I have long defended President Bush because I always believed, and still do, that he is an innately good man, and a courageous one, too, and also for the simple reason that so few would defend him.
Nice guy, yes. But good president? Hardly.
No Child Left Behind... a terrible legacy left behind.
Campaign Finance Reform... fundamentally found unconstitutional by SCOTUS (thank goodness)
Medicare Prescription Drugs... popular with seniors, but bankrupting the country, and expanded fiscal problems exponentially
Patriot Act... worst case of federal overreach in domestic security in my lifetime. The TSA legacy lingers still today.
Iraq War... total disaster. We spent $1 trillion to create a client state for Iran.
Deficits, deficits, deficits
Expanded the "ownership society" with federal guarantees of home mortgages, which de facto collapsed the financial system
I do think GWB had a good heart, but his policies were short-sighted and will be paid for by generations of Americans for still more years to come. Clinton was a more conservative POTUS. Now looking at the ballooning deficits predicted under Trump, I worry that GOP-controlled government will once again fail to rein in spending, even as the tax burden is lowered, which ultimately taxes people in a different way, albeit one that saves politicians from direct blame (inflation, stagnation, depression, etc.).
