Bush's legacy: it could have been worse

After eight years of what could be the most dismal presidency in modern history, George Bush has found the ultimate talking point to salvage his presidency – It could have been worse.

Most of us probably wonder what could be worse. President Bush began his presidency with the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. He responded with a misguided war that claimed 4,000 American lives and wounded 30,000 Americans, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

He plunged the America into the worst economy since the Great Depression, and presided over a period when we lost more than 4 million jobs.

History will vindicate him, he says, because it could have been worse. The crux of his case seems to rest on what didn't happen rather than what did.

Pres. Bush's chief argument is that we have not had an attack on the Homeland since 9/11. If keeping America safe is your legacy, you are overlooking one big ole data point. Despite explicit warnings that Al Qaeda was determined to attack the United States, Bush was caught off guard when Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States. The terrorists killed thousands of innocent citizens, but Bush wants to be remembered as the guy who didn't let it happen…again.

We now have the worst economy since the Great Depression. Lucky for us the windows in Wall Street offices don't open because there has been mass panic over there for the last three months. Bush responds that he inherited a recession, he ended on a recession, but in the meantime there was 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. Let's do some math. Bush was president for 96 months, and he claims success for 52. Even by his definition of success, half his presidency was spent in a recession. It could have been worse, however. We could have spent the entire presidency broke.

When asked about the federal government's lackluster response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush snapped that they plucked 30,000 people from roof tops right after the storm passed. In a city of 2 million residents, the feds can take credit for rescuing 30,000.There are 9,000 Louisiana families still living in trailers and more than 30,000 gulf state residents still receiving assistance. Five of 23 acute-care hospitals in New Orleans remain closed. The bus system carries less than a third of its pre-storm passengers. Many neighborhoods remain vacant. It could have been worse, I guess; He could have let the entire city drown.

Finally, when confronted with the reality that the country's standing in the world has been greatly diminished; Bush retorted that this was the view of Europeans and the elite. You don't even need data to rebuff this claim. Just think back a month when Bush took a valedictory tour to the country he "liberated" from Saddam Hussein. The most memorable point of the trip was when an Iraqi journalist hurled both of his shoes at the president. That's standing for you. Not sure how that one could have been worse.

For every major decision, the president was resolute and wrong. To bolster his legacy however, Bush asserts that it could have been worse. Let's thank God that he wasn't president for longer; he might have just proven it to us.