Resident Scholar Joshua Muravchik

George W. Bush's presidency is drawing to an end in a diminuendo that will not do much for his poll ratings but may someday boost his historical standing. The war in Iraq seems finally to have turned around. Victory there may yield some of the beneficial effects that Bush promised when he ordered American forces into Iraq. One result is Bush being viewed in a softer light. Summing up some recent magazine essays, the Washington Post muses that "history may treat The Decider much more gently than many of his critics imagine."

The president's defenders point hopefully to the example of Harry Truman, who also left office deeply unpopular but has since come to be seen as one of our great presidents. But if Bush eventually finds vindication in Iraq, that victory will have come too dear, and not only in the coin of his popularity. My own view, therefore, to use a metaphor from the sport in which Bush worked before turning to politics, is that he will be recalled as a big swinger who belted his share of home runs but also struck out too many times to be voted into the Hall of Fame alongside Truman. . . .

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Joshua Muravchik is a resident scholar at AEI.