I knew I would get you to read this diary with that headline :-) But there is a good reason for my somewhat provocative title. All you read these days is how Bush has been such a dismal failure. But look at the goals he had during his presidency, and how much of that he has accomplished. It is really quite an impressive list...
Bush: "I want to have large tax cuts for my rich buddies." (though, truth be told, they don't seem so large anymore these days...)
Congress: "No problem!
Bush: "I want to invade Iraq."
Congress: "Sure!"
Bush: "I don't want to spend a dime on Katrina"
Congress: "Who cares about those people anyway!"
Bush: "I want to be reelected" (or elected, depending on your point of view...)
People: "Well, OK then."
Bush: "I want to spy on ordinary Americans. To keep us all safe, obviously."
Congress: "Well you should!"
Bush: "And my telecom friends should certainly not be prosecuted for this."
Obama: "Of course they shouldn't!"
Bush: "I want to torture people, because it makes it so much easier to get confessions."
Congress: "Obviously!"
Bush in 2007: "The war in Iraq is going so great, I want to send 30,000 more people there."
Congress: "Great idea!"
In contrast, I could think of only a few goals that he did not accomplish:
Bush: "I want to privatize social security."
Congress: "Well... let's not."
Bush: "Don't you think Harriet Miers would make a terrific supreme justice?"
Congress: "Er... not really, no. Do you have any other candidates?"
Interestingly, both of these setbacks occurred when the Republicans were still in charge of Congress. When the Doormats, sorry, the Democrats were in "charge", he did not seem to have that many problems...