"Miss me yet?"

George Bush is smiling on those billboards.

It might be a witty way to bring back the man who ranked as low as Harry Truman when he left the presidency in 1953.

Bush is reintroducing himself these days to friendly audiences, this week at the annual crisis pregnancy centers fund-raiser in Indianapolis. He spoke last month at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla.

The country rejected the Bush philosophy in electing Barack Obama, but the vote was not a referendum on the abortion issue.

Despite Obama's victory, some polls suggest that the country has moved in a pro-life direction in recent years.

Bush has picked a good cause if he majors in boosting alternatives to abortion in his post-presidential years, just as Jimmy Carter built Habitat for Humanity houses.

The crisis pregnancy center movement has opened the door to an alternative to abortion, as single pregnant women have been able to see the ultrasound photo of a real human being. The centers help with everything from medical care with doctors to the need for clothes and a crib for the baby.

Bush is a fitting speaker for this event. He ranks with Ronald Reagan as the most pro-life president since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a legal right.

But the rest of the Bush story is still up for debate.

From Indiana University, a scholar/civil servant has just come out with the first serious look at Bush's domestic policies, Bush on the Home Front.

Author John D. Graham is dean of the IU Bloomington School of Public and Environmental Affairs and worked for Bush in the Office of Management and Budget.

Founder of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Graham is a serious academic, moderate in tone, with a thorough approach to his subject.

His book fills a vacuum because foreign policy has dominated the news and analysis of the Bush years.

Graham thinks Bush did better when he had to be bipartisan in his first term, than when he enjoyed Republican majorities in Congress after the 2004 election. "Bush was most effective in lawmaking when he recognized his tenuous political standing, analyzed the competing interests in Congress, and chose policy initiatives with broad appeal among Republicans and at least some appeal among key Democrats," Graham writes.

Graham's book could start some good arguments on a television talk show (or a blog). Roll out this one: "George W. Bush should go down in history as one of the most accomplished tax cutters in modern American politics."

Or take Graham's conclusion on No Child Left Behind: "Bush did more to reform public education in America than any president since Lyndon Baines Johnson."

Debate his conclusions, but Graham offers a thorough review of Bush's success and failure on energy, Social Security, Medicare drug coverage, regulatory reform, immigration, and the 2008 financial crisis.

Like Bush, Harry Truman was rated a failure as he left office. Historians see Truman much differently now.

Graham's book offers a step toward a more balanced review of the Bush presidency.