Most of what I remember about GWB is that he turned out to be a really crappy POTUS, perhaps one of the worst, who got a lot of precious Americans killed, the mideast in even greater turmoil, Obama in office and a Trump detractor. He's not a good example of smart or clever.
You have to take every POTUS as a mixed bag. Whatever you want to say about some aspects of his administration, the way he baited the Dems was plain brilliant. They kept going psychotic in front of cameras, and it was called “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. Trump disagreed with him about the Gulf War, but he has clearly learned some lessons from him about deranging the Dems. The WaPo article is only the latest example.