Not the Worst President

Tomorrow at noon, the eight-year reign of President George Walker Bush will come to an end. Many will celebrate Bush's final day as president, and some will look back in reverence in his historic, albeit turbulent, tenure. I have often disagreed with most of the outgoing president's policies. But the elastic thinker is all about fairness and hearing all points of view. And so this special inauguration edition will discuss why President Bush is not the worst president. Here are 5 reasons (yes, I was able to think of five) why I think history will ultimately have a forgiving look back on the 43rd president.

1. Democracy in the Middle East - the war in Iraq was a blunder that I opposed from the outset. But just as seeing American soldiers and Iraqis lose their lives is upsetting, the rise of a fledgling democracy in Iraq is certainly troubling to the autocratic regimes that surround it. Iraq, of course, has its own unique history and ethno-religious divisions that make it more conducive to civil war. But the anarchic unrest of that country could be a looking glass into the future for the other governments in the region that have long suppressed democratic forces. The neocons in the Pentagon were wrong about the war, but may end up with a favorable result down the road.

2. Nuclear cooperation with India - President Bush is the first U.S. leader to seriously engage with the world's largest democracy and formally establish strong economic and security ties with what I see as a key long-term ally in Asia for the United States. Though the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, ratified in 2008, would seem to blaspheme all international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation - it signals the Bush White House's acceptance of India's legitimate use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and its responsible custody of nuclear weapons. This new relationship between India and the U.S. will pay great dividends.

3. The fight for immigration reform - Bush was often the lone member of his party willing to accept sweeping immigration reform that was practical and acklowledged that the U.S. economy cannot function without migrant labor. Other Republicans were too worried about their electoral standing to take a real, hard look at the issue and instead took the hard, anti-immigrant line typical of the far right wing. The immigration reform bill died.

4. Taking on North Korea - this is more a credit specifically to the U.S. State Department envoy Christopher Hill, but the Bush Administration largely succeeded in breaking the impasse with nuclear North Korea. The administration smartly conducted multilateral (six-party) talks at times and bilateral talks at other times. The end result was the first tangible commitment (at least at that time) from North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

5. He united us before dividing us - 9/11/01 galvanized the United States. Bush united the country behind a common purpose. He later squandered the goodwill earned among nations after the attacks, but the positive aspects of Bush's legacy, I believe, will be his response to 9/11. It all went downhill from there, though.