The competition is actually pretty stiff. LBJ was a horrifying man, corrupt, mean-spirited and a bully. He got us deeply mired in vietnam, and created the vast "Great Society" social programs that are bankrupting us now. Nixon was a smart man who overestimated the power of government and underestimated the venality of his enemies. A supposed conservative, he instituted wage and price controls and relations with communist China. Jimmy Carter has to rank near the top of anyone's list of worst presidents. He managed to achieve the trifecta of ruining the economy, turning longtime ally Iran over to the islamofascists and giving the Soviets a greenlight for worldwide expansion. And of course, the crowning achievement of his presidency was the hostage crisis. Bush 41 has a short but eventful tenure. He managed to soemhow encourage Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait, then we had to go to war over it. In doing that, he allowed the Saudis, who we were supposedly saving, to dictate that our troops could not have or display any religious items, even crosses or Bibles. Nice. Then he turned Kuwait back over to the Emir, an unelected tyrant who hogged the country's oil wealth. It's ironic that Bush 43 justifies Iraq as installing democracy. Guess that wasn't as crucial when it was Bush's pal the emir. Bush 41 perhaps suffered from ADD. He ran on the famous slogan "Read my lips , no new taxes", then turned around and raised them when Democrats in congress demanded it. The voters in turn sent him a message, but unfortunately in doing so they elected an even worse liar , Bill clinton, who promptly raised taxes after promising to cut them. Now we have Bush 43, whose list of accomplishments could be written on the back of stamp. He did cut taxes, if mainly the wrong ones. He did appoint some decent judges, even if he failed to fight for the rest of them. He...well guess that's about it. He mired us in a pointless war that got rid of the devil we knew and gave us who knows what. He has increased spending at rates even LBJ could only dream of. He has talked endlessly about security, but has allowed an invasion of illegal immigrants, and is plotting to make them citizens. Unlike other Republican Presidents, he has had his party controlling both houses of congress for nearly his entire term, so he can't really blame things on the opposition. No one has any idea what his agenda is now, but then again no one really cares. Upon reflection, I think it is too harsh to call Bush 43 the worst. I think that title clearly belongs to Carter. Given the way he mishandled relatively simple crises, I shudder to think what would have happened if he had been president after 9/11. I think reasonable people could differ, but I put LBJ in second place. His genius to fight a jungle war of attrition against a foe willing to lose its entire population, and at the same time give the enemy sanctuaries and protected supply lines, has to go down as one of the alltime criminally stupid military strategies. Third place? Too early to say, but I really think Bush 43 could be a contender. The only thing saving him is the conservatives in congress, because left to his own devices, he'd turn this country into a colony of mexico.
I'm hardly enamored by Bush but I'd rank him far down on the list of worst. Even Carter would be down on my list. First, compared to Viet Nam and Korea, let alone the two World wars, Iraq is a pimple. American libs love to harp on the "injustice" of it all but more African's die each day fighting in civil wars over countries we've never heard of then the number we've lost in three years of Iraq. Hell there's Los Angeles street gangs whose fatalities are on the Iraq par. Also while the deficits and spending appear huge in real numbers, as a % of GDP they're pretty benign and no worse than other G8 nations. I will give the Bush taxcuts kudos because I really thought the aftermath of the tech bubble coupled with 9/11 would throw us into a 1930's depression. Didn't happen. So my list would really be just FDR and LBJ with a lot of mediocres including both Bush's way below those two other guys.
Exactly Pabst. It makes you wonder where are our National priorities really lie. It seems to me, that more than anything else, it's the almighty $. Therefore our fearless leader and the other current powers that be, get a profound 'F' from this independent thinker.
Not to sound selfish but I feed myself with dollars. At the end of the day I've learned it's every man for himself. When I went broke back in the late 80's I got very little sympathy from others. No one benevolent is going to come along and say "don't worry brother, you're mortgage is covered. " Or, "eat all you want, on me." Especially if everyone is busted at the same time. A million lives lost are worth 270 million suffering economic calamity. That's why we had WWll. Every country got the idea simultaneously that the way out of global depression was to create a war. It worked. It's a blueprint followed since. I'm sure the recession of 01-02 was squarely to blame for the hasty move into Iraq. If we break again soon (I'm increasingly certain that the market recovery is 90% over) then look out for even bigger wars ala Iran. It's now 1937 and counting.
This presidency will be looked back upon as the turning point where America got itself back on track. Bush has a low approval rating because he is doing things differently than previous administrations and humans are resistant to change even if or the better. He is an extremely strong leader and this upsets some. The war was correct--tax cuts were correct--Supreme Court nominees were correct--black Secretary of State and diverse cabinet were correct--the list goes on and on and on --An extremely eventful presidency.
Oh please... give us a break. The ONLY things GW got right, imo, was Condi Rice and John Roberts as Chief Justice. I think it's fair to predict, that that's how history's common sense will judge this administration.
During a presidency, the shortsighted are sometimes unable to see the bigger long term picture. I am not shortsighted. The Reagan revolution is being turned up a notch in this administration and will continue long term.
It's so sad see people that are apparently not themselves independent thinkers, and possess a lack of common sense. Btw, I'm reasonably sure Reagan would be ashamed to have his name associated with what's become.
The top 10 US Presidents in history are as follows and in this order: 1.Abraham Lincoln 2.George Washington 3.Thomas Jefferson 4.Ronald Reagan 5.Teddy Roosevelt 6.George W Bush 7.Harry Truman 8.Andrew Jackson 9.John Adams 10.Zachary Taylor