Feb. 11, 2007
Worst President Ever?
The Nation: Only Time Will Tell, But Bush Is Running A Good Race — To The Bottom
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(CBS/AP)
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Interactive Presidential Approval Ratings A sampling of President Bush's overall job approval ratings at selected points during his term in office.
A question that seems to be on everybody's mind these days turns out to be: Is George Bush the worst President in American history?
But how do you judge? Is he the most morally disgusting? The worst mangler of the English language? Ever since the atom bomb was dropped, we've had a whole string of bozos who cannot pronounce the word "nuclear." How much should that count against them?
Is John Tyler, our tenth President, a candidate for worst President? Some people who have never heard of this guy have heard of the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Well, Tippecanoe (William Henry Harrison) lasted about a month in office before he died of a cold contracted while making his inaugural address, and the rest is non-history. Tyler is best remembered, if he is remembered at all, as the President whose entire Cabinet, save one, quit on him. Please do not confuse him with Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President, easily Tyler's equal in forgettability.
Is the most forgettable also the worst? Men like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Benjamin Harrison (Tippecanoe's grandson) were more politically brain-dead than really bad. But not so with James Buchanan, No. 15, who was President from 1857 to 1861. Aside from being a dull, unimaginative, dray horse of a politician, he was the President whose cowardice in handling the South and slavery ended the remotest possibility that the United States would be spared the horrors of the Civil War.
The consequences of Buchanan's political poltroonery were long-lasting and dire, as contrasted with those of Warren Harding. Harding (No. 29) has won many Worst President contests because he had three or four truly stinky crooks in his administration to go along with an otherwise outstanding Cabinet. He was a slob with a drinking problem, and he was also afflicted with Bill Clinton's zipper disease. Since booze was illegal when he was President (1921-23), getting smashed in the White House made him a not-so-great role model — not that much of the country was paying attention since all the other adults in America were doing the same thing at the local speakeasy.
There is a great story about Harding in the closet making boom-boom with his girlfriend, and of his wife being restrained by the Secret Service guys from rushing in and exposing the President in the flagrantest of delictos. But worst President? Not so much.
Others proposed for the worst list include Herbert Hoover, James Madison, Ulysses Grant and Richard Nixon.
Hoover, Democratic propaganda to the contrary, did not cause the Great Depression nor was he indifferent to his people's sufferings. A brilliant, decent man, he was absolutely the unluckiest President.
Madison, the fourth President, justly called the Father of the Constitution, fits anyone's description of a great man, but he loused up the presidency by going to war against England in 1812 with no Army and not much more of a Navy. His foreign policies were so hated in New England that the young federal republic he had done so much to start almost blew apart. Worse was to come. Madison could do nothing when the Brits occupied Washington, D.C., and burned down the White House. But in the long run the consequences of his mistakes were minor, so he cannot have the "worst prexy" horse collar put around his neck.
Grant was too noble a man to be the worst anything. He had some crooks in his administration, but, like Harding, he had nothing to do with their corruption. On the plus side, he was the last President until Lyndon Johnson who would go to bat for black people.
As for Nixon, it's still too early to tell. Too many people still living hate him or love him. The decision on that strange, baggy-faced man belongs to Gen X and beyond.
Which brings us to Bush II. It's also too early to tell, but if first signs mean anything, he has got a lot to answer for. We know he is responsible for the death of a lot of people who never hurt him or us. We wonder if he has so disturbed the entire Middle East quadrant of the globe that years and years may pass while the people there and the people here suffer for what he has done. Will we get habeas corpus back? Will the thumb screw become standard operating procedure, or will it be returned to the Middle Ages whence George Bush found it?
One of the criteria for being worst is how much lasting damage the President did. Buchanan, for instance, did more than words can convey. With Bush II the reckoning is yet to be made.
By Nicholas von Hoffman
Reprinted with permission from the The Nation.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 134 CommentsNixon -
Reagan -
I believe that several members of congress, like most average citizens, believed the president, or at least gave him the benefit of any doubts, when he presented his case (evidence) for military action.
He was believed Partly because of the anger over 911, but mostly because the office of president has always been respected and trusted. That respect and trust has been severely damaged.
If Americans (congress) were to take corrective and/or legal action now, we as a country could regain at least some of the respect we had before Bush.
You people have screwed the country up for decades.
Go to hell.
Did you go to college?
No doubt Carter was much more effective out of office than in. He was a lame duck at worst.
YOU are the WILLFULLY ignorant of which I speak.
I did my time in Iraq - so don't try to sell me any of your armchair general/politician bull$#!t.
You apparently are the one who needs to take a history course. And while you are at it, just try to be an objective learner - neither liberal or conservative. Try to think beyond your own wallet and self interest. I don't think you guys have the guts to see or admit to the truth.
And if my side of the argument is wrong, it won't be because it was greedy, self-centered and short sighted. Right or wrong, that's where your camp sits.
Let's hope the world court holds these criminals to account soon after 2008.
Actually Jimmy Carter was the worst....... take a course in American history.......at a non-liberal college if you can find one.....
I truly believe that many republicans would vote for Satan himself if he declared for the GOP.
What a stain on the legacy of a great party that included Lincoln and many other fine Americans who were interested in something bigger than their own personal gain.
Gives away the surplus and spends the rest on earmarks and pork for K Street and Tom DeLay and company.
Saddles the states with unfunded mandates.
Guts environmental regulations to appease the mining, lumber, petroleum and development interests.
Shields drug companies from competition and damage from lawsuits.
Refuses to obey laws he signed with hundreds of signing statements.
Sends innocent people to secret prisons to be tortured.
Spies on Americans without warrants.
Now the foreign policy messes:
Fails to react to evidence that a terrorist attack was being planned to take place on American soil.
Has the current Secretary of State lie about the failure to react to that evidence.
On 9/11, sat in a daze with a children%u2019s book and then flew around and then hid in Nebraska.
Allows Osama Bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora.
Has a former Secretary of State lie to the United Nations about nuclear and biological weapons in Iraq.
Invaded Iraq on the premise that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attack.
Fails to have a plan to secure Iraq after the invasion.
Allows the former Secretary of Defense to shortchange the campaign in Iraq from the start with insufficient troops, inadequate equipment and absence of planning.
Refuses to acknowledge the fact of civil war in Iraq.
Is currently planning to attack Iran.
There is much more but enough said.
If Bush has succeeded at anything, it is in exposing the fact that the US is no longer the most powerful nation on the planet and that we really can't be counted on to be good neighbors with the rest of the world, even when the rest of the world is as screwed up as it is right now.
Maybe it's time for us to take a good look at ourselves and ask forgiveness from the rest of the world for not being as Christian as we like to think we are.
Thanks George!
(1). he has made more then enemies then neone could possibly imagine. All of the peoples lives that have been lost so far during the bush presidence, including 9/11 will be nothing in comparison of the attacks that will follow because of his screwups.
(2). he lied to the public again and again
(3). How is bush still the president?????? why dosent the senate or whoever need be have the balls to impeech him and put him on trial for war crimes.
Posted by HawkSprings at 10:07 PM : Feb 11, 200
Now I know all this is tough on you fascist but what good does MORE lies and distortions have to do with anything. Stating something THIS stupid though... The WTC was attacked TWICE people. The Religious Extremist who planned it under CLINTONS watch are in JAIL having fun with Big Bubba wish we could say the SAME for the Second and much worse attack. One thing we can be certain of, CLINTON would NOT be looking for them in IRAQ! ROFLMAO Man are fascist dumb or what? ROFLMAO
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