In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush broadcasted his farewell address to the United States. In his speech, he exhibited the grace, class, and integrity that he has shown this nation but, sadly, has not seen returned in kind. As a benevolent man, he will not go on the offensive as he walks out the door. So I will.

What has been made of President Bush over the past eight years has been an absolute disgrace. As Americans, we should be ashamed of the way we have treated the man (lest we forget!) we elected to run our country and the world. Petty political disagreements (or even fundamental ones, for that matter) are one thing; the outright hatred and desecration of anything Bush is quite another.

George Bush's inauguration in 2000 was the first I ever watched. I will never forget the rainy day in Washington, the big crowds and sleek black motorcade. But already, while Bill Clinton was still our country's president, there were those in high places ready to go after him. On inauguration day, Bush was wearing a blue tie. Barbara Walters felt that we needed her opinion on the matter, and let us all know that the color of his tie matched her mood that day.

Ever since, the president has been treated with more derision, disrespect, and downright hatred than any other president in history. Musicians proudly shouted their disdain for the man from their stages, Madonna releasing a music video of her hurling a grenade at him. "Bush-bashing" has become a common term in the American vocabulary. Every week, Saturday Night Live and the late night talk shows felt it their duty to inform Americans on how stupid and clueless this man is. In line for the White House tour this past August, I heard the man behind me say to his son, "This president needs a lot of security because nobody likes him."

The double standard of our media has never been more prevalent. The Clinton administration was rife with scandals, from maintaining hundreds of files in the FBI illegally on private citizens to rewarding political donors with certain government favors, from oral sex in the Oval Office to perjury and even a credible accusation of rape. But a virtually scandal-free Bush administration has suffered endless bombardment from both the media and Democrats in Washington, despite no proof of any wrongdoing. Such scandals created by the media include the firing of eight U.S. attorneys (which is perfectly legal, as they are presidential appointees; Clinton's admin fired all of them in 1993), the Scooter Libby case (a blatantly political and fabricated conviction), Halliburton and Harken (both exhaustively explored by the SEC in the 1990s, unlike the Clinton Whitewater real estate scam), and NSA wiretapping for starters.

Bush has been constantly compared to Hitler and the devil, called a "regime" (in reference to Saddam Hussein's), and has been fictionally assassinated in a motion picture (imagine such a film about Barack Obama?). Dick Cheney has a reputation of being a dark, evil man lurking in the shadows and pulling all the strings, when in reality he is a genial, smart, and dedicated public servant.

But the President took all of this with gusto, almost too much so. A perfect example of this came from day one. As Clinton's staffers emptied the White House, they vandalized many parts of the building and left crude, obscene messages in desks and on walls. The "W" keys on most keyboards were smashed or missing. These repulsive acts were made public by Bush staffers as they began to move in. But President Bush came out to publicly downplay the situation, stating that the vandalism was minor and not a problem. The Government Accounting Office did a complete investigation and found that around $20,000 of damage had been done to the White House during the transition. The first thing I think of is Hitler, too!

President Bush has been endlessly attacked for human rights violations and with shredding the Constitution, with one novel (yes, novel) entitled The Case for Impeachment (available in fine bookstore basements everywhere). The prison at Guantanamo Bay has been endlessly called for closure, despite a recent Pentagon report that over 60 Gitmo prisoners upon their release returned to terrorist acts. A major plot to use British and American trans-Atlantic airliners to attack the US was broken up by a wiretapping program, a program that has not produced a single lawsuit in the United States. (I have yet to hear of a specific example of an American having his or her rights violated by the wiretapping program. The proof of its effectiveness is far more obvious.)

I am greatly laughed at for listing President Bush in my top 5 list of all-time presidents (number 3), and I am mocked for even stating that he is simply a great man in every sense of the word. I could care less, but it bothers me that people find such a thought so horrible. No one agrees with anyone on absolutely everything. I have just as many disagreements with Bush as the next guy, albeit maybe not as significant. But I ask you: what exactly did he do to deserve the treatment he has received in office?

Bush has graciously include the media in every step he has taken. He let them inside the war effort in Iraq, a courtesy not extended by his father, and perhaps wisely, as a reporter for MSNBC took it upon himself to reveal the location of a crucial US battalion on the air.

During this economic crisis, we have been constantly pointed to Bush for his lack of foresight and "deregulation," when in fact it is the Democrats who have kept any bill that would have prevented this mortgage meltdown in committee. In 2008 alone, the White House specifically requested Congress over ten times to pass regulatory legislation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Before the wheels came off the mortgage wagon, causing banks to swoon and markets to collapse, our economy was very strong from the bottom up as Bush gave money back to the people. There were twice as many millionaires in the fiscal year after the tax cuts than before, which not only made more Americans prosperous (on their own!) but also dramatically increased government income tax revenue! I don't know about you, but that is the kind of change I want to see. (I will praise Obama to the stars if he can pull that off with any of his spend-like-hell programs.)

If you want to hear a list of the great things Bush has done for America, please listen to his farewell address. (On second thought, listen to it even if you don't.)  But my goal in this piece is to ask you to consider, especially if you are a "Bush-hater," what he has done to deserve any hate from anyone. George W. Bush is as great of a president as one can ask for: a decisive but humble leader that served his people with decency and respect.

As our 42nd president steps down on Tuesday and hands the baton to the fledgling, take a moment to clap for George W. Bush. I guarantee these past eight years have been rougher for him than for you. Farewell, Mr. President. Your persona, if not your policy, will be sorely missed.