Worst President in History?
This month's Rolling Stone features a cover story asking if George W. Bush is the worst president in history. The rock and roll voting bloc didn't have much pull in the '04 presidential election so I don't know how much weight this, or Neil Young's upcoming album bashing Bush, will have on things, but it's nice to see just the same. And Rolling Stone's political coverage has been 100 times better than their rock reporting for years, so I'll be picking up my first RS since the Hunter S. Thompson tribute.
From the article:
In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies."[...]
Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.
Also, Mcleans weighs in: "With deficits and debt swelling to epic levels, an economy showing massive cracks, and support for America crumbling abroad, the Bush administration finds itself increasingly isolated. With mid-term elections looming in November, the President is now widely seen as a political liability."
How do you think history will judge George W. Bush?
Comments
"How do you think history will judge George W. Bush?"
As the biggest turd since Millard Filmore.
Actually, as an even *bigger* turd - Filmore didn't massively screw up, he just didn't do anything.
Posted by: Mixmaster Shecky | April 19, 2006 11:34 PM