Taking a look at W. - the bad.

The recent 9/11 anniversary has put George W. Bush on my mind, a man for whom I voted twice and against once.

W. and his admin were capable of some stunningly cynical moves such as Campaign Finance Reform, which has never really worked anyway and the steel tariff, a sop to PA labor unions which didn't yield any electoral results. Not unusual for a president. Bill Clinton (voted for him once and against him twice) vetoed welfare reform twice before signing it into law.

He made great mistakes in the Iraq campaign, but what president doesn't make mistakes in war? It took Lincoln two years to find his general. Roosevelt sent the U.S. Army into the field with under gunned and armored tanks and acquiesced to Churchill's Mediterranean adventures which distracted from the main goal - Germany. Under Truman he U.S. Army was in no way prepared for war in Korea.

In many ways his biggest mistake was political, and we may place much of the blame for that on Karl Rove. Bush came into office in the aftermath of the Clinton Wars, where Newt Gingrich and the GOP were fighting one kind of war, while Clinton the Dems were fighting another. Newt wanted to have a grand debate about the natural and role of government. Bill Clinton simply accused him of wanting to starve children and throw old people out on the street. This came to a head with the Medicare-government shutdown of 1995. The GOP lost that fight and was vulnerable to 'starving granny' lines of attacks thereafter.

Bush and Rove's strategy was essentially defensive, an attempt not to give the Dems ammo. Don't do anything too controversial, don't do anything too radical. We saw this in operation during his first term.

When Bush came into office, he proposed a 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut, a minor adjustment of the rates really. After he liberated Iraq he proposed another minor rate adjustment. Now contrast this with the Obama administration. When they took office they proposed and passed a radical healthcare reform law, despite that law being very unpopular. After getting trounced in the 2014 midterms, Obama then signed the Iran nuclear treaty, again despite the treaty being very unpopular.

Despite controlling the executive and legislative branch from 2003-2007, Bush did absolutely nothing to rein in government spending and instead ran big deficits, the worst being $500 billion as I recall, and added trillions in debt. Republicans in the '90s had great plans to lop off whole cabinet departments- Education, Labor, Commerce, Energy, Bush, despite controlling the legislative and executive branches it cannot not be said enough, couldn't even knock out the honey subsidy.

Instead of timidity, Bush should have tried to implement some more serious reforms. In 2001 he should have proposed his Social Security reform. He tried this of course in 2005 but it went no where. And in 2003, instead of a minor tax cut, he should have proposed a major tax overhaul.

Go big. Obama would have.

This political timidity showed itself in other areas, specifically the Iraq debate. The left has no problem whatsoever with accusing the right of malice and bad faith. During the 5 years in Iraq, Bush and the GOP simply refused to do this. Instead they defended the war, made reasoned arguments about why we had to stay about what would happen when we leaved, but international Islamic terror in general, all while being called liars and killers by the Dems.

The timidity even reared its ugly head in the days after 9/11.Early on Bush made a reference to fighting a 'crusade' against terror, Islamic and leftist groups in America immediately went into outrage mode over use of the word and Bush apologized. He should have said, 'I used a word that means a great and righteous endeavor. Instead of being outraged by that, those complaining shout be enraged by the pile of smoldering rubble in Manhattan.' He had these rhetorical problems throughout the war. Operation Enduring Freedom (yawn) was originally named Operation Infinite Justice a much better more telling and menacing name that was changed because someone at the State Department was worried it would offend Muslim sensibilities. The president should have been outraged at THAT. 'They're sensibilities?' he should have exclaimed.

'War on terror' is of course a terrible name, so obviously bad it needn't be discussed here.

In short, the Bush Administration was always on the rhetorical defensive. This, more than anything else, handicapped it, especially in the second term.