Editorial: The Bush Years

When the shoes start flying at a presidential news conference, it's time for the chief executive to duck - and then duck out the back door, hoping for a friendlier crowd at the next stop.

For President Bush, though, there won't be many more press events. So it's no surprise that he is betting history will be kinder to him than any possible present-day assessment of his tenure.

He has to hope, as well, that those shoes tossed at him by an irate Iraqi journalist in mid-December will land in history books only as a quirky footnote.

Bush departs the White House as one of the least popular presidents in recent times, with some critics confident enough in their historical perspective to nominate him in various "worst" categories.

Maybe that's because Bush is viewed widely as having stumbled so badly on key policies. By now, it's a familiar litany: Bush led the nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq; eroded core freedoms by snooping on Americans without court approval; squandered global goodwill with the harsh interrogation and open-ended detention of terror suspects; undermined environmental protections; favored the rich with tax cuts; and botched the Hurricane Katrina rescue.

His vice president, the ever-grimacing Dick Cheney, advises Bush not to care about his low approval ratings, saying, "Eventually you wear out your welcome in this business."

Cheney should know, but Bush clearly cares, because his aides and allies - including first lady Laura Bush - have been burnishing his legacy. A recent White House memo cited several upbeat talking points, including that Bush "kept the American people safe" from further terrorist attack after Sept. 11, revived the post-2001 economy with his tax cuts, and preserved "the honor and dignity of his office."

Bush can back up those claims to some degree, but there's less to each talking point than meets the eye.

Only after 2,975 were killed on his watch in the worst-ever terrorist attack did Bush respond with stepped up antiterror measures. The Iraq insurgency - a veritable demonstration project for terrorists - never would have happened had U.S. forces not gone after Saddam Hussein on the basis of faulty claims that the brutal dictator had weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush military intervention in the Gulf, coupled with Abu Ghraib abuses, could make Americans less safe, to the extent that they fuel Islamic fanatics' anger. That's an especially grim future for the already suffering families of the more than 4,800 troops killed and thousands more wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan fighting.

As for priming the economy with hefty tax cuts that benefited the wealthiest, that maneuver heralded the end of balanced budgeting while shifting to the states the burden for many domestic needs. Then there's the current economic crisis: Bush leaves office with nearly two million more Americans looking for jobs as a result of the recession, two million-plus facing mortgage foreclosures, and untold numbers looking at smaller retirement nest eggs.

As for preserving the honor and dignity of the office, that has to be about more than just avoiding the sex scandal that marred Bill Clinton's presidency.

It might not matter that a president's mangled syntax and anti-intellectual pose provided talk-show hosts with an endless supply of quips. But acting as if the holder of his office is above the law - without regard for constitutional checks and balances - now, that was a major misstep.

As an enabler for Cheney's view of an all-powerful chief executive who "doesn't have to check with anybody" to launch nuclear war, Bush eroded respect for the democratic principles that founded this country.

There should be less debate about other bullet points from the Bush record: his stellar leadership on fighting AIDS in Africa, his smart focus on school achievement through the No Child Left Behind Act, the groundbreaking achievement of a prescription-drug benefit for retirees and other Medicare recipients, and Bush's unsuccessful call for sweeping immigration reform.

It's been a rough eight years, no question. In November, voters thankfully signaled that they're ready to move on. Most of the challenges to the nation that Bush faced will remain, so the truest measure of his tenure could be how well the strategies employed by President-elect Barack Obama measure up.