It's an odd moment when there's legitimate reason to applaud the fact that the economy, though currently bad and likely to be bad for the foreseeable future, is looking less likely to collapse. Though I'll say this for the final months of 2008: No way Bush gets his rehabilitation now. For all the talk that he'd be reassessed as a Truman-style pragmatist who expanded Medicare and endured a grueling-but-ultimately-necessary war, you don't get historical acclaim when your administration ends in a catastrophic financial meltdown. Take the blind test: During this president's tenure, America suffered its worst domestic terrorist attack in history, saw one of its premier cities washed away by a predictable hurricane, embroiled itself in a disastrous war of choice in the Middle East, and suffered the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. How did our mystery president do!?
