Is Bush The Worst President Of The Past 50 Years?

Yeah, but worse than Carter? Or Clinton? Or Nixon? I'm certainly not prepared to make that judgement yet

I am.

I don't need to stand around for 50 years to have someone tell me how to think about the past. Carter was a Democrat, of course he was an idiot. What did you expect?

It's clear right now, Bush was sadistic nightmare for Americans, Republicans and conservatives I don't give a damn what anyone says in 50 years.

I am not trying to be condescending, but could you please elaborate on how you arrived at that list? Thanks.

Sure and that certainly a fair not condescending question. He is the list again with some comments about each:

1. G.W.Bush: Correct on taxes and the economy, correct on the war. Correct on international relations. Excellent on judges. His administration ran an heroic rescue operation in the aftermath the worst state and local government made natural disaster in US history. He was just about perfect, but in the last six month the economy turned maybe due to oil prices earlier in the year, maybe due to fears about his successor, maybe in part due to his Dim secretary of the treasury screwing up terribly.

2. Reagan: Correct on taxes BUT signed at the time biggest tax increase later. Right on defense, but lets be real the cold war was won by consensus policy from 1945 on under both Dim and GOP presidents. So so on judges giving us Scalia but Kennedy and worse O'Connor.

3. G.H.W. Bush: Acted quickly and decisively on the invasion of Kuwait. Unfortunately screw up on taxes breaking a promise. On Judges gave us Thomas and did not cave on that nomination, but then gave us Souter. Was fairly good on international relations.

4. Carter: Made a bad appointment at the FED at first but quickly replaced him with Volker but it was too late for his reelection. He did get a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and it has held much better than most expected. He did let the US military decline and paid the price in the sands of Iran. Good on deregulation in CAB and trucking. 5. Ford: Did little while in office. Was silly with his WIN buttons. Bad on Judges giving us Stevens. As a conservative, I rate him above the afirmatively bad and below the afirmatively good. I might have put him ahead of Carter, but Volker and deregulation makes me call Carter on balance good. 6. Johnson: Good on civil and voting rights. Terrible on the expansion of government. Expanded a war with no real will to win it. Terrible on judges. 7. Nixon: Good on some international affairs, ie openning China. Gave us Renquist on the Court but also Powell and worse Burger and Blackmun who without there probably never would have been Roe v. Wade. Did not trust the public enough to run for reelection without trying to steal it. 8. Clinton: Terrible on taxes, terrible on defense and foreign affairs. Gave us Ginsburg and Breyer on the court. He was ok on international economic relations and signed welfare reform. But there was a reason he was impeached. He was a terrible president who presided over scandal after scandal and accomplished little and that under pressure. I hope this makes my reasons clearer.

continuing:

Carter has been AWFUL as an ex-president but that is not his presidency.

5. Ford: Did little as president. But did give us Stevens on the court and was silly with his WIN button. I view him as neutral and above are the on balance positive presidencies and below are on balance negative. Ford could be above Carter, but I think on balance Volker and Egypt at peace with Israel for a generation makes for a positive slate for a 4 year president.

6. LBJ: Good on civil and voting rights. Bad on expanding government, expanding a war without the will to win, judges.

7. Nixon: Gave us Blackmun and thus Roe v. Wade. Gave us affirmative action. Gave us the EPA and DEA. And then did not trust the American people enough and tried to steal his reelection.

8. Clition: Bad on taxes, bad on defense, corrupt. There was a reason he was impeached. His two positives are he was ok on international economic relations and signed welfare reform.

I hope this clears up my views for you.

Bush has done the most long term damage. Had he gotten his way on issues like Harriet Meyers Supreme Court Nomination and the Amnesty bill he would certainly be the worst President in American history.

His insistance on changing the demographics of this country to displace the whites as the majority and drive to hispanicize this country is downright traitorous. The damage done on that front will be hard fix. Not only did he encourage millions of people from around the world to flood into our country, but he actually refused to give a pardon to Ramos and Campion because they attempted to do their job. The message he sent to the Border Patrol was clear. Do your job, go to jail.

As we were all celebrating Christmas his DHE pulled a fast one on us. The DHS approved Malta as a Visa Waiver Program country. That means that if Malta gives the thousands of refugees they get from Africa every year legal status, those people get to come to the US.

Then we have the theft of taxpayer wealth. The taking of Billions, possibly trillions of dollars of tax payer dollars and giving them to corrupt wall street bankers demonstrates the contempt that Mr. Bush and his allies in the Democratic Party have for the people of this country.

The debt that he has accumulated, while shipping our jobs off shore will cripple our children and leave our grandchildren in debt.

Bush became President and the GOP was the majority party in this country. As he leaves they are a minority with no leader and no message as when voters hear 'limited government' from them they roll their eyes.

He may not be the worst President in American history but he is certainly in the bottom 5.

Every conservative should throw shoes at him at every opportunity we have.

In Bush’s defense though, he was dealt a very bad hand with 9/11, which was at least in part a consequence of Clinton’s passive-aggressive pants-down foreign policy. On immigration and economic globalism, he is the product of his political class, no worse than anyone that could have been elected at the time. The worst about him is that now for a whole generation people will think of conservatism as somethign with W’s name on it. But that is his fault by indirection, since we cannot fault him for the little conservative impulses that he did have: public Christianity, conservative judicial appointments (not without going wobbly at first), some tax cuts, and willingness to take on the Social Security madness.

Worst. Republican. Ever.

Which just means he's been better than most Democrat Presidents, certainly better than Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Carter and Clinton. They all did lots of permanent damage to the country. Only JFK and Truman might be arguably better.

Bush did permanent damage to his party, which may end up causing permanent damage to the country. He also did a lot of damage in his own right, with his spending policies and second term failure to pursue the terrorists aggressively. If Iran goes nuclear, that will be a longlasting mistake.

All in all, solidly mediocre, with some successes and some colossal failures.

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