Lowry: Ten Bush Mistakes

From the Editor of National Review:

President Bush infamously couldn’t or (more likely) wouldn’t identify mistakes he’d made during his presidency at a 2004 press conference. In a newly self-reflective mood in his twilight hours in the White House, Bush has opened up about what went wrong.

In a jaunty performance at his final press conference, he said pursuing Social Security reform instead of immigration reform immediately after the 2004 election was a “mistake,” as was hanging the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the tower of the USS Abraham Lincoln. As he heads to Texas, Bush should reflect on these 10 more important mistakes that shaped his presidency:

…

Oddly enough for a president denounced as an executive monster by his perfervid critics, many of Bush’s mistakes involve not being active enough or taking a stronger hand. How that came to be so with a president who believed so deeply in strong leadership should long occupy Bush, and fair-minded historians. [Read the List]