Bush Not the Worst President Ever?

Trish

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.

Ironically, Bush might have Barack Obama to thank for his relatively mild assignment by historians

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).

Quote du Jour

Trish

“This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking. If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

— David Axelrod (1955 – ), Obama senior advisor, describing how Republicans and the media keep mistakenly counting Obama out, most recently on the stimulus bill

Bill Clinton Breaks with Gays, Crosses Prop 8 Picket Line to Collect Speaking Fee

Jon Ponder

Bill Clinton deserves credit for being the first president to court support from the gay community. But more often than not, gays have been rewarded for their support with disappointment.

You’d think Clinton would have wanted to avoid giving aid and comfort to the Yes on 8 side, which is being led in the state by his old nemesis, Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr.

His good intentions about lifting the ban on gays in the military resulted in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and its bizarre institutionalizing of the closet. And he will forever be remembered as the president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act at the same time he was conducting an extramarital affair.

To his credit, Clinton opposed California’s Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that repealed gays’ right to marriage last year. But yesterday he broke decisively with supporters of gay marriage by crossing a picket line to speak at a hotel under boycott because its owner was a major Prop 8 donor.

Clinton’s visit to the hotel was met with a robust protest:

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