A survey commissioned by C-Span has found that, despite Pensito Review’s opinion, George W. Bush is not the worst president ever. There were, esteemed presidential historians found, six even worse.
This is hard to imagine, given some of the categories on which the former presidents were judged. For example, Bush ranked only 40th (out of 42, of course) on economic management. His score on crisis leadership — 25th — is especially surprising, since one of the survey’s leaders is Douglas Brinkley. Brinkley wrote The Great Deluge about Hurricane Katrina, which he witnessed firsthand as a faculty member at Tulane. And in international relations, Bush was only 41st. William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days into office, was rated worst.
Ironically, Bush might have Barack Obama to thank for his relatively mild assignment by historians to the ranks of bottom ten (36th, to be exact). The world began to hold America in a different light on Nov. 4, 2008 and relations only continue to improve since Obama’s inauguration. Had the prissy and hot-headed Sen. John McCain been elected, Bush’s failed policies would have continued and been allowed to run their faulty course. Instead Obama is reversing almost every Bush initiative, blunting some of the damage.
One other interesting note is that only four of the top ten presidents were Republicans: Lincoln (1st), Teddy Roosevelt (4th), Eisenhower (8th), and Reagan (10th).
