Farwell Mr. President.

I was at the gym last night getting a workout in. I felt kind of crazy getting out in the single digit weather, but I am determined. While on the treadmill I saw the President Bush give his farewell speech. I say "saw" because the volume was muted on the television. When I got home I made it a point to read the transcript on Politico.com.

President Bush made it a point to be gracious, respectful and non-partisan. This is the new tone that Bush entered office on. What really caught my eye was the tone of the comment section of the article. I am very familiar with trolls and moronic people leaving comments on the web. But for some reason it really hit me hard. What I saw was a gathering of the minds of the most un-educated, un-appreciative, simple-minded, angry people in one place. My thought was, you know, these people deserve the President and government they are getting.

From day one President Bush has gotten the shaft and viewed with disdain; disrespected more than any President. It all started from the myth of the "stolen" 2000 election, which in fact Al Gore tried to steal. It only went downhill from there.

Let's look at the circumstances of Bush's presidency.

On day one, President Bush inherited a recession from the outgoing Clinton presidency (aptly called the Bush recession by the media and liberals.) Bush fixed this recession. Less than a year into his Presidency our nation was attacked.

I know that Democrats, liberals and the media do not like to talk about 9/11 other than the kooks who say Bush planned it or otherwise blame him. The reason they do not like to talk about it is because President Bush handled 9/11 and its aftermath in exceptional manner.

At this time the US economy is in dire straits. Let's remember that President Bush pulled us out of an earlier recession with his tax cuts and deregulation. The US economy survived for years despite thousands of attempts to talk it down and stifle it to have something to lay on Bush. The truth is, what killed the economy stems from oil prices and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.

The price of oil was too high for the American people to pay. President Bush tried several times to increase our supply of oil and make us less dependent on foreign sources. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac (aka the DNC piggy bank) forced banks to loan money to people that could not make the payments then would not let them collect. This collapsed the banking industry. Bush also tried to fix Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac only to be rebuffed. It's not that Bush has no blame here. Simply put he should have fought harder for ANWR, investigations into Fannie Mae, etc. But these problems are at the feet of the Democrats.

In the national security realm President Bush has done the impossible. After we were attacked on 9/11 Bush was charged with preventing further attacks. The expectation from Bush's opponents was that there were to be no more attacks. In their mind they were setting him up for failure. The realist expectation was that there would be more attacks. Period. The table set for President Bush by the opposing two parties (Democrats and Media) was anything less than no more attacks is failure.

Basically, it was a game of "Keep the country safe" but:

-You can't secure our borders from people entering illegally
-You can't send the armed forces after the enemy
-You can't put enemy combatants in prison
-You can't interrogate enemy combatants with anything more than cupcakes and puppies
-You can't intercept phone calls originating from outside the US
-France has to agree with your every decision
-No civilians can be killed by action of anyone including the enemy
-No US soldiers can be put in harms way. Ever.
-US intelligence agencies cannot gather intel on suspicious people inside the country.

Make no misake, the President was set up to fail. And he did not. But he has been dragged through the mud for 8 years and will likely be dragged through the mud for a few more.

Mr. President, I think I speak for those of us with a brain when I say, you have done well and you will be missed.