01/18/2009
We are decidedly not better off now than we were eight years ago, when Bush became president. At times, it has felt as if governing our nation was simply beyond the capacity of this Texan, who may have reached the limits of his abilities when he was governor of that southern state.
As president, Bush seemed resolute and acted with conviction. But his propensity for throwing the long ball, his inability to experience a healthy dose of doubt, his lack of reflectiveness and his one-dimensional thinking meant we had a president who didn't believe in nuanced diplomacy, who placed his trust in ideologues and who refused to back down or reverse course even when his policies led us into disasters.
Bush arrived in Washington promising to be a uniter, not a divider -- and leaves a nation exhausted by eight years of culture wars that he and his chief political architect, Karl Rove, helped foment. He came to the White House decrying government spending -- and leaves a nation reeling from massive deficits ... Bush ascended to the presidency after having denounced nation-building as U.S. policy -- and leaves a country suffering the painful sacrifices of his risky and misguided war to build a newly democratic Iraq.
The Bush era is ending, a cautionary tale, perhaps, of the dangers of aristocracies. In his place, the nation has elected a man with the most improbable of resumes, whose claim on the presidency bears no echoes of privilege or entitlement ...
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/columns/5828056.html