George Bush - Abysmal failure

Think Progress has a link to a chart that lays out the complete and utter failure that the Bush presidency has been.
It is not a pretty picture. When you compare the eight years of the Clinton presidency with the eight years of the Bush Jr. presidency you see a nation that is in decline.
Real GDP growth was about half what it was during the Clinton years. The national debt went up more than $3.5 trillion. Job creation has been anemic throughout the Bush years. More Americans are in poverty. More Americans are uninsured. The cost of health insurance for families has doubled. Gas prices have tripled. Personal savings rates have declined. Consumer credit debt has nearly doubled. The U.S. trade deficit has doubled. The value of the dollar has plunged.
U.S. combat readiness has done a complete aboutface. Our foreign oil dependency has increased. And our nation’s favorability rating around the world has spiked.
But it is important to remember that this complete and utter disaster of the past eight years was not all George W. Bush’s fault. It was, instead, the utter failure of the conservative governing philosophy. Bush faithfully followed the conservative mantra in almost every area and it has failed to do what it was supposed to in most cases and in many others it has done the complete opposite. So, if we simply replace Bush with another Republican who will continue the same failed policies, we will continue to decline as a nation.