With the honourable exception of Mark Steyn ("Bush - 90% Tony Blair with a ranch"), I think a lot of the write-ups of the Bush Presidency have been spectacularly one-sided. And much as I admire London's new Mayor, as one might expect from a gifted classicist, Boris Johnson's chief beef with the man seems to be that he was inarticulate and bungling with his choice of words.
Yet the Western world is overrun with politicians who try to dazzle us with their fluent verbosity, whilst leaving us wondering what they actually believe or intend to do. Not so for President Bush. He pretty much always answered the question, got to the point quickly and didn't bore us with long answers. So on the language front, I would venture that he was a much better communicator than many have assumed.
But there is one error made early on in the Presidency which no one has picked up on. He believed Mexico would be the US's most important friend.
Well since 9/11, as far as America is concerned, Mexico has been no real use at all. For all that, this was not a costly miscalculation and it was quickly rectified.
What's interesting though is how the last few Presidents have all tried to move away from the UK (because that relationship is associated with the outgoing President) as their principal ally and moved back when they realised there wasn't much upside to it, diplomatically and militarily speaking.
Early on, President Clinton thought America's most important ally would be France.
Bush Senior meanwhile, flush with the hype of German reunification (remember that?), believed that Germany was the future.
Events however, worked to change all their minds.
So news today that Obama's Presidency twinned with Hilary at the State Department will accord higher priority to France and Germany ahead of the UK (see Telegraph front page - not online "As Hillary lists Europe's leaders, we trail France and Germany") needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Don't get me wrong. I cringe slightly at the phrase "special relationship" and not only because most people in the USA have never heard of it. Like General de Gaulle said, it's better to regard countries as cold monsters who objectively pursue their national interests.
And from our perspective, that's alright because we have permanent, deep-seated and common interests with the USA which will always be bigger than any personal relationship between any PM and POTUS.
