The Big Things

One of the defenses of Bush that's often heard is that he gets the 'big things'. There are lots of problems that you can lay at his feet (bungling incompetence, tin-eared leadership, basic verbal inability) but on the fundamental questions he's ok. There hasn't been much proof of that during his second term but here's some evidence that it exists:

President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president.
“It’s different being a candidate and being the president,” Bush said in an Oval Office interview. “No matter who the president is, no matter what party, when they sit here in the Oval Office and seriously consider the effect of a vacuum being created in the Middle East, particularly one trying to be created by al Qaeda, they will then begin to understand the need to continue to support the young democracy.”

This must be a bipartisan effort and if it's going to last generations then it will be led by both parties at some point or another. If it's Hillary (which is how I'd bet right now) then she needs to be ready when she takes office.