Go back and re read the article. Although I doubt you'll see it, the author took deliberate effort to show that he didn't dislike Bush as a person, but disagreed with his politics. You stated that the author showed hatred and that is not true.
The things that Bush has done that are right are not, for the most part, remarkable, but we've grown wo accustomed to clinton that anything that isn't debauched is treated as a spectacular success. Cutting funding to foreign family planning, while a moral victory, doesn't stop abortions overseas and has virtually no impact on US citizens. It wasn't really a bold stroke, merely correcting a bad policy.
What this thread is revealing is that it is very hard to get civil discussion regarding Bush's position (moderate or conservative) and criticism of his policies.
We used to shake our heads in frustration over the clinton supporters who stood by their president through thick or thin. I don't recall ANYONE on FR praising them for their loyalty. Now we have people doing the same thing and putting on blinders and making excuses for half to two thirds of the president's policies while maintaining that he stands for Conservative policy AND getting personally nasty with those who disagree.
This group changes one letter in foul, four-letter-words, call former Presidents "Hijo de Puta" (Spanish for 'Son of a Prostitute'), is insulting of the other sides intellect and level of education and then cry "vulgar" when the other side retaliates. What's worse is the moderators might go along with them, because our side doesn't use their abuse button tactics and so there's no 'hard' record of who started using the 'vulgarities' and personal attacks in the first place.
The FR guidelines warn that the moderators will check the thread to verify that the alleged offender wasn't baited into retaliating in a way, that elicited the abusive response, that the instigator was waiting for, but it's clear that the moderators can't always do that. Especially on a 1,000-post-long thread like this.
Be wary of the 'hooks' these Freepers use to draw you into a 'flame war'.