I'm sure President Bush had goals for his presidency when he took office, but events displaced his priorities and forced him to respond to the unforseen. Consider the disasters that occurred during his terms: The enemy attack of 9-11, The natural disaster of Katrina, and The Financial Meltdown of 2008. Bush will be rated by historians according to his responses to these crises. How did he do?
9-11: He took extraordinary steps to ensure that an attack like this did not re-occur and he took extraordinary measures to retaliate against those who attacked. Both of these are on-going projects. If Bush's succesor(s) do not keep this in mind, our nation will suffer for it. Both responses cost him politically, but he pursued his policies to the end.
Katrina: I think officials at all levels were slow to realize the magnitude of this disaster and their response was slow. Now the question is: Should New Orleans be rebuilt at all? No one seems to be thinking about this.
Financial Meltdown: The solution here has been amazingly bi-partisan. The recovery from the meltdown is incomplete if it has begun at all. Unfortunately, the financial factors of deficit spending and legacy costs that caused this meltdown are in place to recur with even greater intensity within the next 20 years. There is a bi-partisan ignoring of this fact that almost assures a tragic outcome. Unfortunately, Bush is in no political position to propose a solution.
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