Bush’s “rehabilitation” is based on Americans’ relationship to the invasion of Iraq. At the outset, most Americans supported the invasion, over the years, as victory wasn’t exactly swift and decisive, most Americans turned against the war and Bush, by extension.

The political class at that time blamed everything on Cheney and Rumsfeld as if Dubya wasn't their boss. It was more like people turning against the war, and Cheney and Rumsfeld by extension and Dubya by extension extension.