Well, as with all things in life, success is key.
If he succeeds in fundamentally changing things in the Islamic world, he'll be worthy of greater esteem. So far, his leadership has prevented a second major terrorist attack on U.S. soil. I have no doubt that wouldn't be true if Gore had been president.
The new alliances that he has forged to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and roll up terrorists world wide are an untold story.
But there are so many domestic things that he has been doing, like the tax cut and other economic growth friendly things, the testing of school children, educating people about private accounts for retirement, promulgating the idea of an ownership society, and changing the dynamics of elections.
If you care about life, he's stopped the advance of the culture of death.
If you care about the Second Amendment, he's stopped the advance of gun control.
If you care about activist judges, he's stopped appointing them.
Don't have time to go on, but there has been a real sea change.
Many conservatives believe that it is the luminescence of their philosophy that has won the day in recent years. Most have little idea of how President Bush has humanized, popularized and breathed life into conservative ideals for consumption by average Americans. They float now on his leadership, just as they did on Reagan's leadership.
Don't fool yourself that Americans would vote this way and follow this path with just any ole conservative at the head of the ticket. Look how they voted after Reagan. Especially look how they voted in 1996.
The hardest lesson I had to learn in my life was that when Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time," he had no idea just how vast the number of those people were.
"If he succeeds in fundamentally changing things in the Islamic world, he'll be worthy of greater esteem"
There is the key! You cannot justly rate a president until it is all over and done with. He is still in the process of doing.
And like you said it is the final results that counts - Success is good - Failure ....
The president's #1 job is to LEAD - to provide the moral direction of the nation. He has no more power than that. (do not count E.O. abuse as a legal power). All law making resides in the congress - SCOTUS is supposed to keep everyone honest. Or so it should be as the Constitutional Republic was formed.
In a democracy? Stalin and Lenin loved democracies.