It is well recognized that term limits on the U.S Presidency create a lame duck status for the President beginning on his second inauguration. This status gets cranked up in the final year of a president's term but no one exemplifies the lame duck status more than George W. Bush.

His party lost control of both houses of Congress in 2006.
His economic policies have come undone because they were built on the sand of easy credit and financial greed.
He entered the Presidency with the economy heading to recession. He leaves with it in one.
His first year saw a series of corporate scandals brought about by greed and belief that business was immune to government interference because they had "their guy" in power.
His last year sees a new series of scandals brought about by greed and the realization that "their guy" didn't do anything to curb that greed.
He inherited a record budget surplus and leaves with a record deficit.
He addressed senior prescription medication problems with one of the worst pieces of legislation in the nation's history.
His Vice President has a serious heart procedure and the only one to wish the Vice President well was MSNBC's liberal host Rachel Maddows.
He lied the nation into a war it cannot get out of, while damaging its moral fabric and international reputation all at the same time.
He leaves a nation more politically divided, economically weakened, financially strapped, and energy dependent than any time in the past century.
He travels the world in his final year only to be met with international relief that he is leaving the political scene.
He enters his final months with an approval rating looking up at Richard Nixon.
He gives speech after speech about maintaining confidence in the economy and with every word he utters the stock market plunges downward.
His own party is running a record pace to get as far away from him as possible.
The opposition invokes his name as "disaster incarnate."
His party's new standard bearer treats him like he's Typhoid Mary.

Amidst all this President George W. Bush stands as a broken and discarded man. He now just seems pathetic. He's an old man dying of a self-inflicted wound that didn't finish the job immediately. Instead, he has to suffer a slow, painful death as passersby step around him and try not to notice. While former presidents have found vigor and renewed popularity once leaving office, George W. Bush will likely find obscurity. He'll be welcomed at the Christian mega-churches that have provided his only consistent support. Amongst everyone else, he might as well have leprosy. It is quite possible that the nation he leaves behind has its best days behind it. It is also possible that much of this reality is due to the policies and man himself.