The issue is not really what Bush would or can do
The issue is what the various police and intelligence agencies can and will do.
The terrorism example given above is actually accurate - if the FBI want to wiretap someone, all they have to do is say they "think" the person is a terrorist - regardless of the whether they really believe that to be true, and voila - one wiretap.
This scum sucking law allows any government agency to legally wiretap any person within the country just on the vague definition of what a terrorist might be in their eyes.
So put it another way, if Hilary Clinton (also a proud supporter of some of our country's worst laws since 9/11) were to win the Presidency, would you be happy with her being in charge of such sweeping surveillance of the American people?
Would you not be concerned that some of this surveillance might be politically motivated? The fact remains that in the 1960s the Supreme Court clearly stated that telecommunications (which does include the internet) fall under the 4th Amendment.
All the 4th Amendment really says is you can't search someone's person or property without either having reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, or permission from the courts to search that person or property in the form of a warrant. All a warrant is, is a promise to a judge that the person you're searching is a suspect - and that you need to look for specific types of evidence - ie. that they are a terrorist, and in return you get a permission slip to look for that evidence.
So if a police officer witnesses you running from a bank with a bulge in your pocket and a swag bag, he is reasonably allowed to assume you might have robbed the bank and you have a gun in your pocket. Thus he has reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing and can search you without a warrant.
If these warrantless wiretaps can be proven to be along those lines, no one has broken any law. I seriously doubt it though.
On the other hand the number of warrants turned down on hearsay evidence - i.e. we think this guy might be a terrorist - is just about zero. And given that you have days to get that warrant - that is days after you started wiretapping someone - the only possible reason you would object to needing it is if you were simply blanket wiretapping everyone that made overseas phone calls.
Which in turn calls the lie on the so-called targeting of individuals with known terrorist links (Bush's words).
The bottom line is, I don't care who it is that first ordered these kinds of searches - I just want it to stop. And if anyone says anything about terrorists might kill people or having nothing to hide - I say I couldn't give a fuck. I have more of a backbone than that. I would rather face the minuscule risk of being the victim of terrorism than give up one single right - rights that took centuries to put in place, and apparently two presidential terms to tear down.
When the President allows me to listen in on all his private phone calls, then I might give him the right to listen in on mine. Until then I want and expect my privacy as guaranteed in the Constitution.
My answer to those that are willing to throw them away to save their cowardly skins is why can't we take your guns too? You keep telling us the Constitution isn't as important as saving lives, why can't we start using these warrantless searches to keep a check on your gun collection. In fact why can't we save your skin by making it illegal for the general public to purchase any sort of firearm.
Al Qaeda don't need to smuggle weapons into the US - they just need to visit a gun fair.