Dear President Bush,

I consider myself a Democrat, and I voted for Barack Obama this year. But in the past, when liberal friends of mine – and honestly, most of my friends are pretty liberal – talked about you as though you were the Antichrist, I thought it was a little silly.

I do think you surrounded yourself with advisors and such who weren’t especially ethical, and you yourself made some bad calls. But at times like these I think back to a book I read in 2006, a “cultural history” of slackers, and that book’s assessment of you. You aren’t necessarily a bad person. You’re just a slacker, a person who wasn’t cut out for the presidency, but then you ascended to it, and there you were, twisting in the wind. I think the best thing for you, and for the country, would have been to make a dignified exit in 2004. I understand why you didn’t, but I’m just saying – things went even more downhill after you got reelected.

I hope that your life after the White House is more peaceful, and that your responsibilities match up better with your capabilities. I see Barack Obama as someone who is intellectually and constitutionally better suited for the office than you. I don’t think you’re “stupid” or a moron or a chimp. I just think you probably should have remained in charge of things like state governments, or baseball teams, or – ideally – smallish or medium-sized cities. Sarah Palin went from a small-town mayoralty to a governorship that, while apparently somewhat corrupt, actually seems to have accomplished things. Then look what happened when she ran for vice-president. Anyway, that’s most of what I wanted to say to you. Good luck, and may your nights become less sleepless in the near future.

Best,
Neal Schindler