It was the last time he will address the American people as their President, but it was thirteen minutes of transparency, gratitude and humility.

Critics will disparage it as another speech from the simpleton in chief.

President Bush did not get a free pass from me on a good deal of his handling of term two. The bail-out mania that ended his second term perhaps historically misguided, his refusal to take strong measures to merely fence up the southern border, and his expansion of government entitlement through the drug programs for medicaid/medicare are some of the biggest mistakes movement conservatives will point to.

No President gets to a 21% approval rate (still double that of Reid/Pelosi) by merely ticking off his opponents.

But as I have stated before, history will see Bush differently than the intense leftists in today's political discussions do. We know this to be true already because the incoming administration made a sudden centrist jerk after being elected and are now headed smack dab into the more or less same directions, particularly on national security/terrorism.

The fact that Mr. Obama has moved his position from "bring them home day one" on Iraq to an identical position with Bush will eventually be noted in the textbooks. The fact that Mr. Obama may sign a symbolic piece of paper indicating a vague future date to close Gitmo, but then chooses to do nothing to change it will also prove Bush right on the need to detain the most serious of monsters off of our own shores.

One thing that is difficult to be critical of President Bush in any way is his compassion for people. Karl Rove told me over dinner in New York, not two months ago that every time official business would take Bush in the vicinity of immediate relatives of fallen service personnel he would have meetings set up where he would meet individually with family after family. Looking them in the eye, putting his arm around them, and expressing his sorrow at their loss.

The blame dumped on him for Katrina was unjustified and dishonest. Anyone with an ounce of integrity that sees the facts can easily confirm. Yet again, he has time and again met with families who did lose loved ones in that tragedy.

And one thing that riveted my attention sitting across from Rove was that the President did so regardless of whether the families were pleased with his performance or angry with him. And there were ton's of both.

At the end of the day Bush's Supreme Court appointments will be seen as genius for champions of the Constitution, and perhaps his longest lasting legacy.

America stayed safe on his watch, and post 9.11 not another American life was lost on American soil due to "disruption" his strategy and commitment levied against those who wished to kill us. He chased the terrorists into caves--exactly as he promised, and from their position they have been unable to re-organize, re-supply, re-finance, or re-strategize against us.

I was the first pundit in all of America to predict that Barrack Obama would be the next President. I have been just in my scrutiny of Obama prior to his election, and I have been fair to him in commenting on his moves since, giving credit where credit is due.

Unfortunately those on the left will never recognize, even after his admission of things that did not work out so well, that President Bush's motivation in all of it was to do what he felt was best for the nation he loved and served.

And though I hope for President Obama's success, because the nation depends on it... (And have even cut him a bit of slack since his election, understanding that his actions will have merits to be judged by once he is in office.)

I will miss President Bush, and I wish him well for guiding us through America's most terrified season, and reminding that some things like freedom are virtues still worth protecting and even dying for.