George Bush: One of the 10 Worst Presidents?

[Rumple Foreskin]

The US News & World Report web site has an article about the 10 worst US Presidents. They include: #1. James Buchanan, #2 Warren G. Harding, #7 Ulyesses S. Grant, and tied for #9 Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon.

(for the complete list and a chance to vote for your three worst, go to: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/worstpresidents/ )

So the question I now bring before this august body is, will historians add the name of George W Bush to that list and, if so, where?

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Corylea]

Of course! If he doesn't make the top 3, I'll be very surprised.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Naaah.

Carter won that honor a long time ago. James Buchanan let the Civil War erupt. Woodrow Wilson stuck the income tax up our ass with the vow that it only applied to the wealthiest people. John Adams ate shit with his Sedition Act. Grant was an awful President.

But Carter remains an embarrassment...and I helped get him elected.

 

[shereads]

How many slots in the top ten can Bush occupy?

 

[3113]

How many slots in the top ten can Bush occupy?

Twenty-three. If there's any justice in this world....

 

[shereads]

Twenty-three. If there's any justice in this world....

Give him eight and leave one each for Nixon and Warren G. Harding.

 

[SlickTony]

It's one of my clean fantasies--that I'll live long enough to leaf through one of my grandchildren's American History text and find the chapters where it describes Bush's presidency as one of the very worst, in all our history.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I forget which pundit I saw recently say this, but the gist of it was, "The descendants of James Buchanan are dancing in the street over the Bush presidency."

 

[shereads]

A Brief History of Bush's Flame-Out (Rolling Stone, Aug. 2008):

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22952302/a_brief_history_of_bushs_flameout/15

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Stop it!

In 6 months you'll think of the Bush years as the best years of your lives. Just wait till Obama gets on stage!

 

[DesertPirate]

Since only one issue accouts for half of the bottom 10 I question the whole thing.
Slavery and reconstruction are not the only things.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Everyone had a good 7 years with Bush.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

A Brief History of Bush's Flame-Out (Rolling Stone, Aug. 2008):

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22952302/a_brief_history_of_bushs_flameout/15

LEGACY

 

[sutherngent985]

Yes there have been some terrible presidents. Historians even now are reassessing Nixon. I dont think he was a bad president, just stupid enough to let the people around him run things. Bush, however is a whole nother animal. He has turned this country into a punch line in the rest of the world. I dont think even Carter was as bad as Bush. What will history say about Bush II? Hopefully that he and his whole administration was a bunch a lying idiots (remember weapons of mas destruction?) Personally I think someone should slap his mom and dad up side the head for raising such an idiot. But his rank in the worst presidents? 2 at worst.

Edited to add...I just took the poll. GWB has 71% of the votes as the worst president...2nd is Nixon at 20%. Gee only 3 1/2 times worse than 2nd place.

 

[sutherngent985]

Woodrow Wilson stuck the income tax up our ass with the vow that it only applied to the wealthiest people.

And to think we are still paying for World War 1, which, as I understand it, is why income tax was established. But like everything the govt is involved in, it has been bastardized more times that we can count.

 

[sr71plt]

Historians even now are reassessing Nixon. I dont think he was a bad president, just stupid enough to let the people around him run things. Bush, however is a whole nother animal. He has turned this country into a punch line in the rest of the world.

I think you may have that switched around wrong. Nixon micromanaged--had his fingers into everything. Bush doesn't seem even capable of counting his fingers and lets "whoever" handle "whatever."

 

[sr71plt]

Everyone had a good 7 years with Bush.

Possibly those who weren't paying much attention might think so. I doubt many posting here would see it that way.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

FWIW, I'd rank Bush number two or maybe tied for first place. Most of the Presidents on that list only screwed up on the national scene. Even then their errors tended to be ones of omisson, not commission. Bush came into office during a time of peace, relative prosperity, and budget surpluses.

In his nearly eight years in power, he's managed to:
1. wreck the national economy,
2. get thousands of Americans killed fighting the wrong war,
and
3. doubled the national debt,
4. among many other things.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[DeeZire]

Anyone doubting the grand scale of Bush's screw-ups needs to read the book 'Hubris'.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

FWIW, I'd rank Bush number two or maybe tied for first place. Most of the Presidents on that list only screwed up on the national scene. Even then their errors tended to be ones of omisson, not commission. Bush came into office during a time of peace, relative prosperity, and budget surpluses.

In his nearly eight years in power, he's managed to:
1. wreck the national economy,
2. get thousands of Americans killed fighting the wrong war,
and
3. doubled the national debt,
4. among many other things.

Rumple Foreskin

While I agree with most of what you say...there was no surplus. While there may have been money in the treasury, there can be no real surplus as long as there is deficit spending.

If you owe $2,000 after making all your other payments and you have $100 in the bank, you're still short $1,999. So even if you have that $100 it is not a surplus.

As for the national debt, it has doubled every year no matter who has been president. It's what happens when everyone can vote themselves cookies and candy.

 

[Carnevil9]

It's a ridiculous question. Apples and oranges. Every president faces a completely different set of challenges, so there is no way of comparing their performances......Carney (who rates FDR and Lincoln as two of the most destructive to the state of the nation)

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

No contest for me. Woodrow Wilson. He got re-elected on a slogan "He Kept Us Out of the War", and then promptly got us into a war with one imperialist European power to defend other imperialist European powers that had been far more hostile to us in the past than the Kaiser ever could be.

No, the Germans were no threat. And Wilson's War was not about making the world "safe for democracy" or ending all wars. It was about making America safe for socialism. It was a pretext for expanding the role of Government at home and suppressing all dissent, from both conservatives and fellow leftists who were suspicious of Wilson's possible motives (sometimes guessed incorrectly) for breaking with the Monroe Doctrine and meddling in a European war, joining an entangling alliance of the sort that Washington warned against.

He was also responsible for the income tax and the IRS, not to mention scrapping our best source of revenue with the Underwood Tariff. And anyone who picks the likes of Edward M. House, a known socialist and advocate of authoritarianism, as an adviser is inherently unreliable.

Besides, he was a racist and favored one-world government. He was the epitome of the faction of the "transnational progressives" who turn their backs on the Founding Fathers and what they stood for, betraying our national sovereignty.

 

[Liar]

Predictable lack of historical perspective. You can look at the ongoing voting results, and it shows the top 6 bad presidents evidently are the last 6.

W because people are pissed with him now. He may still be the worst, but some of that number is likely just lack of long term memory. HW and Reagan because some who are pissed with the repubs actually think back and find other repubs to be pissed at too. Carter and Clinton because those who don't hate Bush need something else to blame for the current woes of the world. And Nixon because he was an asshat.


George W. Bush
71%

Richard Nixon
20%

Jimmy Carter
20%

Bill Clinton
16%

Ronald Reagan
13%

George H. W. Bush
13%

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Predictable lack of historical perspective. You can look at the ongoing voting results, and it shows the top 6 bad presidents evidently are the last 6.

W because people are pissed with him now. He may still be the worst, but some of that number is likely just lack of long term memory. HW and Reagan because some who are pissed with the repubs actually think back and find other repubs to be pissed at too. Carter and Clinton because those who don't hate Bush need something else to blame for the current woes of the world. And Nixon because he was an asshat.


George W. Bush
71%

Richard Nixon
20%

Jimmy Carter
20%

Bill Clinton
16%

Ronald Reagan
13%

George H. W. Bush
13%

What about Gerald Ford? Guess he was forgiven for pardoning Nixon, then.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

SEVERUS

Gimme a break.

Nixon ended the Vietnam War and the shitheads still hated him.

Nixon significantly improved relations with China and the shitheads still hated him.

Nixon ended the draft.....ditto.

Got the idea? Shitheads always long for circus freak messiahs.

I note that historians generally dont like Republican Presidents. They much prefer Presidents who are thieves and believe that all wealth is the result of theft and therefore fair game for politicians to confiscate.

Why isnt William Henry Harrison on anyone's list. He was President about one month.