurmond, as Trent Lott once said but apologized and still got the GOP boot.