It's now semi-official - Worst. President. Ever.

[ruggerson]

Of course, there are a couple of more years to go, but he's heading for the title. Move over, James Buchanan!

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=115949

The worst president ever?
By Richard Reeves / National View

PARIS -- President John F. Kennedy was considered a historian because of his book "Profiles in Courage," so he received periodic requests to rate the presidents, those lists that usually begin "1. Lincoln, 2. Washington ..." But after he actually became president himself, he stopped filling them out. "No one knows what it's like in this office," he said after being in the job. "Even with poor James Buchanan, you can't understand what he did and why without sitting in his place, looking at the papers that passed on his desk, knowing the people he talked with."

Poor James Buchanan, the 15th president, is generally considered the worst president in history. Ironically, the Pennsylvania Democrat, elected in 1856, was one of the most qualified of the 43 men who have served in the highest office. But he was a confused, indecisive president, who may have made the Civil War inevitable by trying to appease or negotiate with the South. His most recent biographer, Jean Clark, writing for the prestigious American Presidents Series, concluded this year that his actions probably constituted treason. It also did not help that his administration was as corrupt as any in history, and he was widely believed to be homosexual. Whatever his sexual preferences, his real failures were in refusing to move after South Carolina announced secession from the Union and attacked Fort Sumter, and in supporting both the legality of the pro-slavery constitution of Kansas and the Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott case declaring that escaped slaves were not people but property.

He was the guy who in 1861 passed on the mess to the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan set the standard, a tough record to beat. But there are serious people who believe that George W. Bush will prove to do that, be worse than Buchanan. I have talked with three significant historians in the past few months who would not say it in public, but who are saying privately that Bush will be remembered as the worst of the presidents.

There are some numbers. The History News Network at George Mason University has just polled historians informally on the Bush record. Four hundred and fifteen, about a third of those contacted, answered -- maybe they were all crazed liberals -- making the project as unofficial as it was interesting. These were the results: 338 said they believed Bush was failing, while 77 said he was succeeding. Fifty said they thought he was the worst president ever. Worse than Buchanan.

<snip>

[Vickers]

1. "maybe they were all crazed liberals"

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

The saddest part, the true extent of the damage him and his idiots have caused won't be known for decades.

[Wetzelbill]

2. Harding sucked too, Hoover was no peach

Reagan was shitty. But, compared to Bush those guys look pretty good. He's awful. Totally shameless as well.

[stevedeshazer]

5. I lived through wars with Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Poppy, they sucked

But, it ain't even close. I can't speak to the Buchanan administration, though. :)

My mom remembers Hoover as a good guy but a shitty president.

Bush the Lesser is definitely the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

Warren Harding couldn't possibly have been as bad as this nitwit.

[Wetzelbill]

8. so you didn't live through the Buchanan era,huh?

I just missed Nixon by a few months, I remember Reagan pretty well, I didn't think Poppy was all that bad as far as those guys go, he wasn't any good either. He certainly didn't get that running an economy thing down. He was pretty stellar in the German Reunification and a few other post-Cold War problems, but Poppy really screwed up by letting the former Yugoslavia destroy itself. His son takes the cake. Poppy should have any legacy he may have tainted just by the mere fact that Dumbya is his kid.

[stevedeshazer]

10. No, but those days of McKinleyomics were lean times

:)

[beyurslf]

3. I would love to come back 200 years from now to see what history

books write about him--and the country at that time.

[Wetzelbill]

4. "ignorantly hostile to science"

LOL, that made me laugh. Just the way it was written. As if he's like a little kid who is hostile to brushing his teeth before bedtime or something. :)

:rofl:

[Ilsa]

6. I think Reeves' article made it to Yahoo! the other day.

I spread it around to anyone who would read it.

[Faygo Kid]

7. It's not close. It's W. And it's not done.

Read Jimmy Carter's new book about this radical change in American history. W. may not be only the worst president - by a breathtaking margin - he may be the last. And God bless us every one. Be vigilant.

[kenny blankenship]

9. On the contrary, Bush will be remembered as the first and best

Emperor. If ever he is thought less than the very best, he'll only be second to the Emperor of the moment, who will bask in the obedient and (as it must be) undivided love of the people.

But he'll always be revered as first in the Georgian line. The creator of the Imperium, Defender of the Faith, the Man who saved us after 9-11 changed Everything.