So long, Bush

I’ve studied enough history to know there is no way right now to judge whether the presidency of George W. Bush was a success. You simply can’t put the past eight years into context until many decades have passed.
But that won’t stop me from giving my opinion, or from asking for yours.
The president gave his farewell address Thursday evening. What he failed to do was note all the ironies of his administration.
He came to office not knowing who the president of Pakistan was, then spent much of his time working with that president, Pervez Musharraf, in the war on terror. He came as a conservative, yet he helped expand government at an FDR pace. He fought for the No Child Left Behind Act, which intrudes Washington into all local schools.
Finally, he reacted to a financial crisis in ways that seemed to defy market principles.
I don’t necessarily point out all of these things disparagingly. Presidents deal with reality, which is often more complex than ideologues would like.
But the war in Iraq, while it could yet turn out to be a success, was not waged as it should have been. It probably should not have been waged at all. I traveled to Washington a time or two during those years and had brief meetings with Colin Powell and other State Department officials. It was clear to me that there were tensions between members of the administration, and Bush seemed to trust Donald Rumsfeld more than anyone else, which was a mistake.
I honestly hope that, 50 years from now, people consider Bush a success. At the moment, that’s hard to imagine.
What do you think? How will history remember George W. Bush?