The CIA under Bush takes some of the blame as well. Chavez was nearly overthrown, but the CIA dropped the ball and Chavez managed to recover.
Some people blame Bush for not responding quickly enough, but knowing what we know about the problems in the CIA I think the likelier explanation is that he was never properly informed what the stakes were. There are a LOT of leftists in the CIA who probably think Chavez is just fine.
It was a mistake to let Chavez live. Either the coup should have taken place successully or not at all. The worst possible outcome was a botched coup attempt.
That was a Catch-22 situation for Bush. Had he intervened at the time, he would have been cursed and damned by the media. And since he did not intervene, he's being damned for that, too.