Having recently decided to abandon my other blog for a few months, I can't start posting there now. But wow, this is stupid. I wonder how many of the "71 percent of respondents in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll [who] said the country is on the wrong track" were motivated by the terrifying advances of same-sex marriage, violent videogames, women in pantsuits and other cultural threats to Our Way of Life -- none of which can be attributed to the Bush Administration. The economy, social safety net and foreign policy may not be great, but you can't fault the current president for a certain group of people's fear that Hillary Clinton could be our next Commander in Chief. The conclusion is the most aggravating part of the piece:

Part of Mr. Bush�s legacy may well be that he robbed America of its optimism -- a force that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, used to rally the country when it was deeply challenged. The next generation of leaders will have to resell discouraged Americans on the very idea of optimism, and convince them again that their goal should not be to live with their ailments, but to cure them.

There are plenty of ailments that Bush has sought to cure. With him in charge, the estate death tax no longer threatens to wipe out the legacies of millionaires. Saddam Hussein no longer threatens Bush Sr., and will be forced to take responsibility for his otherwise-unrecognized part in the September 11 attacks. Embryonic stem cell research no longer threatens to turn discarded embryos to a potentially useful purpose; Justice Ginsburg has the girls' room to herself; $125 million haven't gone to non-abortive reproductive services in developing countries. If you really dislike taxes, Saddam Hussein, failures to treat every egg with sperm as sacred, balancing tests and the most indirect connection to abortion, Bush is a nearly solitary bulwark against the sodomites, barbarians and increasers of the minimum wage. For you, he is no cause for pessimism, but perhaps the only reason not actually to despair.