[Nemerov]

Every president in his last months of power adopts a conciliatory attitude, including towards his political enemies. Every pres wants to remembered in a positive way, and in vain they all try to behave like a 'good guy'. Bush tried to make peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but got thwarted by the failure of Livni forming a government, which in turn caused the majority to shut down peace talks with Palestinians and Syrians. Pretty much the last big failure of the Bush administration, though I have to admit this time around he didn't really **** it up himself