Is Bush the worst President in history?
...or at least in recent memory? There was a topic going in the forums, but well, you know how that goes. In the interest of full disclosure, I voted for George Bush, and I would like to extend my most sincere apologies to all the citizens of our great nation for doing so.
For your consideration:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history
"...George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. 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." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101509.html
"Historians are loath to predict the future. It is impossible to say with certainty how Bush will be ranked in, say, 2050. But somehow, in his first six years in office he has managed to combine the lapses of leadership, misguided policies and abuse of power of his failed predecessors. I think there is no alternative but to rank him as the worst president in U.S. history."
He is even loathed internationally:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0708-27.htm
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22360058-5001028,00.html
Oh yeah, and there's that matter of his approval rating here in the good ol' US of A:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/01/bush.poll/
"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon [22 percent and 24 percent, respectively], but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland said. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952."
Whoever we get in November will likely be an improvement. Whether it's Barack's inexperience, McCain's disturbingly similar policies, or....forget about it (I was going to throw a nod to one of the ancillary candidates, but the likelihood of that happening in my lifetime is pretty much nil).