IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT -- EVER? By Richard Reeves
Fri Dec 2, 8:13 PM ET
PARIS -- President John F. Kennedy was considered a historian because of his book "Profiles in Courage," so he received periodic requests to rate the presidents, those lists that usually begin "1. Lincoln, 2. Washington ..."
But after he actually became president himself, he stopped filling them out.
"No one knows what it's like in this office," he said after being in the job. "Even with poor James Buchanan, you can't understand what he did and why without sitting in his place, looking at the papers that passed on his desk, knowing the people he talked with."
Poor James Buchanan, the 15th president, is generally considered the worst president in history. Ironically, the Pennsylvania Democrat, elected in 1856, was one of the most qualified of the 43 men who have served in the highest office. A lawyer, a self-made man, Buchanan served with some distinction in the House, served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and secretary of state under President James K. Polk. He had a great deal to do with the United States becoming a continental nation -- "Manifest Destiny," war with Mexico, and all that. He was also ambassador to Great Britain and was offered a seat on the Supreme Court three separate times.
But he was a confused, indecisive president, who may have made the Civil War inevitable by trying to appease or negotiate with the South. His most recent biographer, Jean Clark, writing for the prestigious American Presidents Series, concluded this year that his actions probably constituted treason. It also did not help that his administration was as corrupt as any in history, and he was widely believed to be homosexual.
Whatever his sexual preferences, his real failures were in refusing to move after South Carolina announced secession from the Union and attacked Fort Sumter, and in supporting both the legality of the pro-slavery constitution of Kansas and the Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott class declaring that escaped slaves were not people but property.
He was the guy who in 1861 passed on the mess to the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan set the standard, a tough record to beat. But there are serious people who believe that George W. Bush will prove to do that, be worse than Buchanan. I have talked with three significant historians in the past few months who would not say it in public, but who are saying privately that Bush will be remembered as the worst of the presidents.
There are some numbers. The History News Network at George Mason University has just polled historians informally on the Bush record. Four hundred and fifteen, about a third of those contacted, answered -- maybe they were all crazed liberals -- making the project as unofficial as it was interesting. These were the results: 338 said they believed Bush was failing, while 77 said he was succeeding. Fifty said they thought he was the worst president ever. Worse than Buchanan.
This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:
He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;
He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;
He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;
He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;
He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign (Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);
He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;
He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;
He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.
Quite an indictment. It is, of course, too early to evaluate a president. That, historically, takes decades, and views change over times as results and impact become more obvious. Besides, many of the historians note that however bad Bush seems, they have indeed since worse men around the White House. Some say Buchanan. Many say Vice President Dick Cheney.
Dick cheney... he looks like and seems to act like the name he was given
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I about died laughing when this^^ was at the bottom of this thread.
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This guy SUCKS... and he can't even speak, and I don't know how he got into office! WHO VOTED FOR THIS GUY! I mean the first time I guess is forgivable but the second TIME! Everyone I know voted for Gore or Kerry... just don't get it... all those rural areas making no money, yet you vote for a republican
I think he is a good president. No wait I am not rich yet..
He sucks ass.
But seriously Bucanan was pretty gay. Some people say no but he used to be room mates with a known gay guy. And he particularly enjoyed it. They have letters he wrote to this guy. But I don't hold that against him. IF he can take it in the butt then he is most likely more than capable of handling the stress of the oval office.
MY top presidents go as Follows:
1. JFK (boned maryln monroe and didn't get impeached)
2. Clinton (almost pulled off a JFK but that bitch ruined it for him)
3. Grant (Used fall language and got drunk alot props for getting away with that at work)
4. Washington (If he was alive today he would most likely have gold teeth with daimonds in them)
5. Regan or lincoln (but if put in a one on one fight Lincoln would win because of his supieor reach.)
close runner ups: Andrew Jackson, Rosevelts, Truman.
This guy SUCKS... and he can't even speak, and I don't know how he got into office! WHO VOTED FOR THIS GUY! I mean the first time I guess is forgivable but the second TIME! Everyone I know voted for Gore or Kerry... just don't get it... all those rural areas making no money, yet you vote for a republican
it's all bout teh religion for at least half of his voters
1. JFK (boned maryln monroe and didn't get impeached)
2. Clinton (almost pulled off a JFK but that bitch ruined it for him)
3. Grant (Used fall language and got drunk alot props for getting away with that at work)
4. Washington (If he was alive today he would most likely have gold teeth with daimonds in them)
5. Regan or lincoln (but if put in a one on one fight Lincoln would win because of his supieor reach.)
close runner ups: Andrew Jackson, Rosevelts, Truman.
Whoa buddy, back up one second... Clinton is no JFK. JFK balled a sex icon whose beauty was unquestionable. Clinton balled an intern with the kind of looks you hide from your friends. Clinton's bust was an embarassment because the women who came forward were all fairly hideous looking. The only acceptable excuse for Clinton would be to confess he was hammered in the oval office.
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