The new fashionable question to ask is whether the country has ever had a worse President than George W. Bush. That was the topic in yesterday’s Washington Post and it was the topic on Scarborough Country tonight. It’s so bad that Pat Buchanan gave defenses like, “The jury is still out”, “he on the verge of a failed Presidency”, and “it’s too early to tell.” Clearly the Establishment sent out the memo to jettison this bunch of crooks. At the White House it must be all hands on deck.
And I obviously agree that Bush is about the worst President ever. But he has some solid competition. Bush’s main problem is that he has NOTHING positive to counterbalance his most major fuck-ups. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and opened diplomatic channels to China. LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Coolidge’s record is pretty slim. He did pass the Kellogg-Briand Pact, but that is some thin gruel. But Coolidge had the good sense not to seek re-election. Warren Harding is horrible, but he died in office during his first-term. I think we need to look back to the 19th-Century to find a President as uniformly awful as Bush. James Buchanan failed to avert the civil war. I think that is an act that is pretty hard to top. I don’t think Bush has quite gotten to that level of incompetence. But he has two more years. In my book, George W. Bush is the second worst President of all time.
Take the poll.
this will be W’s best performance in a poll since about 5 years ago.
I agree with you, EJ. Booman, we can only go on the times we all live in. Back then in the 1800’s there might have been the very same feelings amongst the ppl. In our times this is the worst president ever in our memory.
Buchanan’s civil was optional (until him….) but at least it was local. However, it was much much bigger than Bush’s, particularly in %age of populationd ead. Also, and this is waht really made it for me, without Buchanan’s civil war Bush’s fake TX man-of-the-people arguably would not have worked because Americans would not be so indebted and ignorant. Regional differences would not be so passionate. Southerners would not be so thin-skinned.Buchanan has some fault in the election of Bush.
W’s gaining fast
Hoover’s main flaw was inaction when the facts called for action. Bad as that is, it is nothing to Bush’s continual actions that go beyond idiocy.
Katrina was inaction lie and spin. But Iraq? Iraq was unnecessary, unfocused, unplanned and a war based on the hope that something the NeoCons told Bush would solve his Middle East problems where no prior President had been able to succeed.
Hoover was a pretty good administrator. When he did act, he kept track of facts and followed up. His success providing food in Belgium during WW I was phenomenal. He unfortunately listened to bankers who told him nothing could be done about a severe recession except ride it out, it would solve itself. If Bush had taken a similar reaction to 9/11 he would have caught Hell in 2004, but the results of his Presidency would have been a lot higher than is the case today.
Now Andrew Johnson was truly bad. As a Southerner he immediately upon Lincoln’s death began to take every step possible to destroy the positive long-term aspects of the Reconstruction Lincoln had intended while being as corrupt as current Republicans. Ultimately he was so bad that the Congress learned to operate around him as long as he didn’t steal too much. But even he didn’t start a war on speculation that it would solve his PR situation as Bush as done.
There are levels of President from really good down to really bad. Then at a subbasement somewhere hundreds of feet lower than the really bad Presidents, there you will find George W. Bush.
At least we didn’t split our votes between them!
Since Buchanan dilly-dallied and wouldn’t make or take decisions, it could be that George had decided that he’d never be that way…until it got away from him, as it did Pres James B.
George W. Bush-Cheney is the worst president because the reach of his inhuman values has echoed across the globe like no other president. The actions of this administration are affecting every person, plant, animal across this globe; at a time when we should be burning less and less carbon fuels, these maniacs are going to destroy life on this already ill planet with CO2 emissions! They are fatalists and suicidal. Ok, Buchannan was unbelievably whimpy, and what was it, over 600,000 Americans died (I really don’t know the figure)? This administration affects all living things, not just the slaughtered innocents in Iraq and Afganistan. It’s not just about people.
They are the biggest slap in the face humanity has dealt with since Hitler. That’s historically too quick of a gap!
Katrina
What other President lost an entire major city while he was fishing, landscaping, bike-riding, eating cake, and playing air-guitar?
Gutting the Bill of Rights
What other President took away 9 of the first 10 Amendments including and especially habeas corpus? Permanently!!!!! (GWOT is going to end when?)
Religious Cleansing on a Global Scale
What other President preemptively invaded another country, demolished it, employed mercenaries, established death squads, and set its people to blowing each other up? Let’s not forget torture, mass graves, raping children, and burning alive. Crusader George has a fine legacy of compassion and uniting.
Absolute Corruption
What other President has declared himself the CEO President and so completely sold our treasure for the benefit of his grossly-rich friends? ANWR. Logging and mining and drilling claims. Military rebuilding contracts. The SuperHighway through the heartland. Lobbying, lobbying, lobbying.
Dictatorship
What other President has wanted to be dictator so badly that he would lie, cheat, bribe, and steal TWO elections? The extant of voter fraud will never be fully uncovered.
Bush is so truly mind-bogglingly awful that America may never recover. We will know if we still have a country if we get to vote in 2008… he might still find a reason to suspend elections. Meanwhile, he is behaving like the worst of the Caesers, hoping that bread and circuses will distract us from the excesses of his inner circle.
Here Here!
Clearly you understand the gravity of the situation for the US. Excellent summation. Just add the contributions to global warming and the use of the US military for corporate purposes, and there’s 95% of the mea culpa of the State’s imperial hubris.
The inertia of the middle class lifestyle set up in the US post-WWII will be the only saving grace to keep the country from completely collapsing in on itself. The hollowness of US corporate business practices, the loss of confidence by global partners of all sorts, and the apathy of the Center with a twist of ultraconservatism will bring down our nation, probably due to a recession/depression. We will bring the global economy down too, but many nations will stand away successfully from our collapse. It’s the dependent nations in the midst of their “restructuring,” dependent on US spending, that will dive with us. Latin America is turning against the US for this very reason — they don’t want to sink with the US ship of fools.
George Bush CheneyCo. Carlyle Group is the worst president ever.
I voted for Andrew Johnson. The Civil War, while terrible, may have been necessary to rid the nation of slavery. However, his institution of Black Codes and quick re-integration of Confederate Leaders into American society thoroughly undermined the Reconstruction efforts and ensured that it would be at least another 100 years until blacks received equal status under the law.
Johnson was given the ability to reshape America into a modern democracy based on equality and prosperity and created a nation of sharecroppers and segregation. Buchanan failed at managing a crisis, Johnson took the opportunities of peace and threw them into the dustbin. For this, he tops all as the worst President ever.
I eliminated others besides Bush because they had redeeming qualities and did not serve two terms.
Not James Polk (1845 – 1849):
While he did provoke a war with Mexico that was, as Congressman Lincoln described it, unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun, he oversaw a great expansion of the country. He was “an obsessed workaholic, a perfectionist, a micromanager.” No golfing on a ranch for him.
Not Calvin Coolidge (1923 – 1929):
He supported economic imperialism in Latin America and domestic measures of hostility to people, such as the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. He did, however, have a sense of strict economy. He could not foretell that his policies would be blamed as leading to the Great Depression.
Not Andrew Johnson (1865 – 1869):
To his discredit and almost impeachment, he favored white Southerners and used the Army to play politics. Nevertheless, the massive problems of Reconstruction in the South were not of Johnson’s making.
Not Herbert Hoover (1929 – 1933):
While unable to reverse the Great Depression, Hoover was a reformist, expanding civil service protection, cancelling private oil leases on government land, creating the Veterans Administration, establishing the antitrust division of the Justice Department, and imposing an arms embargo to Latin America.
Not James Buchanan (1857 – 1861):
He identified with Southerners and appointed like-minded rural politicians and lawyers to his cabinet. His lectured about thrift and speculation, while vetoing practical legislation. He pardoned the Mormons in Utah for their treasonous actions.
The entire Civil War, however, cannot be blamed on Buchanan. He refused to peacefully surrender federal forts. In the end, he suffered vicious public attacks, and his most recent former cabinet officers, who could have come to his rescue with true accounts, were frightened by adverse public opinion.
Not Warren Harding (1921 – 1923):
His administration was plagued by greed, cronyism, and influence-peddling, but at least it was brief. He favored big business. However, he knew he was out of his depth in foreign affairs, and deferred to Congress as much as possible.
NOT EVEN Richard Nixon (1969 – 1974):
He expanded the war in Cambodia and Laos. Watergate and impeachment darken his legacy.
Nevertheless, he authored the Clean Air Act of 1970 and created the Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency. One or two lights shine from his diplomatic efforts to open up trade with China (unfortunately, to the ultimate benefit of Wal-mart) and effect the first nuclear weapons control agreement with the Soviet Union.
Bush has brought the presidency to a new low, abusing the powers, governing in secrecy, pandering to the religious right, lying to conduct expensive, unpopular and poorly conceived warfare, cloistering himself away from wisdom, and flauting the Constitution.
Under his spendthrift policies the deficit has deepend. Yet he has crushed legislative efforts to fatten the slim purses of most Americans. His appointments smack of political reward, not competence. He praises and promotes poor administration. He is arrogant without being bright. Rather than unite the country he has driven in more wedges.
If he had any redeeming qualities as a leader of this country, we’d know them by now. What more do you need to call him the worst president, ever?