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.