Is George W Bush the worst ever US president?

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/15/george-bush-us

Bush also fares badly in polls of American historians and academics (who are assumed to be more knowledgeable and objective). But these surveys also reveal some tough, albeit obscure, competition for the title of worst ever.

The little-remembered Franklin Pierce, president from 1853 to 1857, is castigated for expanding slavery in the west and thus bringing the civil war closer. Another antebellum president, James Buchanan, is also taken to task for failing to avert the south's secession.

Warren Harding's White House tenure from 1921 to 1923 was marked by notorious scandals and resignations. Under him, it is claimed, the US regressed into a period of isolationism, nativism, and recession, ending with the Wall Street crash. Even more useless than Bush, in an existential sense, were William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, both of whom died after less than six months in office.

All told, it can probably be generally agreed, except by the stubborn rump of conservative Republicans who think him wonderful, that Bush has been a pretty poor president, and possibly the worst in living memory. But when it's recalled what other American leaders have got up to, going back to the founding fathers, circumspection is required.

[madrchsod]

1. yes...

he is also one of the worse military leaders in world history

[T_i_B]

3. I'll disagree on that one...

...as there is a wealth of European Monarchs ready to vie for that title.

[hobbit709]

6. With a little luck the name Bush in American politics

will go the way of the name John among British royalty

[LeftishBrit]

29. Not to mention...

practically all of the top generals on both sides of World War 1.

[T_i_B]

35. strangely enough....

....I did think of mentioning butcher Haig in the above post!

[Lasher]

2. He's the worst president of anything, ever. n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Poll: 98% Of Historians Rate Bush A Failed President...

61% rate him the worst ever.

http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html

[hobbit709]

5. If he's not the worst, then he's in the bottom 1.003

[liberal N proud]

7. Monumental failure

Yes, worst ever.

[islandmkl]

8. re: Harrison and Garfield...could have been models for jr.....but then again....

we would have had President Cheney!!...that alone keeps * from the absolute bottom....i guess...

[spiritual_gunfighter]

12. I thought we did have a President Cheney? n/t

[T_i_B]

18. I think that's unfair on those 2

It's not Garfield's fault he got shot, and about the only think Harrison did was make a long speech in the cold, get ill as a result of making a long speech in the cold, and die. That may not be wise, but it's not half as bad as invading Iraq has been!

[BobRossi]

9. Worst person period.

Hitler would blush.

[sam sarrha]

10. the dust hasn't cleared yet...... he'll be the worst beyond any doubt

[madrchsod]

11. mama bush is a descendant of frankie pierce

[spiritual_gunfighter]

13. and Aliester Crowley n/t

[pipi_k]

14. No!

Because he never really WAS the legitimate President to begin with.

[libodem]

15. Oh, hell yeah!

I'm surprised that is a question. He's goin' down....in history!

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Yes, he is

I lived through Watergate and it pales to the Bush scandals. We thought Nixon was bad, but at least Nixon had China.

Someone pointed out that the September 11 attacks, the Iraq war/war on terror, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the politicization of the Justice Department or the economic meltdown alone would be a shadow over any presidential legacy, but Bush is responsible for all five.

When I was growing up, Grant and Harding were considered the two worst presidents on the bases of the breadth and depth of the corruption in their respective administrations alone. Modern historians tend to rank Buchanan beneath even those two for his all-too-timid approach to secession late in his term, allowing the nation to slide into civil war.

Buchanan's legacy of a nation in crisis endangering its very survival may or may not compare to Bush. However, the current economic crisis and the atmosphere of popular cynicism engendered by the general dishonesty of the Bush regime may bring America to its knees if Mr. Obama turns out to be anything less than a truly great president on the order of Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. Bush then would pale to Buchanan or Harding in our national history and be compared more to Leonid Brezhnev in world history: the leader whose incompetence was responsible for the implosion of a superpower.

[Johonny]

19. I agree

most other bad presidents failed either domestically or in foreign policy. Under Nixon such things as the EPA passed. Bush managed to fail at both. Those presidents that failed economically in general lived at a time where economic laws were such that large rapid economic down turns were expected. Bush and his Republican party were in power in a time where economic laws were in place to ease these problems. So it's amazing they could hurt the economy as badly as say a 19 th century president. It's amazing they could get the Iraqi WMD so wrong. I mean they had the best intelligence apparatus in the history of the country available to them. They had people inside Iraq looking actively for them. Katrina exposed that the single agency Bush created to make the country safer worked even worse than it did under the previous president. Even though homeland security was the benchmark he had set for his presidency. This is like FDR allowing Mexico to sneak attack the US 2 years after pearl harbor. Bush faced the worst ecological disaster in the historical times. Yet like those presidents leading up to the civil war has done everything he can to delay the pain to the next president.

[T_i_B]

27. From my reading of US history...

....Frankin Pierce has to be in the running for worst prez thanks to the Kansas-Nebraska act and for generally being a bit of a puppet for the slave-owning South.

And if you think that Van Buren is responsible for the economic woes that scuppered his presidency then you might have him in the bad list, although from what I've read many historians tend to blame that on Andrew Jackson's camapaign against the bank.

[wizstars]

31. Back in the Nixon regime, a comedian....

...did asketch in which Nixon asked a White House chambermaid how he compared to other presidents; she replied, "Well, you're better than some and worse than others." Nixion asked who he was better than, and the maid replied, "Millard Fillmore."

I don't think Chimpy would even rank above Millard, who was pretty much, in the immortal words of Anne Gorsuch, "a nothingburger".

[DavidDvorkin]

17. His one great achievement was

that he saved Reagan from being remembered as the most embarrassing president in US history.

[santamargarita]

20. Yes he is! And the asshole was never even elected!

This court installed shit-bag is a stain on humanity!

[Capt. America]

21. I think we have to remember that the examples given above...

...were during periods when the President did not wield the huge amounts of executive powers like the presidency does today. During the examples above, the Congress for the most part did not abdicate their powers to the executive like they have over the last 60 years. Therefore, even though Buchanan is considered an abject failure, in fairness, he couldn't "break" as many things as Shrub has (see: war crimes, domestic spying, war profiteering, treason, destroying civil liberties, you know the rest...)

[Third Doctor]

22. Bush is the worst

taken the context of the time that he lived into context.

[opihimoimoi]

23. He is the worst ever going back 85,000 years......

[Joe the Liberal]

24. He's the worst in my book.........

However people tend to judge things based on their experience so it's debatable. For me though he's the worst, I hope that no one try's to out do Bush in the future.

[tom_paine]

25. Ummm....yes.

n/t

[Enthusiast]

26. Truth be told....

we only know a fraction of the Bush misdeeds. Most, again, MOST of his transgressions have been covered up. Considered in this light, I can safely say, Bush is the very worst president ever.

[scarface2004]

28. no..he s worst asshole!

get it right!

[LeftishBrit]

30. Certainly one of the worst...

Buchanan and Hoover were spectacularly incompetent in handling the crises with which they were presented; but it's arguable that they didn't CAUSE the crises to the extent that Bush did.

On the principle that one should blame not only the person in whose term the disasters erupt, but those whose policies helped to sow the seeds: Pierce needs to share some of Buchanan's blame, Harding and Coolidge some of Hoover's - and Reagan some of Bush's.

I would certainly put Andrew Jackson among the worst presidents, due to his genocidal actions against the Native Americans.

[Fire1]

32. Without a doubt.

[Stellabella]

33. For my 500th post: YES.

No question.

[bobthedrummer]

34. He holds the office that he installed into-the Decider, he's the worst

[fasttense]

36. Not only was bush and all his administration corrupt and routinely broke the law but...

he was made the US pResident by the Supreme Court and NOT American voters. So that makes him even worse than Grant, Pierce and Buchanan.

Everything the bush gang did was either, wrong, illegal, immoral or corrupt. From the way he had the Supremes put him into office to the way he paid off his friends with $700 billion of taxpayer's money.

On top of it all he started a totally useless war and then lost the war.

I don't think any US President can stack up so many failures all in one.

[DeeDeeNY]

37. He brings new dimensions to the category of "worst president"

[MasonJar]

38. Some of this reasoning is specious. Harison and Garfield were "useless" because

they died within 6 months of inauguration? To coin our "moran" leader, "So?" If W had not lived more than 6 months after his, the world would be a better place, especially for those innocents rotting in unnecessary graves. The fact he did cntinue for 8 long, "torturous" years and committed crimes of great magnitude should place his name way above those presidents who did not have an opportunity to contribute positively due to their deaths on the list for the most horrible. He is at the top of that pile of DUNG. And as for Harding--I would say that the war profiteering of the Bushista far surpasses anything he left behind. Pierce abd Buchanan were products of their time, ineffective, but unlike W not maliciously and deliciously relishing in to deaths, etcs. of hundreds of thousands. The man is a sociopath; he is incapable of compassion. There is nothing to indicate (that I have ever read) that any other president was so devoid, not only of intellect, but also common humanity. Many of our presidents have been less than satisfactory; all were all too human, but this one defies even the latter category. Sorry for the rant, but W makes me violently ill.

[Paladin]

39. Yes. n/t

[Founding Fathers]

40. Of course!

Of course Bush is the worst President ever!

There IS NO close second place!