cascadian said:
I think Dubya has been consistently low for an unprecedented time. I still don't think much of Reagan, but he was popular for most of his presidency. I have to give him some credit for that.
Well, nobody liked Saddam. But we haven't seen his replacement yet. Will it be civil war or a conservative religious government like the Taliban? I happen to think that latter two are likely and I don't know if I would prefer them to Saddam yet. On top of that, the US simply can't afford this war right now. The economic consequences will be judged harshly by those in the future.
I have to add to the chorus to say that ranking Bush requires some speculation, but I think its worthwhile to note that many previous presidents didn't enter the discussion so early in such an ignominious way.
This discussion could have been held at anytime since we had more than one American president to compare, and a large fraction would vote that the current guy, whom they of course didn't vote for, was the worst ever.
Since FDR was president before Bush, Bush can't be the worst. (Socialist Security and the subsequent Great Slide Downhill begins)
Since Wilson was president before Bush, Bush can't be the worst. (WWI, the Federal Reserve System)
Since Carter was president before Bush, Bush can't be the worst. (Stagflation, no testosterone, no cerebral EEG activity)
Since Ford was president before Bush, Bush can't be the worst. (WIN Buttons? Oh, come on!)
Who else? Clinton? (Rape, perjury, WACO, impeachment, coffee, Motel 6, too many to list)
Bush? (Broke Tax Promise, which put a rapist in the White House. Failed to act on the Yugoland matter, at all, let alone correctly. "Read My Hips" sealed his fate.)
Nixon? (Policy wise, I don't know why the liberals hate him. He only had one FBI file, too. Someone else had over a thousand.)
Johnson. (Tonkin Gulf Resolution says it all, don't it?)
JFK? (Damn lucky we didn't get in a nuclear war with this callow youth running the show.)
So, there ya have it. IMO Boy Bushy is probably tenth on the list of "worst" Presidents. But it's really impossible to place him for two reasons:
1) He's not done yet. He's got two and a half years left in which he can either really screw things up (signing an amnesty bill for 20 million wetbacks will do it), or you think he's got two and a half years to reform his record.
2) We don't have the perspective of history on much of what's happening, and we certainly don't even know all of what's going on yet.