1) The old joke is:  "Americans learn geography by invading countries," and it's true.  Before Bush, no candidate would be asked if they know the difference between Shia and Sunni.  After Bush, many Americans seem to expect their high-level candidates to know something about the rest of the world.  Palin was roundly criticized for her ignorance, but Bush showed far less foreign policy knowledge in 2000 and took little heat for it.  In general, Bush has forced Americans to care about their leaders, or else the country will go to shit again.

2) Before Bush, it was strongly believed by many that states should set their own education standards.  Because No Child Left Behind tied federal funding to performance, the Department of Education of the future will have a greater capacity to set standards.  This, along with aid to Africa (which was mixed, but more good than bad) and beginning the road to socialism (with a horribly structured bailout).  As mentioned above, Bush gives any future president a lot of cover to try even larger government programs to improve the country.

So, in essence, Bush has become a cautionary tale for us all when choosing our leaders, and leaves the Republican party open to charges of massive hypocrisy for opposing liberal solutions to real problems.  The second good thing is of limited value as most of the GOP has completely disowned Bush (and even their own actions and votes during the Bush years).

by twosage on 07/03/2009 02:18:56 AM EST

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