The day before election day 2008, when all political commentary was flowing toward the candidates running for office, I used my column space to write a heartfelt thank you to President Bush (”An Election Day Note: Thanks, President Bush“).

At the time even Republicans were using every trick in the book to distance themselves from the 43rd president. Even before the Florida recount of 2000 I told Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund that the Democratic Party — then led by the Clintons, John Podesta and a team of Whitewater-to-Lewinsky era smear artists including Sidney Blumenthal — would use President Bush as an example to Republicans as a thorough payback for Impeachment.

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Florida was a sign of things to come as the left recognized that Bush’s friendly “uniter-not-a-divider” persona could easily be turned on its head. Ted Kennedy’s rejection of bipartisan spirit after he and Bush crafted the “No Child Left Behind” legislation foretold how all Democrats, save for Sen. Joe Lieberman, would treat the 43rd president: with graceless contempt.

The mainstream media did everything in its power to reinforce the Clintons’ revenge wishes and the far left’s political desires in making sure that Bush’s humanity was constantly on the ropes. The easy media template of Bush being stupid and evil were propaganda staples of the period of 2000 to 2008, with a disturbingly short reprieve after 9/11, when the Democrats had to temporarily suspend hostilities to feign patriotism as they held hands and sang songs.  We all know how long that lasted.

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The basis of the Bush attack machine was crass political opportunism mixed with revenge, and Bush’s greatest shortcoming was that he rejected defending himself and instead committed himself to doing what he thought was in the best interests of the country. I always believed in the man’s sincerity, whether I agreed with him or not. No amount of Goebbels-like rants from the media  could persuade me that George W. Bush wasn’t a decent man. And my perpetual defense of him was and is less a defense of his policies — many of which, including his wartime leadership, I completely supported — but as protective mechanism against the inordinately rigged political and media systems, the Democrat Media Complex, as I have long called it.

No, the simple fact was that media deliberately and malevolently sustained a false caricature of Bush in its pages and on its broadcasts in order to bog down the leader of the free world when he needed all the help he could get, and a time when the country was in great danger. The continuum of media-legitimized Bush hatred directly resulted in the Obama candidacy which was framed by the media as the antidote to Bush’s “toxicity.”

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One year into the Obama Administration, one thing is clear. The American presidency is a tough job. One can only wonder how much more successful President Bush’s presidency could have been if the media mandarins weren’t hell bent on providing a pathway for their favored Democrats to regain power.  Now that the Democrats control everything it’s interesting to note how closely Obama is toeing Bush’s line on the war in Afghanistan, and how unsuccessful the new president is in rationalizing giving rights to enemy combatants.  Maybe Bush wasn’t so dumb after all.

That’s what I’ve thought all along. A year after he left office, it looks more and more like others will now not only start appreciating our 43rd president, they might start wishing they helped him when he had the toughest job in the world and they could only wish him ill.

Once again: thanks, President Bush.