President Bush Doesn't Deserve the Treatment He's Gotten

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on the disgraceful way both the left and the right have treated President Bush (h/t Lead Singer John):

Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.

According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.

This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust."

Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties.

The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there.

It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.

Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them.

Like the president said in his 2004 victory speech, "We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."

You can read the rest here. By the way, the ballot prop in San Francisco failed miserably. There are still a few sane people up there.

President Bush had a bad second term, no doubt, but he never deserved the vitriol he got from the left, nor the shunning and criticism he got from the right. I really think McCain did himself a disservice by blasting Bush on the campaign trail and not using him in some areas where Bush could have helped. He may have low approval ratings nationwide, but his approval rating among Republicans is still pretty good. McCain was playing to people who weren't going to vote for him anyway and we can see how well that worked out.

I've disagreed with many things Bush did in his second term, but I've never doubted his basic honesty and integrity, nor his desire to do what he really felt was right for the country. I think if there was one failing it was his insistence on being nice to the very same Democrats who were trying to destroy him. I wish he'd fought them with a lot more vigor.

The demonization he's received would never be tolerated by the left toward their newly minted president. And lucky for them, most Republicans won't treat Obama the way they've treated Bush (not that they don't deserve it).