From The Edge of the American West:
President Bush came into power at a time of peace and prosperity. Absent a visit from rainbow-maned ponies, pulling carts filled with, um, heaping piles of peace and prosperity, President Bush will leave office with the country mired in not just one but two wars and the economy in shambles. Not to mention: he stole an election, used 9/11 to divide rather than unite the nation, shredded the Constitution, polluted the air and water, refused to throw a drowning city a flotation device, institutionalized torture, and…ZOMG, HE’S THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER!
I never said I was sober. I try to have at least two or three drinks before I blog.
… and he forced everyone to drive SUV’s!
The recent scapegoating and shunning obscures the guilt and complicity of a pliant Congress, an ADD media and many, many otherwise sane people who shouted “four more years” and gloated over cries of “USA, USA”.
Political reality will – as after the Civil War – prevent a true accounting.
Well, there’s Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover. But “didn’t lead to civil war or the worst economic depression of the century” is a pretty low bar for the GWB presidency to jump over, and of course the jury is still out on the second part. Bottom 10 easily, but probably not dead last. (And how do historians rank William Henry Harrison’s presidency?)
And how do historians rank William Henry Harrison’s presidency?
We don’t.
As for President Bush, he’ll certainly rank in the bottom five, fighting it out with Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover, and Nixon. Unless, that is, democracy grabs hold of the Middle East and President Bush is given credit for the transformation. Short of that, I can’t imagine how he’ll climb out of the bottom five.
I hear he sometimes pees in the shower, too.