Could President Bush actually have been rooting for Obama to win the Presidency?
I have never seen a sitting President from the opposing party more warmly and excitedly embrace a President-elect. Sitting Presidents are generally gracious, but Bush has gone beyond graciousness to what appears to be jubilance. It’s the only time in Bush’s entire near 8 years in office I can say he has seemed likeable. Bush up to this point has said Obama’s victory is "good for our country" and called the Obama win a "triumph of the American story". I never in my life thought I would hear George Bush say anything of the sort about a newly elected Democrat President. Maybe he is just tired and worn out of the drama his Presidency has brought about for 8 long years and glad to be leaving, or maybe Bush and Dick Cheney simply do not like John McCain and actually took some joy out of seeing him defeated. Cheney’s endorsement just a week before the election puzzled me. Dick Cheney is corrupt, dishonest and downright evil, but one thing he is not is stupid. He is well aware of his unpopularity and knew exactly what would happen for him to give a much publicized endorsement of John McCain. The Obama campaign IMMEDIATELY turned the endorsement into an effective campaign ad that further cemented in voters minds how closely aligned McCain is ideologically with the Bush Administration.
Regardless of what Bush or Cheney’s ideas about the race were beforehand, I don’t think it pained either one of them in the least to see John McCain lose.