History Will Not Forgive Bush

Regardless of how people judge the American president Bush’s performance during his eight-year tenure, one thing is certain: he wanted to maintain a gracious figure in stepping down from his official duties.

His infamy can be left for those who are interested to find out more. However harsh and unrelenting the criticisms were from Obama during the presidential election, now is the time for the handover of power and the entire world is watching. For the departing president, if this is not the right moment to put his full support behind the new arrival at the White House and demonstrate his political sensibility, it would be hard to see a more opportune time.

In doing so, Bush will walk away from the White House leaving an indelible image of a leader who was openly generous and principled for the world to remember. Whether it will improve his legacy in the annals of history is another matter altogether.

Political science professor Cal Jillson at Southern Methodist University in Texas, the planned home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, made the comment: “This has been a very good moment late in his presidency, and I think it’s fair to say, much appreciated by the nation.”

Bush was full of praise during his meeting with Obama at the White House, and even called together about 1,000 employees on the South Lawn to address them on ensuring a smooth transition of power. A press release or even an internal memo to staff would have achieved the same outcome without all the commotion. However, Bush expressed his support for Obama in the clearest way possible by choosing to demonstrate that his cabinet was standing behind him.

“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the hallmarks of a true democracy,” Bush said. He has also pledged an “unprecedented effort” to help Obama take power. This is reminiscent of George H.W. Bush, who after a bitter loss to Clinton in 1992, ordered his top aides to cooperate with Clinton’s transition.

Stephen Hess, a senior fellow emeritus at the Washington think tank the Brookings Institution, who also held official positions during the Eisenhower and Nixon periods, as well as served as an advisor in the Ford and Carter eras, described the attitude of both George Bush senior and the outgoing president as “graceful” in his new book about presidential transitions.

But Hess indicated that this will do little to change history’s appraisals for Bush: “The encyclopedia is still going to read: ‘George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, ‘who created a war in Iraq or who let the country be flooded by Katrina,'” Hess said. “It’s not going to be ‘George W. Bush, who left the office gracefully.”