And the winner of the Worst US President in US History Is…. NOT George W. Bush!
Now the world has finally seen the back of George W. Bush, ex-President No.43 of those there United States of America, I suppose all that is left us is to determine his place in history. Was he really the worst President of the USA, ever? Or have we got to thank him and the US electorate, who voted him in twice and our current financial debacle for the substantive change that has finally come to pass? A black man in the White House, an America genuinely committed to take a lead in the fight against global warming and the restoration of the world financial order - and not least, make America a fair, if not Great Society. Perhaps it had to take two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney for Americans to talk of redistributing wealth, nationalising banks and weaning the country of its addiction to oil? Thankfully the word ‘Liberal’ has re-entered the US political lexicon without conjuring up visions of rabid Trotskyism. Even the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have cried wolf too loud and too long and don’t cause a blink with their empty scaremongering about Socialism. Poor Sean and Rush, one could almost feel sorry for right-wing bully boys, they haven’t quite gotten it yet that the world’s moved on, and there’s scarcely a single serious Communist regime left in the world to scare the bejasus out of Red America. And now the US appears to have regained it wits, perhaps the world can start to address the rather serious problems it actually does face.
So back to George W. Bush. On cue, last month C-SPAN, America’s public cable channel, comes up with it latest survey of 65 historians to tell us who the best and the worst US presidents have been.
And the winner of the Worst US President in US History Is…. NOT George W. Bush!
It is in fact somebody most of us have never heard of. So no, Dubya is just one of several very lousy US Presidents. He comes in 36 out of 42 according to the C-SPAN panel of 56 historians. That means there are in fact six US Presidents who were even worse than George W. Bush. He’s just the seventh worst. They are, in order of awfulness - James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Harrison, Warren Harding and Millard Fillmore. Rounding out the Worst Ten after George W. Bush at No.36 are John Tyler (35), Herbert Hoover (34) and Rutherford Hayes (33). I sort of knew about Warren Harding, and a bit more about Herbert Hoover, but I gotta admit I had to look the others up. I guess Herbert Hoover comes in at No.33 because he was in office 1929-33, which is when Wall Street crashed, the world fell into the Great Depression and Hitler came to power. Nice one, Herb! If Dubya’s worse than this guy, then what in hell did the others get up to one wonders?
But before I tell you, let’s take a look at the Top Ten and a few others like Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon who are neither in the Top Ten nor Top Bottom, at least not overall on the nine categories of presidential competency measured. And what about Dubya’s dad, George H. Bush? How does Poppy compare with Junior?
The Top Ten Best Presidents was released by C-Span on the bi-centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln (serving 1861-65). Fittingly he is No.1. Co-incidentally he preserved the Union and freed the slaves. George Washington at No.2 (1789-97) confounded the British and sired the nation. Franklin D. Roosevelt at No. 3 (1933-45) got the US through the great Depression, won WW2 and made America Top Nation. Teddy Roosevelt (No.4) was a macho outdoorsman, took up the white man’s burden and saw off the robber barons, Harry S. Truman (No.5) sowed the seeds of victory in the Cold War without blowing us all up in the process; Jack Kennedy (No.6) was young, handsome, had a pretty wife, founded Camelot and didn’t live long enough for disenchantment and the wages of serial philandering to kick in; Thomas Jefferson, (No. 7) was a founding father, had a nice house and was an early admirer of African Americans; Dwight D. Eisenhower (No.8) was a good soldier, indifferent golfer, and cut the talons of the military-industrial oligarchs; winning the War to End All Wars and presiding over the peace treaty that laid the foundations for an even more ghastly world war just 20 years down the pike Woodrow Wilson clocks in at No.9; and breezing in the door at No.10 comes Ronald Reagan, russet-crested so-so actor who gave master classes in affability and short attention span, while tearing down German walls and defeating World Communism.
The worst President of all time according to our 56 historians was James Buchanan, who served 1857-61 and was succeeded by Abraham Lincoln. He takes the rap for not avoiding the Civil War. Having preserved the Union and abolished slavery Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. He was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, serving 1865-69, who botched the Reconstruction and thus judged to be America’s second worst President. So it is that the best American President ever, was preceded by the worst and succeeded by the second worst. Were they really that bad? It seems they may be suffering from proximity and comparison to Honest Abe. Certainly they were unable to solve the nations‘s most pressing problem and both were known as “doughfaces”, Northerners sympathising with the South. Yet both men served their country honourably and with distinction as soldiers. Buchanan in Canada during the War of 1812 with Britain and Johnson in the war of 1843 with Mexico. In acts of statesmanship Buchanan avoided another Canadian war with Britain by fixing the border at the 49th parallel and it was on Johnson’s watch that the US purchased Alaska from the Russians for $7.2m. A considerable contrast with George W. Bush who, with no acts of statesmanship to his name, did not serve his country with any distinction, avoiding active service by joining the National Guard and not showing up much of the time. A marked contrast with his father, George H.W. Bush, who served with bravery in the Pacific War as a navy pilot and was shot down at the Battle of Midway in 1942. Bush senior comes in at a respectable No.18 overall. ‘Poppy’ Bush was a bit of a ‘gent’, not something anyone would accuse his son of, and was ribbed for his patrician ways. Nonetheless he scores far better than his son in all nine of the categories surveyed with the curious exception of “Vision”, where Dubya comes a middling 25 against his Dad’s 34. Quite what vision Bush Jr. is supposed to have demonstrated other than failed policies pursued to folly, beats me.
Lincoln, Washington and FDR duke it out for the top spots most of the time in the nine qualities on which the C-SPAN panel of historians rated the 42 Presidents, which are:
Public Persuasion:
FDR came first here with Ronald Reagan as No.3. Bill Clinton, who came a respectable No. 15 overall, was 10th.
Crisis Leadership:
George W. Bush scored one of his highest rankings for this at No. 25. Hard to figure out the thinking here. Presumably the category is for “successful” crisis management and the aftermath of 9/11, Iraq, Guantanamo and Hurricane Katrina are hardly that. Abraham Lincoln and FDR take First and Second spots and Harry Truman comes No.4.
Economic Management:
Bill Clinton was ranked 3rd for this. George W. Bush was third worst at No.40
Moral Authority:
Richard Nixon, who was ranked 27th overall came second last at No.41 in this category. Clinton,wearing his “Slick Willy” persona, plummeted to his worst ranking at No.37. J. F. Kennedy still got the No. 11 slot here, despite his serial philandering, while George W. came way down at No.35.
International Relations:
George W. Bush ranked second worst at No. 41, while Nixon soared to his best score at No.11. Well, I guess they got that one right.
Administrative Skills:
Reagan’s worst scoring performance at No.30
Relations with Congress:
Lyndon B. Johnson, who was No.11 overall, came in second best here to FDR at No.1.
Vision/Setting an Agenda:
For the same reasons it is again hard to conceive quite how Dubya managed another ranking at No.25. Visions of what pray? Sadam’s non-existent WMDs? Setting an agenda to scrap the Geneva Convention and employ torture?
Pursued Equal Justice for All:
LBJ gets another No.2, again as runner-up to FDR. George W. gets his highest ranking at the No.24 spot. Now this is seriously weird, considering his coddling of the rich at the expense of everyone else, his attitude to reprieves and capital punishment, roll-back of civil rights and his legal support of torture and renditions.
I think the funniest picture I saw recently showed the President and Vice President in the White House gathered with their wives awaiting the arrival of Obama and Michelle. George W. wearing his defiant frat boy smirk, with wife Laura looking sensible and nice as usual, Lynne Cheney appearing angry, apprehensive and defensive while Dick Cheney sat back in a wheelchair with a contemptuous snarl seeking to break through his bleak countenance.
The photo captured a numinous quality, as if a ray of long awaited sunshine, a new wind of cool rationality, good sense and fairness was about to enter the building. As indeed it was in the person of Barack Obama, sweeping away 8 years of botched policies and rancourous Republicanism. The C-SPAN Survey judged George W. Bush kindly, too kindly in my opinion. I believe history will indeed consign him to the lowest rungs in any future presidential ratings. If not ‘the’ worst, he is without doubt ‘one’ of the worst American Presidents there have ever been. George Bush was not a fool or even a bad man, he was just way out of his depth. He never should have been President once, let alone twice.
As for Obama? Boy! Has he got his work cut out for him! A worldwide financial crash and the Planet in Peril, not to mention some nasty little wars plus Global Terrorism. So far no real World Wars. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on that one. If he makes it, and America and the world all come through this OK, he’s going to be right up there with Lincoln and FDR.
