One of our frequent commenters, Big Mo, who has been kind enough to let us share his Presidents series with you, has written an excellent piece on what he says is a different view of the decline of the Bush presidency.

In this essay, I’ll probably catch some heat. If it were posted on some other conservative sites, I’d probably be figuratively tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, or I’d be stupidly labeled a Bush boot-licker. So be it.

But I haven’t been studying the presidents for nothing, and I’ve noticed a lot of things about the American character that are just as apropos today as they were then. So, here goes.

What went wrong with the Bush presidency? How could we have gone from the magnificent response to 9/11 (when he appeared at the WTC site on 9/14/01 and then at the Congress on 9/20/01) to what we have today? Is he even the same man we voted for?

Actually, yes.

Bush hasn’t changed. But our expectations of him haven’t been met, because we expected things of him that he either never intended, or he was not capable of doing.

I had a different piece written to explain what had gone wrong with the Bush presidency. I was going to examine specific policies, proposals, appointments, his handling of the war, etc. However, I’ll save all of that for my actual evaluation of his presidency next year. So, please keep in mind that I won’t be talking about specific things Bush has done or not done. Rather, I want to explore some broader themes. If you want to argue about a specific misstep or give a litany of Bush’s supposed sins, save it for another time, because that’s not what this essay is about — now, anyway, because I did some serious rewriting when I read this:

Please go over to Hang Right Politics and read the entire piece. You will find it well-worth your time.