Historians say Bush is Sinking Fast

[Dardedar]

Saturday June 17, 2006
Historians say Bush is sinking fast

With increasing frequency, articles are being published which compare the performance of George W. Bush with that of earlier presidents. But there is a very real difference in the present ranking system and what was used on previous presidential studies.

Earlier studies of presidential performance used categories which had been accepted for many years: excellent, above average, average, below average and failure. At least two of the recent articles rank Bush only in relationship to presidents who have, by common agreement of recognized historians, been judged to have been poor presidents. In other words this study is judging the worst of the worst.

Examples of low-ranking presidents are James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren Harding and Richard Nixon. A 2004 study conducted by George Mason University in a survey of 415 presidential historians concludes that George Bush should now be included in this list - or worse, designated as "the worst."

A summary of the results are as follows: Eighty percent considered Bush's first term a failure, half of all respondents considered it the worst since the Great Depression, more than a third said it was the worst in 100 years and 11 percent ranked his first term the "worst ever."

But, more damaging than the original study are follow-up opinions. One professor avers that, "When I filled out that survey, I said Bush was the worst since Buchanan (1857-61), but things have gotten worse and now I'd have to consider him the worst ever."

The criteria used by these historians by which to grade the performance of each president were: Fiscal management, economic stewardship, success in handling change and crises and how our international interests were promoted.

Space permits only one illustration of each of these criteria to appreciate why these historians have such low regard for this president.

Fiscally, the 2006 national debt ceiling was raised $781 billion to $9 trillion. Economically, huge tax cuts -mostly to a small percentage of the very wealthy - combined with massive spending raised the debt to roughly $30,000 for every man, woman and child.

The oil crisis will most certainly be a severe irritant with an uncertain solution. The war in Iraq has drained our human and material resources and stained our reputation as a humane society.

Each individual will assess who is worst in terms of their own scale of values and how much they know about each president's record. James Buchanan was a weak president who did nothing to stop secessionists from taking control of federal forts and arsenals with all the military supplies needed to conduct war.

Grant and Harding admired the rich and were naively ineffective in stopping the fraudulent behavior of the cronies appointed to office. Richard Nixon was devious and abused the powers of his office.

Surprisingly, his speech (in private) was vulgar.

It appears that President Bush is the equal of any of those noted above. But there is compelling evidence that President Bush may well deserve to be ranked as the "all time worst" by those who are qualified to pass judgment on those who serve as our chief executive.

As a citizen who has watched the presidents serve in the White House and have read biographies or biographical sketches of every other president that has served our country, it is possible to give some impression of this one. He appears to be a little man in a very big job.

Instead of trying honestly to learn how to deal with complex issues, he has used swagger and cant to appear to be on top of events. It is no surprise that he should be ranked at the bottom.

Allan Powell

LINK

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

It appears to be the only thing W learned from his years in Texas - go for the superlative, if you aren't good enough to be best, be worst. However, these folks are ranking W based on what's good for the country. Since what's good for the country isn't W's goal (armegeddon is), he's doing fine by his own standards.

[Betsy]

It's so funny (or not) but I checked on the nwapolitics.com site a few days ago just to see if anything is going on, and despite the fact that no one ever posts any responses (except spammers) LV Ash and DQ are still at it, posting articles every day with titles like "We're Winning the War in Iraq!" and other such nonsense. Despite GWB's massive failure, there are still people (or should I say blind, mindless sheep) out there who can't figure it out...

[Hogeye]

Look again. I've been challenging both Lash and DQ on their interventionism (and other things) lately.

[Savonarola]

Look again. I've been challenging both Lash and DQ on their interventionism (and other things) lately.

It's a bit hard to find them sometimes due to the ad spam, but your posts have not gone unnoticed by all the FTs. Kudos to you for remind them that they're not as smart as they like to think they are.

In related news, according to my calendar, today is the last day for LaTour to reveal his "holes in Darwin's theory," as promised. I'm not holding my breath.
When pansy-ass creationists are asked to put up or shut up, and they know they can't put up, what does that leave? In fact, once his talking points were demolished in this thread, he stopped posting new articles at all. The thread ends on the last day of March, and his last post was March 27.

[Betsy]

Maybe you should email Latour a quick reminder that the deadline has arrived...

[Savonarola]

Maybe you should email Latour a quick reminder that the deadline has arrived...

I posted a little barb a couple weeks back that reminded anyone who reads the site of the situation. Emailing him in private doesn't really accomplish my goal; explaining this situation in public, however, exposes the "deficiencies" (see thread) in both his argument and his behavior.
If LaTour promises to expound on his ignorant assertions, we shouldn't have to remind him of his promise, especially when he's had months to do it.

[RickBaber]

Hello children.
Sorry about being absent for lo these many months. Insurance claims, and building the website for my art prints have taken up ALL of my time.
Betsy, I looked in on NWAP also. With the exception of Hogeye Bill, it's just singing to the choir - and not very much of that.
Hope to get back in here and spend some time with reasonable people before too long.
Keep the faith.
-r

[Savonarola]

Hello children.

Welcome back, Mr. B.

[Betsy]

Hey Baber!! I've been wondering whatever happened to you! what's your website url?

[Guest]

Hopefully, this ain't a deadthread and you'll still get my reply. Man, I'm always tardy!
The website is http://www.digitalarts1.com.
Check it out if you get a chance.

Thanx,
r

Edited by Savonarola 20060629 1959: fix BBCode error

[Dardedar]

Another way of measuring that Bush's war is not going so good:

***
Insurgent Bombs Directed at GIs Increase in Iraq

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081706K.shtml

The number of roadside bombs planted in Iraq rose in July to the highest monthly total of the war, offering more evidence that the anti-American insurgency has continued to strengthen despite the killing of the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

He hasn't cared about the first 2500 dead GIs, why would he care about these? (Maybe they were just on the wrong side of the corner we just turned.)

[Dardedar]

Other ways to measure Bush's war:

Gas Lines Last All Night as Baghdad Runs Out of Gas

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081806G.shtml

The shortage could have more far-reaching consequences than creating misery for Baghdad's car owners. It is the latest sign that the economy may be on the brink of collapse. Inflation is running at 50 per cent, corruption is rife and, most importantly, the end of next month will bring to a close the American-funded reconstruction program, even though electricity in Baghdad remains on for one hour in three at best.