[Delacon]

He is a good wartime leader and a good man. Other than that, he is the republican party's Jimmy Carter. Not the conservative movement's Jimmy Carter because he never was a conservative.

[BufordP]

Eight Wasted Years ...Margaret Thatcher used to talk about the “ratchet effect.” When the Left gets power, she said, they drive everything Left; when the Right gets power, they slow the Leftward drive, perhaps even halt it for a spell; but nothing ever gets moved to the Right. U.S. politics in the 21st century so far bears out this dismal analysis. What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn’t let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word... Bill Gertz interview on Hannity and Colmes Gertz: Well he casts himself as a compassionate conservative and I argue that he's neither. That his administration is neither. He's done tremendous damage to the conservative movement...

[Blue State Insurgent]

The lies about him were endless. Bush couldn't possibly answer to all them so why should he had even bothered? If the trashing of Bush was so fatal to his presidency and America why didn't this author ever bring himself to to counter the lies and report the truth? Isn't that the journalist's job? To clear the record?

This article itself is full of lies. Should we expect the president the respond to it too?

So Bush didn't whine like a little kid enough for you all? Who cares, this nitpicking is ridiculous.

[Revolting cat!]

If yo9u’ve been around this forum long enough you’ll remember the standard phrase about Jimmah that was used in the early days, “he is a decent man”. How the heck does anyone here know that Dubya “is a good man”? (Not saying he isn’t, for those with reading comprehension problems.)

[Lancey Howard]

This is, hands down, the best summary of the Bush presidency I have read. Deroy Murdock lays out perfectly how George Bush just sat there like a punching bag for eight years and never had the guts to stand up and defend himself as lie after lie after lie from the rats and their newsrooms went left unanswered. Bush’s unwillingness to stand up and fight was an eight-year slap in the face to his bewildered supporters, including me. Bush’s behavior was inexcusable.

“The Republican Jimmy Carter” - - yep, that works.

[jnsun]

IMHO this article is right on, signified by two outstanding illustrations which were not mentioned:

amnesty for illegals, hence spitting in the face of the very citizens who have paid taxes all their lives, signed on to the draft, served their country through military service, and devoted themselves to fortifying it in many other ways. In other words he spat on those who served. Thus psychologically an aloof patrician in every sense.

the Kelo decision,which although a president might not legally counter, clearly is the philosophical death of everything the conservative believes in (private property), and should be so stated but never was.

GWB proves one thing clearly, the hopeful conservative President better be savvy and energetic enough to counter the nihilistic Media, or they, through default, will walk all over him.

[drc43]

President Bush, overall was a fine president. We should all be grateful, especially here on FR. The alternatives were unspeakable.

I believe his failings were due to his kindness. Letting Kennedy craft the Education Bill, (for which Bush was blamed), Katrina (which Bush did fine on, but the press pinned on him for New Orleans' failure's, after being warned by the President).

His major failings really were to allow the Press to define him, instead of getting out in front.

But we are still better off, all things considered.

Thank you, President Bush

[deannadurbin]

He still hasn’t freed / commuted the sentences of Ramos and Compean.

No, I cannot defend Bush while those men rot in solitary confinement for protecting America from scum.

[madison10]

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!

THAT poem, if nothing else, describes President G.W. Bush. He IS a good man. I will miss him very much and cannot watch the farewells.

It will be a very long, dark time ahead.

[lonestar67]

WRiters and thinkers like these are the unmitigated disaster of the conservative movement.

Bush is a greater conservative President than Reagan.

[Obamageddon]

I’m hanging my flag upside down as of Monday and Tuesday I have rifles that need to be zero checked and sighted in from 11 to 1 eastern time.

[Mrs. Don-o]

btrl

[Tribune7]

I've been as ticked at Dubya as anybody but in no way is he Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter is in a league of his own and that league is about a dozen exponents beyond the nearest competitor who would not be Bush. Clinton would be closer to Carter-level incompetence that Bush.

Maybe Mr. Bean might compare to Carter, or Kramer from Seinfeld, but those guys are fictional characters.

[beckysueb]

We ain’t seen disaster yet. We will be so wishing we had Bush back.

[stentorian conservative]

Carter: Otherwise, Bush is the Republican Jimmy Carter.

I stopped right there. Dumbest thing I've read in a long while.

[death2tyrants]

“Too nice by half, his “new tone in Washington” unilaterally disarmed Team Bush against critics who devoured them like piranhas.”

They ‘devoured’ him so much that he won re-election. These anti-Bush articles are a dime a dozen.

[Eagles6]

Murdock is usually a thoughtful writer. Thus is beneath him.

[Tunehead54]

For AM bump! ;-)

[sergeantdave]

Bush became the left’s national punching bag; he never fought back, even though he had experienced heavyweight brawlers in Cheney and Bolton that could battle with best of them.

It’s time to take the gloves off and slip the brass knuckles on, Mr. Milquetoast republicans. Stop being saps.

[syriacus]

Bush “polls low,” not because he was a rotten president, but because he did some things most folks on the Left disliked and he did some things that most folks on the Right disliked.

There aren’t too many people remaining, who saw things exactly the way Bush did.

[phillyfanatic]

Murdoch is very apt in his criticisms. One thing however would be to opine how Gore would have done in the same situations. Perhaps for the protection and war against Islamofascism, W will be the good guy. Otherwise, I too see the credit and all the minuses that Deroy mentioned. They are point on and the destruction of the GOP will not be a loved item for its proponents.