Whatever history's verdict on the Bush administration might be, it is
likely to be very different from what we hear from the talking heads
on television or read from the know-it-alls on editorial pages.

President Bush's number one achievement was also the number one
function of government-- to protect its citizens. Nobody on September
11, 2001 believed that there would never be another such attack for
more than seven years.

Unfortunately, people who are protected from dangers often conclude
that there are no dangers. This is most painfully visible among those
Americans who are hysterical over the government's intercepting
international phone calls, in order to disrupt international terrorist
networks.

Many, especially among the intelligentsia, are also obsessed with
whether we are being nice enough to the cut-throats locked up at
Guantanamo, some of whom have already been turned loose to resume a
life of terrorism. The rights of the Geneva Convention do not apply to
people who neither obey the Geneva Convention nor are covered by the
Geneva Convention.

That a President of the United States protected us from deadly enemies
may not seem like much of an accomplishment to some. But it may be
more fully appreciated when we get a President who eases up on that
protection, in order to curry favor at home and abroad.

We can only hope that it will not take the sight of an American city
lying in radioactive ruins to wake people up to the dangers that
George W. Bush protected us against, despite an unending chorus of
carping.

No one in his right mind would say that the Bush administration was
flawless. But many of their worst political mistakes were the kinds of
mistakes that decent people often make when dealing with indecent
people, both domestically and internationally.

The idea with which President Bush arrived in Washington, that he
could gain bipartisan support by going along with the Democrats, and
not vetoing any bills that Congress passed, ignored the fact that it
takes two to tango.

Having proclaimed his goal as bipartisanship, it was he who was blamed
when the bipartisanship failed to materialize. Wooing Ted Kennedy and
going along with massive government spending did not stop Kennedy from
getting up in the Senate and loudly proclaiming that Bush "lied, and
lied and lied!" about Iraq.

Whatever the merits or demerits of going to war against Saddam
Hussein, the question whether he had weapons of mass destruction
immediately at hand makes a better talking point than a serious
argument.

President Bush was not the only national leader who thought Saddam
Hussein had such weapons, nor were such weapons the only reason why
the Iraqi dictator posed a continuing danger that all diplomatic
efforts, over more than a decade, had failed to extinguish.

This issue can be debated, and no doubt will be debated for years, if
not generations, to come. But the irresponsible charge that "Bush
lied" for some nefarious purpose-- to trade "blood for oil" or to
generate business for Halliburton, for example-- is more than a
slander against him. It undermines our whole nation and gives comfort
to our enemies around the world.

Domestically, the Bush legacy leaves a lot to be desired. Going along
with the McCain-Feingold bill restricting free speech was perhaps the
Bush administration's biggest dereliction of duty. Maybe they figured
that they could pass the problem along to the Supreme Court to stop
it, since this bill so clearly violated the First Amendment to the
Constitution.

But the Supreme Court was also guilty of a dereliction of its duty and
let the McCain-Feingold bill stand.

Advocating amnesty for illegal aliens was another political disaster,
especially when accompanied by denials of the obvious.

Although the Bush administration went along with the chorus of calls
for promoting home ownership among people who could not afford home
ownership, President Bush at least sounded a warning while others were
still pushing lenders to lend to people who proved unable to repay
their loans.

A mixed bag? Aren't we all? But an honorable man.

http://townhall.com/columnists/Thoma...he_bush_legacy