His TARP bailout was the final wakeup for me, one of many. I finally understood that Sept 11 was a gift from God to Bush, and to some degree republicans. For a short time everyone turned to Bush for protection and leadership. He had a blank check. At this point he decided that HE knew things others didn't, that he was really special and he showed arrogance in many statements (That his fans saw as strength, longing for a hero, including me.) But that arrogance was a flaw, not a strength. And God, or fate, has a way of making us pay for for arrogance. The democrats set his sites on him for 5 years with outright hatred, and when things started to go badly the public, who was never enthused about Iraq to begin with ,and trusted him on it, were in democrats hands and turned sharply against him. Eventually Bush became more than an object of hatred but a gift to democrats, and a curse to us. And then.. your last post sums it up.
Comparing to all his rivals, Bush had a clear advantage of at least having an idea about the outline of the problems facing the country.
9/11 was a severe blow both because of immediate problems it created and because the military success lead to the idea of repeating post WWII nation building successes in Germany and Japan.
But by 2005 it should be clear to anybody that continuing efforts overseas means unavoidable crashing defeat at home with pelocis, reids and obamas running this country for another 40+ years.