When I look back on W's presidency, I find myself so dissappointed because I naturally compare him to his father.

While this president did indeed follow his convictions, and did support his staff through everything, I find many of those convictions and staffers not worthy.

George Bush felt strongly and passionately about America's moral obligation to support freedom and democracy around the world.  It's just that he didn't seem to care who disagreed with him or at what cost it came.

Many foreign friends of the US were turned off by Bush's tendency to "go it alone", to charge off doing things by himself that could have benefited from collaboration.  I short, Bush angered many American allies and would-be allies.

In life it's not only about what is right to do, it's also about how you do it.  Bush lost sight of that.

Good examples of such things are the shocking treatment of so-called "enemies of the United States" at Guantanamo Bay, the invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq, and the war on terror.

Through all of this Bush stood by his team.  By itself, that's an admirable quality.  But it left him standing behind staffers that were at best incompetent, and at worst criminal.  A true leader does have to understand when he's made a bad choice and have the courage to make a change.

For sure Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney fall into this category.  There were others, but these stand out as shameful examples.

Last, I got the sense that Bush and his team feel asleep at the switch as the economy tanked.  Sure, many will try to blame the democrats partially as they swept into power prior to the end of Bush's term.  There's some truth to that.

My problem is that Bush seemed to be waiting for the situation to fix itself; as if the whole ship would just right itself.  At the end of the day, he didn't have the courage to admit something was seriously wrong, nor the horsepower to do anything credible about it.

I am afraid that George Bush will be judged harshly by history.  I am also afraid that judgment will be deserved.