The Skimmer

Highlights of Accomplishments And Results: The Administration of George W. Bush, 2001-2009 By the White House; 51 pages

How do you commemorate the legacy of an Administration with an approval rating in the 20s? As the curtain falls on the George W. Bush presidency, this slim volume unspools a highlight reel of Bush's achievements--from ousting Saddam Hussein and staving off post-9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil to combatting AIDS and malaria in Africa and distributing $16 billion in food aid. Framing the text are stats-laden info boxes, a bullet-pointed list of "100 Things Americans May Not Know" about their 43rd President's record and snapshots of Bush looking presidential (hoisting a bullhorn amid ground-zero wreckage, glad-handing troops and seniors). Chapter titles touting Bush's accomplishments--"Established the Freedom Agenda to Spread Hope Through Liberty"--read like handpicked epitaphs. History, as Bush likes to say, will be his judge, but it's worth reading this report if only as the closing argument before the defense rests. It's not as though the prosecution lacks fodder for a rebuttal.

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