Despite his reelection in 2004, the Republican loss of Congress in 2006 raised many questions about Bush's likely historical legacy, largely because of the disintegrating situation in Iraq. Presidential legacies are often recounted in terms of the age-old debate about whether the person or the spirit of the times creates history. Most Americans naturally tend, in highly selective ways, to remember the few presidents who survived serious crises – that is, those who conquered the problems they encountered during their administrations. Seldom remembered are the many more who failed their challenges. It is still not clear which camp Bush will ultimately fall into – that elite group of presidents who, like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, were able to tame and guide the crises of their administrations by successfully exercising prudent presidential influence and leadership with a vision for a better world, or those who did not and so fell into the dustbin of history.

This is why it might be useful to look at the legacies of presidents other than such giants as Lincoln and FDR when trying to place in historical context President Bush's exercise of presidential influence in time of crisis. Second-term presidents, for example, often make mistakes out of hubris or find that policies from their first terms come back to haunt them.