Worst President Ever? Yup …
Forget Herbert Hoover, Warren Harding or Andrew Johnson … Dubya is No. 1 with a bullet.
Elected on America’s ignorance and reelected on its fear, “the Deciderer” will leave office in another three months with just one tangible accomplishment that we can see – the fact that he never got a blow job in the Oval Office (that we know of).
So what did he do? Aside from setting presidential records for vacation time and deficit spending, of course.
Let’s recap, shall we?
First of all, George W. Bush has set the bar for presidential moronisitude at a potentially unreachable new low.
We’ve had stupid presidents in the past (i.e. Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson), but at least those guys had endearing qualities – like the fact that they won wars and could speak in complete sentences.
Plus, Jackson had like a dozen lead bullets rattling around inside his body and Grant was … well … pretty much drunk all the time.
Bush is just dumb, people, and he’s dumb without anything redeeming attached to it.
In addition to his stupidity, Bush is also (here’s our real beef) the chief betrayer of fiscal conservatism in the 21st Century, a “moderate” Republican who refused to reign in the big government excesses of his own party. That failure ultimately cost the GOP both of its Congressional majorities as well as the faith of the American taxpayers.
And is if that legacy wasn’t enough, Bush stuck a final knife into the heart of capitalism with his $700 billion bailout proposal, a crass, callous and unconstitutional reversion to socialism intended to “rescue” us from the failed government policies his administration either wasn’t smart enough or (in the case of the sub-prime mess) strong enough to correct.
Then there’s Iraq, a war we ordinarily wouldn’t mind supporting were it not for the smug cluelessness with which Bush’s administration advanced it.
Mission Accomplished? Not hardly, although we do give Bush credit for recognizing that failing to clean up his own mess would mean a far greater threat to our national security in the long run.
But smugness and cluelessness – which defines pretty much everything our federal government has done over the last eight years – are also Bush’s defining characteristics.
It’s not just that he’s stupid, he’s an asshole about it.
Not surprisingly, Bush will leave office with atrocious approval ratings – like Nixon and Truman.
But both of those presidents have been borne out by history as forward-thinking visionaries whose legacies – in spite of their failures – helped make this country strong. Truman, in particular, is now regarded as one of the greatest presidents to ever occupy the Oval Office, despite the heaping contempt poured on him by his contemporaries.
Are there any seeds in Bush’s legacy that could produce the same historical about-face?
We sure don’t see any …
Of course, Bush’s longest-lasting legacy could end up being the election of Barack Obama, who is currently poised to ride a wave of relentless anti-Bush sentiment all the way to the White House.
If Obama beats McCain, the latter will have no one to thank but his Commander-in-Chief.
After all, Bush was the anchor that dragged him down into a defensive campaign – precisely the ground you want to avoid if you’re already perceived as an angry old man who missed his shot at the limelight eight years ago.
And therein lies the irony … we’re not fans of McCain by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s difficult to conceive of a scenario in which he’d have done worse than Bush.
So yeah, thanks a lot there, South Carolina (circa 2000, anyway).
Add it all up and we think “Dubya” easily goes down as the worst president ever, although as always we’re interested in your thoughts on the subject …
Is George W. Bush the worst President in American history?
- Yes (80%, 263 Votes)
- No (20%, 67 Votes)
Total Voters: 330
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Comments
By Bill on October 12th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
If Obama wins the election, I am moving to Canada.
If McCain wins the election, I am moving to Canada.
I would not let either one of them run my business, nor would I think either would be an interesting dinner companion. Power hungry pricks rarely are.
By Reader on October 12th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I still don’t see how we would have been anywhere other than where we are had we gone with any of the other 2000 Republican Party candidates. Really. Nancy Pelosi and her rabid Dem-pack would have gone after any of these others with the same tactics. Therefore, I refuse to vote in your poll, which does not factor in all sides of the equation. Can you tell I ever lived in Texas?
Point:
When in Texas, think as the Texans do. And that means, wear your a55 on your shoulders. This classification of yours will be considered a personal affront, and they will never admit defeat. They will blame the Dems, and W will ride back over that crested butte as the Golden Boy they always knew he was.
[Texans are rarely wrong.]
By Sick of Sic on October 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Not sure you can call W the worst president when J. Carter is still at the top of the moron list!
By Sally Calder on October 12th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
hmm, let’s see. haven’t had another major terror attack on our soil after the tragedy we endured just months after he assumed the presidency. even though the list of attempts is long and almost monthly.
have as a nation enjoyed more prosperity than i ever remember seeing in my lifetime. almost everywhere. even kids from the projects have hundred-dollar athletic shoes and cell phones. an economist from wharton says the only indicator that is truly bad right now is consumer confidence. thanks to the media for creating a recession in the minds of americans, when one does not in actuality exist.
about the only thing Bush has for sure done a bad job with is impressing europeans. but the only president europeans are going to like is one who is going to go a socialist route and kiss their collective ass. so do i really care that they don’t like bush? nah.
By W is the worst president in u.s. history on October 12th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Just read Ron Suskind’s latest book about W- The Way of the World- to learn just how ignorant, arrogant, and downright deceitful W . is and was.(Carter was honest and did what he thought was right for the American people )
W. outright lied us into the Iraq war . He and Cheney created a bogus memo that the CIA planted in Baghdad to mislead the American people that al qaeda and Saddam had connections after no wmd was found-
What can be worse than lying us into war and making up documents to prove his case?
The only thing more despicable is McCain still trumpeting about our need to continue the illegal war.
Our country has to wake up and clear up how wrong we were to go into this war, clean up Gitmo, and regain our stature as an honest nation capable of doing good just for the sake of doing the right moral thing.
By Marcy on October 12th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Yes, worst ever. Not even close. In addition to the Iraq War and the economy, he made no attempt at a coherent enegry policy.
By Justin on October 13th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Yes I think Bush fails as president, he failed to capture Osama bin laden, fail to manage US economy, fail to protect earth from greenhouse. His role is bomb the countries he hates.
By Gillon on October 13th, 2008 at 12:59 am
A great post Fits. You’re dead on. However, I wouldn’t sully the good names of Hoover, Harding, or Johnson by including them in the same paragraph as Dubya. Maybe they each did no great good, but at least they did no great harm either, as in starting an unnecessary and unwinnable war or of impoverishing the nation’s treasury. The fact that your poll at this point shows many South Carolians still do not agree that he was our worst president tells me that, as was said of the Bourbons, they have “learned nothing, forgotten nothing.” Many of them would no doubt still vote for him today if they could. You wonder how things might have turned out if the good Republicans of SC had voted for McCain rather than Bush in the 2000 presidential primary.
By the way “Reader,” You no doubt would agree with General Phil Kearny who declared that “If I owned hell and Texas, I would live in hell and rent out Texas.”
By Jeebs on October 13th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Well, there is a difference between Carter and Bush. Carter wsa a Nuclear Physicist. Bush cannot pronounce ‘nuclear’. Not to mention had we followed Carter’s plan, we would be free of our oil dependency, and therefore, free of this current admin which never would’ve been in a position to steal two elections.
Also, the country Carter inherited was a defeated nation with low self-esteem and little motivation. It was Post-Vietnam War, post oil crisis country that had just learned it was non invincible. The country that Bush inherited was far different. It was a country with a surplus well on it’s way to paying off it’s debts (imagine that). It was a country that had just gone through the greatest economic growth in the history of mankind….50 some odd months consecutively if memory serves. It was a country where the middle class, dare I say, the proletariat, was allowed to share in the country’s wealth.
I’m not sure Bush could’ve had made more bad decisions to destroy everything that was gained in the previous administration. Clinton also made some bad decisions, no question about it, but as a whole had a successful stint in the White House.
By wofat on October 13th, 2008 at 5:38 am
i think in tip o´neil ´s book he rated carter as one of the two best presidents . moronic submarine commander a bit of a stretch .
By Worst! on October 13th, 2008 at 8:00 am
He’s the worst, because of his deceit. He claims to be a fiscal conservative, but all he’s done is spend, spend, spend. He claimed Iraq had WMD…..wrong. Where is Osama? “Wanted dead or alive.” Alive and well it would seem. Pre-election video from Osama should be forthcoming. But, let’s remember one thing folks- if he’s the worst president, it’s only because we gave him the chance to be it- not once, but twice. So, blame him for being the worst- yes, the first election. As for the second election, that blame fall on us.
By AdeT on October 13th, 2008 at 8:18 am
To Sally, who suggested that we have as a nation enjoyed more prosperity than she has seen in her lifetime while GWB was on the job…
Sally: it was borrowed money. All of it. And not just you and me…the worst offender was the federal government. I’m shocked that that hasn’t sunk in with everybody after the last two weeks. It was a false prosperity.
No one would consider finding somebody else’s credit card, then running it up on a shopping spree, to be prosperity. But that is exactly what we did…except the credit card we thought belonged to someone else was really our own.
GWB had no clue. He was so concerned about a post-9/11 recession that he (and the Fed) flooded the market with cash. I’m just pissed that no one explained to him what long-term implications that might have, like the collapse of the dollar. That huge wash of cash then combined with the bizarre (and communist) programs of Carter and Clinton, and did in the entire economic system.
But we’ve got nice shoes, right?
By Toyota Kawaski on October 13th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Fits news is full of Larry Shyatt.Please move to N.Korea or florida or something.Have some dam respect.
By Reader on October 13th, 2008 at 8:40 am
“You wonder how things might have turned out if the good Republicans of SC had voted for McCain rather than Bush in the 2000 presidential primary.”
Gillon, I did wonder about that. I bet every last one of McCain’s mobster goons from SC did vote for him. And being as how he is a part [somehow...I'm sure of it] of Nancy Pelosi’s evil brat pack — things would probably be worse. The bad things would have been swept under the overpriced rugs, kept quiet under threat of amputation or death. Anything negative would have been hidden away and would have by now rotted what little infrastructure of democracy still standing.
There you have it. The Rest of The Story!
By Muffin Man. on October 13th, 2008 at 8:45 am
The worst President ever was Abraham Lincoln.
amples…
Imprisoned between 1,000 and 2,000 northern journalists and politicians, without due process or formal charges, for speaking out against the war. (It was really nice of him to release them after hostilities had ceased) (Imagine the stream of anti-Iraq commentators being tossed in the slammer by Bush)
The manner in which he allowed his generals to not simply prosecute the war against the opposing military, but wage total war against civilian populations, could likely warrant a war crimes prosecution under modern standards
Tried to have the Supreme Court Justices arrested and imprisoned when they issued a series of rulings that were damaging to Lincoln’s war policies…stopped only when the army refused to carry out the arrest order.
Only emancipated the slaves in the rebelling states, leaving thousands of others still under servitude in border and northern states.
How many slaves did Lincoln’s two executive order called “The Emancipation Proclamation” emancipate, exactly?
If Lincoln was so keen on freeing the slaves, why did he have his surrogates introduce, and he himself support the Corwin Amendment?
By rick on October 13th, 2008 at 10:20 am
History will tell the entire story, and only time will tell. J.Carter not only allowed a sovereign piece of American soil to be violated (yes, every embassy is considered to be the embassies sovereign soil), he allowed American citizens to be held for 440 days, botched a rescue plan, presided over an ineffective military, gave away the Panama Canal…..shall we go on?
Carter was and is an arrogant pissant who’s only accomplishment has been in driving nails. His brother Billy was smarter and more talented….
By Not-A-RINO on October 13th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Clinton, the former, and future
By Gillon on October 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Reader, I guess I touched a nerve with my Phil Kearny quote. (you could look him up if you’ve never heard of him) By the way , the “Mobster goons” that you refer to were on the Bush side in SC in 2000. It was they who spread the vicious personal rumors and lies about McCain and used push-polling to great advantage.
Also, in the first six years of the Bush Presidency, the Speaker of the House was not Pelosi, but Republican Dennis Hastert, so don’t blame her for everthing Finally, you speak of the”threat of amputation or death” by the McCain forces. Who was it that opposed torture at Guantanamo–certainly not Bush. It was McCain. Next time try thinking and doing a little research before you spout off.
But I guess that’s pretty typical of not only Bush but his supporters as well.
By Reader on October 13th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Gillon…Maybe we just like to hear ourselves think — whether you agree, or think it well-researched but wrong…would never, ever keep us from saying it.
I could look him up, Phil Kearny, but — we’re also sorta lazy. ;)
By Reader on October 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
P.S. For anybody looking forward to having somebody they can vote for without puking in 2012…the Mayans predicted Dec. 21, 2012 as the date the world will end. So this year may be it people!
By joe smith on October 13th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
James Buchanan was the worst president because of his ineptitude and by hi failure to do anything to prevent the civil war. Whichby the way your state of South Carolina started but thats ok with me. because I still have confederate sentiments. but really you cant say who is the worst president until at least 40 years have past because we do not know what the future holds and naybe historians will look back etc etc. President Bush went to war becasue he thought it was the right thing to do.
By Gillon on October 13th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Reader, I like your style if not your opinions. Keep on pluggin’.
By Reader on October 13th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Thanks Gillon…I don’t even like some of my opinions. But I come from very stubborn stock.
Anyway — how can any of you look at that obliviously benevolent face and hate him so much?!?
By Reader on October 14th, 2008 at 10:46 am
We will always love our W!!! And we will always blame Nancy Pelosi for all the bad things. Everywhere.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081014/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_italy;_ylt=Am4ugmoxo3nHrocjCB7m1YJh24cA
By MAC on October 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
First of all you can not really judge a president until after a generation has passed. Too much emotional baggage love him or hate him.(recall Truman had low ratings) History will still be a judge of Bush and perhaps it will not be too kind. That being said, some of you (the author of this blog in particular)have never read U.S. History or studied it for that matter (Grant was only drunk when he was lonely and missing his family during the war not as president).
History for many Americans and politicians for that matter is what happened yesterday or a year ago if they can remember back that far.
Most if not all presidential historians rate James Buchanan as the worst, he sat idly by while he first watched South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20th 1860, the next state would not leave the Union until January 9, 1861. Perhaps if he was more like Andrew Jackson there would not have been a War between the States.
As one poster so aptly put it Lincoln, considered one of the greatest presidents by presidential historians violated the Constitution more than any president, the second probably was FDR and Nixon.
Carter is considered to be one of the worst, double digit interest rates, unemployment near 10%, high inflation rates, yes I remember Carter’s brilliant energy policy, turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater. His foreign policy (except for Camp David, which was led more by Sadat than him)was a total disaster; Iran crises, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Panama Canal, SALT II, etc. The military was gutted. Carter lost in the worst presidential (electoral)landslide 489-49 as a sitting president compared to Hoover 472-59 in 1932.
Harding and Grant were mired in scandals and had no clue to what was going on around them, Harding’s policies helped bring on the Great Depression, Hoover just happened to be the poor sap caught holding the bag. FDR seemed to care yet unemployment never dropped lower than 14% until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But FDR was a great leader and was trusted by the American people which Bush definitely is not.
Bush should have shown more leadership in 2005 in trying to reel in Fannie May and Freddie Mac when then Federal Reserve Board Chairman warned the Congress to take action soon or “risk economic insolvency” Which by the way is the cause of this financial mess.
Just a little history and economic lesson from a professor