Why Bush Is Our Most Catastrophic President

[IChing]

By Sandy Levinson

I have been taken to task for describing George W. Bush as the most catastrophic president in our history. Part of the critique is that worse catastrophes have happened in other presidential administrations, including, say, the capture and burning of Washington by the British in the War of 1812 or the decimation of the Union army in the early days of the Civil War. One might include Pearl Harbor in this list. Mention has been made of the fact that the 3,000 American dead in Iraq, though of incalculable loss to the families of the deceased, is a quite small number compared to the losses in earlier battles and wars. And so on. So why do I remain convinced that he is indeed our most catastrophic president?

Part of the answer lies simply in the expanded domain for decisionmaking by modern presidents. Michael Lind, in a Washington Post symposium on who have been our worst presidents>>>>>>>snip

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-bush-is-our-most-catastrophic.html

[patrice]

1. To assume that all of the contextual factors are the same, and the phenomena

in question, ergo, are comparable, is Wrong.

[patrice]

2. He is the most catastrophic, because the WTC was destroyed on his watch,

and because of his Private War, the future of the U.S. is inherently DIFFERENT than it would have been, had he not chosen Death and Destruction. And that difference in what it means to be American is of such a magnitude for so many people, for so much of the forseeable future and beyond, that we could say BushCo has enslaved more Americans than any other. He and Dick and Condi and Corporate Media are enslaving people as we speak.

[Joe for Clark]

3. Oh it is simple - were were an empire when he took office.

And right now it really looks like he can undo all that was accomplished in our history in just a few years.

There should be no debate about this.

Joe

[Porcupine]

4. Hmm, Climate Change, Peak Oil, Debt Crisis and losing Two (2) Wars.

and abandoning an american city during a disaster. Sometime next August when the Gulf of Mexico approaches hot tub temperatures we'll all look back and wonder why we thought Iraq was important.

Imagine what would happen to the US banking system if half of Florida decided to walk away from their mortgages. Think about a few more cities getting hit like New Orleans.

I don't even think we're even bitching about the right subjects yet.