text: what do you really think of george w. bush, the president of the united states of america? a fool, a hero?  let me know your thoughts about him! george w. bush is a multifaceted man.  he is definitely a social conservative--and in that, he and i have absolutely nothing in common--, but he is also not a raging nationalist (and i celebrate the latter, especially with regards to immigration).  he is pro big business, but he is not an economic conservative (his administration's spending is extraordinarily high).  it also is the case that there have been spectacular changes between the two administrations he's lead.  the first four years were dominated by dismal decision-making, war-mongering, deception, terrible self-inflicted damage to the image of the us internationally, foolish foreign policy, etc.  the second bush administration has been orders of magnitude better on the foreign policy front, with condoleeza rice at the helm (now the us is finally learning to talk to leftist governments in latin america, for example, rather than to shun and isolate them, creating the sort of resentment that doesn't help the us in the long run).  i have cringed at the supreme court nominations of mr. bush, particularly that of samuel alito.  and i am appalled by the reluctance of this administration to set free gitmo prisoners who have already been tried and found innocent of any wrong-doing.  i think there's much more we will learn (hopefully) about domestic spying, and when all is said and done, history will remember mr. bush rather unkindly as a president, given his penchant for secrecy, for engaging in serious violations of the law of the land, and for hypocritical political maneuvers like unclassifying classified documents by issuing orders to *leak* the information to the press.  but bush the man seems rather affable, and i cannot bring myself to blame him for everything that has gone wrong with his administration.  he gives me the impression of being somewhat incompetent for the position he holds, of being stubborn to the point of stupidity--like stephen colbert said yesterday nigh, the presiden is a man who believes on wednesday what he believed on monday, despite what happened on tuesday--, and of having selective episodes of compassion--as in the case of illegal immigrants--and responsibility--as was the case when mr. bush, to my astonishment and profound delight--came out in support of the muslim american community, calling on citizens not to make our plight into a religious conflict.