The Bush Legacy: Doing the Opposite of What He Said

George Bush once promised to be "a uniter, not a divider." As governor of Texas, Bush said, he worked with both Democrats and Republicans to solve the state's problems.

In Washington, Bush quickly changed his centrist stance, becoming a highly partisan Republican and pushing a right-wing agenda that excluded all forms of compromise.

As Bush's final days wind down, writer Michael Kinsley of Time has nailed the Bush legacy:

Sept. 11 is the excuse for many of the Bush Administration's failures and disappointments. It is also the basis for the one great claim made on George W. Bush's behalf: At least he has protected us from terrorism. In the seven years since that day, there has not been another foreign-terrorist attack on the American homeland. The trouble is that there were no foreign-terrorist attacks on the American homeland in the seven years before 9/11 either.

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The measure of Bush's failure as President is not his broken promises or unmet goals. All politicians break their promises, and none achieve the goals of their soaring rhetoric. But Bush stands out for abandoning the promises and goals that got him elected, taking up the opposite ones and then failing to keep or meet those.