Bush: The Reverse Carter

A reader imagines a senior Russian official basking in the Georgia invasion, and reminiscing fondly about the man who helped make it all possible:

"What American president could possibly have done more for us?  He's destroyed the once solid American rapport with the Europeans, with his government more distrusted now than the Chinese. He's united the Middle East against America and destroyed forever America's authority to act there unilaterally. He will yet attack Iran, which would be the biggest boon for us of all. He will destroy their reactors, and we will sell them new ones, and fortify our gas alliance on a Moscow to Tehran axis. All of this opens the door for Russia to reassert itself precisely just as Russia rebuilds following a decade of uncertainty. 

George W. Bush is exactly the president Russia would have wished for, the man who paves the way for Russia's reemergence with his own crass heavy-handedness. I remember when crass heavy-handedness was the Kremlin's forte!"

Carter deeply weakened the US by fecklessness, naivete and inaction. Bush has weakened the US far more by fecklessness, naivete and extreme, ill-considered, badly managed action.

The antidote to Carter was Reagan. The antidote to Bush is Obama.