The presidency in the US has, in recent years, been elevated to point of 4 year sainthood. It is ridiculous. But it is also rooted in the cult of TV personalities. The spin handlers create a monolithic, iconic image of the candidates, and the real person is never shown to the American electorate. It is the imperial presidency thing, and has been going on ever since the Kennedy administration.

Spooky thing for a democracy, eh? But in the US, we have Democracy with Imperial Value Added, so the presidential horse race, to the national media, is the only race that matters in our democracy.

As to why Bush would make glowing remarks about Clinton--remember, it will be his turn to drag his sorry ass back to the White House to debut his Christian soldier portrait a few years hence...