George W. Bush’s achievement in the election of 2004 ranks as one of the greatest political achievements of a century.

Elected without a popular vote mandate in a contested election that was unsettled for six weeks, Bush began his first term at a sharp disadvantage. Liberals hated him, lambasting him as a buffoon, an idiot, a redneck moron from West Texas who was too stupid to tie shoes, much less run a country. They scoffed at academic records that indicated Bush was above average, claiming his father bought young George’s way into Yale, then into Harvard’s Business School.

George W. Bush’s achievement in the election of 2004 ranks as one of the greatest political achievements of a century.

Elected without a popular vote mandate in a contested election that was unsettled for six weeks, Bush began his first term at a sharp disadvantage. Liberals hated him, lambasting him as a buffoon, an idiot, a redneck moron from West Texas who was too stupid to tie shoes, much less run a country. They scoffed at academic records that indicated Bush was above average, claiming his father bought young George’s way into Yale, then into Harvard’s Business School.

Bush’s abuse of the English language–mispronounciating words, plotting strategories–didn’t help his cause.

The nation he inherited was damaged. For two years, the Clinton Administration had been cooking the country’s economic grade books. Job creation, wealth creation, federal revenue all were exaggerated, often ridiculously so. From 1998 to 2000, billions upon billions in paper profits poured into imaginary industries and virtual companies that never had a hope of showing a profit. Some of these entities never had hope of opening their doors for business. Many had no idea what they intended to do.

By April 2000, six months before his election and years before the term blog was known, I wrote on my website, The Hennessy Report, that, perhaps, Republicans would be better served were Gore to win the White House. I argued that the country was on the doorstep of recession. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was warning of Wall Street’s “irrational exhuberance.”

During the final weeks of the 2000 race, Bus