Bush’s legacy will be one of failure

Ray Harbert, Las Vegas

Sunday, May 18, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

As the end of President Bush’s final term in office slowly draws to a close, citizens muse on his legacy.

He will leave our nation deep in debt, the nation’s economy is in shreds, gasoline at the pump is at an all-time high, the ranks of the poor grow daily, and the bulk of our manufacturing base has been shipped overseas.

The president heralded “Mission Accomplished” on May 1, 2003, yet our nation remains entangled in an unjustifiable war. Early on he showed his disdain for the environment on behalf of big business. One must not forget his use of secrecy and his grab for unprecedented executive powers and the abuse thereof.

When people start to evaluate “legacies,” they first separate the good from the bad. They then place each of these accumulated pluses and minuses on the proper side of the balance scale.

The result is where the arrow on the dial of history points. Today, according to some recent polls, Bush’s disapproval rating is in excess of 70 percent.

President Bush recently said, in his isolated view of himself, that it will be 100 years before history will be in a position to evaluate his presidency. In spite of the Bush administration’s spin on events and secrecy within the White House, history is history, facts are facts, and they have been indelibly etched in the books of recorded time.

If George Bush thinks historians are going to rewrite history, he is living in a delusional world. When George Bush leaves office, there will be a question that only time can answer: Will our nation ever be able to recover from the disastrous years of Bush 43?