it's interesting ... i find it hard to comment on TB because i know that most people living outside of the UK are only exposed to maybe 35% of the Prime Minister's job -- foreign policy. i get a bit upset when people judge an American president on foreign policy only, and fail to grasp complex domestic politics as one of many reasons why someone who might behave badly outside the country remains somewhat popular inside the country.
i will remember TB as one of the most eloquent and skilled politicians i have ever heard, perhaps second only to Bill Clinton. i've watched "question time" on CSPAN and while all the issues are generally abstract for me, i can greatly appreciate how robust and vigorously argued those sessions are, and how skilled a PM must be to continually rise to his feet and verbally spar with his opponents.
as an outsider, i would say that Blair made Britian seem cool, progressive, and shift the country's image of, say, villages and bicycles and tea and distinct regional accents into one of vibrant cosmopolitanism with Europe's most dynamic city, London, beating at it's heart.
i suppose i am most disheartened that a close alignment with the United States seems now to be tantamount to political death for a British (of all places) PM, at least when it comes to foreign policy. association with Bush destroys your credibility. no surprise there.
but perhaps this is a good thing. the Iraq War would have been impossible without Blair's support, and the Iraq War would have gained some sort of credibility had Bush and Blair apologized for the total lack of any WMDs, something that neither have done. my guess is that he thought he'd be a moderating influence, but i think it became increasingly apparent that that wouldn't work. it was stupid -- accomodating Bush only lends him legitimacy (and i'd be lying if i hadn't seen Tony Blair on MTV in the US talking about the war and laying out his reasons to support the invasion in terms far, far more eloquent than Bush, and that this made me strongly reconsider my original opposition to the war). sadly, Bush and his ilk see compromise as weakness to be taken advantage of, and it will take another president before another foreign PM will seek such a close relationship with any American administration.