How was it for us?

When President George Bush took office, most IU freshmen were still in elementary school.

For the seemingly never-to-end past eight years, Bush presided over the largest terrorist attack ever committed against the United States, two wars abroad and the collapse of a housing bubble that has nearly taken down the entire economy. More importantly for students here, he presided over the formative experiences of our lives.

It should come as no surprise that some of us have difficulty imagining a White House without him. For some, he is the only president we have ever really known.
As he leaves office he will take heat for a mismanaged war in Iraq and a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. Some are labeling him the “worst president in history,” though these claims are mostly partisan and exaggerated.

It is worth remembering, after all, that many were calling him the worst president ever before he had even wrapped up his first term. It is also worth questioning whether or not comparisons between our 43rd president and say, Thomas Jefferson, really tell us what we think they do.

Still, President Bush was often incompetent, showing little desire to understand the challenges he faced. He failed to achieve most of the goals he set for himself, including Social Security reform. If his failings have left the country with a slew of problems, how have they left our generation?

Most of us spent the more ignorant parts of our youth in the 90s. The Cold War was over and the most important issue the government had to deal with was the admittedly shameful infidelity of the president.

Who were we to suspect that lurking beneath all those trivialities awaited real problems?

And when these real conflicts emerged, no one seemed to rise to the challenge. Growing up with the Bush administration seemed to instill in us a deep sense of cynicism, and the effects are not merely the stuff of speculation.

In 2000 the youth vote split about evenly between Bush and Al Gore. Eight years later, exit polls indicated that some 66 percent of young voters cast ballots for Barack Obama.

If Bush made us cynical, Obama provided some of us with a way to vent our frustrations. With calls for hope and slogans like “Yes, We Can,” his campaign was occasionally critiqued as shallow. To be sure, sometimes it was.

But Obama also inspired the young with his competence and thoughtfulness, qualities the overly decisive and abrasive 43rd President seemed to lack.

As Obama moves into the White House today, he passes a man who spent his entire two terms trying to be a great president even if he wasn’t.

Because of that great disconnect, Mr. Bush, whatever his legacy and however fair his critics, leaves an impact on us that is unlikely to wane in the near future.