Examining Bush's failed presidency

By ANN MCFEATTERS
COLUMNIST

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is a forgotten man. Giving his last State of the Union speech, he was overshadowed by a tempest in a teapot. (Did Barack Obama snub Hillary Clinton or merely turn to talk with another senator?)

We need a breather from the campaign, so we will focus on why history is likely to record George W. Bush's eight years in office as a failed presidency.

Ideology has nothing to do with it; Bush had the opportunity to be a great president.

Former President Clinton famously complained that his term could never be acclaimed as "great" because he never presided over a war. (Instead he had peace and prosperity and squandered them, accomplishing little of significance.)

After 9/11, Bush could have become a great leader. But the very day that hell spewed from the sky, Bush did not know whether to return from Florida to Washington. His eventual leadership in those terrible weeks was steadfast but he used up the good will of most of the world by pushing his doctrine of pre-emption. Invading Iraq on false pretenses, he has overseen a war that has lasted longer than our participation in World War II with far less to show for it.

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