Unwittingly but no less surely, George W. Bush chose his successor.
By so polarizing the nation, by dragging America and her sons into war along a trackless trail of evidence, by sacrificing freedoms in the name of preserving Freedom, by marginalizing allies and invigorating enemies, by rejecting every idea not pre-approved by his vice president, by eschewing science for religious hokum, by helping set the stage for the current economic crisis, George Bush made it impossible for voters to elect anyone other than Barack Obama.
The new president is a liberal Democrat, not a conservative Republican. He is articulate, Bush is at times unintelligible. Obama is in his 40s, Bush in his 60s. Obama attracts supporters across a broad demographic, the former president at the end of his term held onto only a narrow slice of Republicans.
In assuring the election of his exact opposite, the former governor of Texas may have performed the greatest service of his presidency.
Mr. Bush does not bear the full burden of blame for the current state of affairs. The United States rules the world no more than the president rules the United States. The former president had help from a host of allies and enemies at home and abroad — and plenty of it. But it's hard to imagine any other president so thoroughly mishandling the crises he was handed and those he created.
Now at a time when almost everything seems to have gone wrong, the United States needs a leader who generates widespread public support, a leader who can inspire the nation to rescue itself. Nothing less will do.
Barack Obama has demonstrated those qualities. In part because of Bush’s stage setting and in part because of his own personality, the new president leads a country more engaged and interested in its government and in its future than at any time since the Kenndy era.
And in achieving that for Americans, Bush has done well.
