The point of the original article that started the thread was that the Bush administration has a disconnect from reality. Then Tom posted a reply to that which to me illustrated the same disconnect. The economy has had its worst, repeat worst unemployment record since Hoover was in power. The switch from surpluses to deficits in magnitude is I believe the worst in history. It's not a matter of saying but things might be getting better, the consensus of what I read is that they aren't even getting better anyway. The current growth in the quarter was from sending out tax rebates and military spending. The tax cuts for rich people were supposed to create unemployment but they didn't work like in history they never do work when the money goes to the rich. No economists seem surprised by this but the apologists keep saying this great recovery is just around the corner and won't we all be sorry when it comes. It's the same as the WMD that are always about to turn up, and won't we all be sorry we doubted King Bush then as well.
Likewise that there is supposed to be some kind of consensus the Iraq situation is getting better. The almost universal consensus there is it keeps getting worse. So this disconnect is what the article is about, that apologists for Bush have this kind of medieval faith based belief about how things are going that doesn't seem to be based on facts others are talking about.
As to North Korea the thing that probably started all this off is Bush calling him all those names, insulting him. After that they escalated the nuclear production. Like it or not they had never gone this far before and they did it on Bush's watch. There doesn't seem to be a country in the world that doesn't think Bush bungled it by not negotiating, and yet again whatever he messes up it's supposed to be really that people don't like him as a person.
As to thinking the worst of Bush I don't believe as a rule people do that with presidents. As long as things are going well and the government is not too extreme people are usually a bit better off at the end of each term. This time however this is the worst economic performance since the Great Depression and there's no point in pretending otherwise.
Around the world Bush is considered probably to be the worst president in decades, they can't all be doing it because they hate him. At some point the spin has to stop, what mistakes that are being made have to be looked at honestly, and changes made. Saying things are just about to get better all the time when they don't only makes the eventual changes harder to make. Let's not also forget a majority in opinon polls are unsatisfied with his performance in every field including foreign policy. This can't all be from blind hatred. At some point people need to be able to stop spinning and say things have to be done differently.