Scholars unflinching in negative assessment of Bush's legacy

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George W. Bush was supposed to be a president schooled in consensus building and tough, effective management.

However, the first chief executive with a master's in business administration -- from Harvard, no less, -- and the son of a president known for his foreign-policy expertise is leaving President-elect Barack Obama a nation that's arguably in the worst shape since Herbert Hoover left Franklin Roosevelt the Great Depression and a world in which fascism was on the march 76 years ago.