CONs
The war in Afghanistan is worsening.
Relations with Russia are poor.
Iran is emerging as a nuclear power.
North Korea is still uncooperative.
Pakistan is falling apart.
There was the corruption of the scientific agencies of the Department of Justice.
The administration failed to get its signature initiatives on immigration reform and privatisation of the social security system through Congress.
Problems with health care remain.
Problems with entitlements remain.
Although he stated we are "addicted to oil", he did nothing. He even denied California its request for higher emmission standards.
The sub prime crisis occurred during President Bush's administration. Although he warned Congress of the problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the need for more transparency and regulation, he should have taken care of the folks by warning us what was happening.
You don't cut taxes, pay for a war, stoke up the money supply, have negative household saving, leave the financial markets unregulated, and think that you're actually managing. We have been borrowing heavily from abroad. U.S. fiscal policy has been bad for a long time, but this is the most miserable fiscal policy in history. President Bush's administration thought it would define its own reality.
PROs
President Bush has done more to fight AIDs in Africa than any other U.S. president. He spent more on African aid than his predecessor, Bill Clinton; in fact tripled it. He doubled the amount of U.S. funding to fight Malaria.
The Prescription Drug Plan was so successful even the New York Times had to admit it.
President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program has significantly raised American public school math scores across the country.
President Bush designated three remote Pacific island chains as national monuments marking the largest marine conservation effort in history and protecting vast stretches of U.S. territorial waters from fishing, oil exploration and other forms of commercial development.
President Bush reacted aggressively and effectively since 9/11 against terrorism by decimating al Qaeda and preventing further attacks for the subsequent 7 years.
Many wish to call President Bush the worst president in our history. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon presided over the war in Vietnam which killed over a million civilians. Presidents Nixon and Reagan had a role in the repression and terror in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile and Argentina. How does Nixon's covert invasion of Cambodia or Reagan's Iran Contra scandal both without congressional knowledge compare to the WMDs not found in Iraq which Congress vetted and believed in?
Carter was not popular internationally. The Europeans had serious problems with him, and the German chancellor treated him with public contempt. The Islamic world treated him with particular contempt the Iranians for obvious reasons and the Arabs for not stopping Ayatollah Khomeini. Reagan was actually greeted by many in the world as a vast relief after Carters moralising and bumbling.
In relative terms, the 1982 recession during Reagan's second year in office was worse than today's.
I believe the jury will have to remain out on President Bush until Iraq and Afghanistan have regained full sovereignty and established themselves as either friend or foe to the west.