OP-ED: The Welcome End of an Era (NEW ZEALAND Herald)

Posterity can be a capricious judge. Reputations of leaders hailed in their lifetimes, such as Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, have suffered from reappraisal after their deaths; lesser lights - the late Sir Robert Muldoon, for example, whose autocratic management hamstrung this country's economic growth - is remembered by too many as a lovable rascal.

But as George Walker Bush leaves office, he may be confident that history will, with good reason, look back at his stewardship with a shudder of revulsion.

Historians argue about whether the 43rd presidency has been the worst: the administrations of the dithering James Buchanan, the corrupt Warren Harding, and the foulmouthed, crooked Richard Nixon, the only president to resign, are often mentioned as contenders. But of none may it be said, as it can safely be said of Bush, that he accomplished nothing of merit and wrought havoc with the rest.

For all his protestations to the contrary in his final speeches, he has left the world a good deal worse off than he found it.

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