WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY

Kalona News ^ | Feb 15, 2004 | Ethel Bontrager

[11th_VA]

The following appeared in the Durham, N.C., local paper as a letter to the editor on Feb. 15, 2004.

Liberals claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history. Let's clear up one point: We didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember, it was started by terrorists BEFORE 9/11!

Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims:

FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.

John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5800 per year.

Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled Al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Lybia, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. We lost 600 soldiers, an average of 300 a year. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.

Worst president in history? Think about it!

Submitted by Ethel Bontrager

[The Hound Passer]

"One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history."

Its so funny how Libs and Dems forget that Iran took US Hostages during the Carter Admin. because of their hatred of America. An America led by a Dem President, a Dem Senate, and a Dem House.

They forget about the original Black Hawk down episode in the Iraq dessert.

They forget about a Dem president that didn't think the Soviets were a threat to world peace and let them slip into Afganistan, and in relatlation boycotted the Olympics. (That sure taught the Soviets a lesson, right?)

They don't recall the president, who rather than trying to lift American's spirits, slipped on a sweater, and told his citizens that the U.S. was in "malaise," and we should turn down our thermostats.

Oh, the gas lines, the double digit mortgage rates and inflation, and joblessness.

But, even with all that Bush is still the worst president ever. Sure. Sure. That is real believable. What a joke these Dems have become. A big pathetic joke.

Scoop Jackson is rolling in his grave.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Haven't seen your lies for a while. Good to see you back in the grove in the hopeless task of excusing the Abomination's lack of a coherent foreign policy and pursuit of disastrous moves wrt our enemies.

There is no doubt that he failed miserably in almost every area especially foreign policy leaving our enemies much stronger than when he took office.

Bush was faced with the monsters the Abomination allowed to grow or even assisted. N. Korea is a particularly egregious example of the Abomination's fecklessness and lack of wisdom. Thank God he gave us a REAL president. It is such a relief after 8 yrs. of a throughgoing phoney.

Charges that OBL was offered by the Sudan don't come from the GOP but from ex-Clinton supporters and haven't been denied by anyone in the Abomination's administration although EXCUSES have been floated as to WHY it didn't take him.

[justshutupandtakeit]

She couldn't pass the History exam to become a freeper. This is a poor article not worthy of FR.

[justshutupandtakeit]

BS. Every sentence and almost every phrase is either BS or nonsense.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Yet look at the praise this truly pitiful article has generated. Lord, lord, lord do we ever have our work cut out for us if pap like this can be praised on FR. The Country doesn't have a chance from escaping the Sea of Ignorance.

[roaddog727]

Agreed.

Jimmy Carter did more damage to our National Security by killing our ability to gather human intelligence (HUMINT) than any damage done by other presidents in either the near or distant past. The ability to read a license plate from near earth orbit is meaningless without determining human "intent". We are still paying the price for this monumental error.

[Wallace T.]

FWIW: The worst five Presidents: (1) Jimmy Carter (totally incompetent in economic policy, spineless in foreign affairs, e.g. the Iranian hostage crisis; surrendered the Panama Canal, leaving a power void China has recently filled); (2) Bill Clinton (competent in many respects, but utterly corrupt personally, immoral, and off-the-wall abusive, e.g., Waco, the FBI files, the kidnapping of Elian Gonzales); (3) Franklin Roosevelt (the true Founding Father of Big Government; manipulated the U.S. into World War II while promising peace); (4) Lyndon Johnson (FDR's real son, rapidly expanded Federal power and authority; committed massive numbers of troops to SE Asia and refused to fight the war to win); (5) Woodrow Wilson (the first modern liberal; like FDR and LBJ, manipulated America into war while promising peace).

Others worthy of less than honorable mention: John Adams (Alien and Sedition Acts trashing the Constitution within ten years of its ratification); James Buchanan (dithered while the Union was falling apart); Ulysses Grant (next to Clinton, the most corrupt administration in history); William McKinley (succumbing to media pressure to start a needless war with Spain); Theodore Roosevelt (the first neo-conservative, rarely saw any Federal intervention, either overseas or domestically, that he did not like); Warren Harding (personally honest, but far too trusting of his corrupt associates); Herbert Hoover (many of his anti-Depression measures were un-Constitutional and foresaw those of Frankllin Roosevelt); Harry Truman (failed to fight the Korean War to win; resisted anti-Communist measures domestically); Richard Nixon (expanded Federal power where LBJ had left off; imposed wage and price controls).

My five best presidents: (1)George Washington (set the standard for a chief executive in a constitutional republic, a pioneering move in human history); (2) Abraham Lincoln (yes, he was a wartime tyrant and was responsible for many unjust acts, but so were Jefferson Davis, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt. The dissolution of the Union in 1861 would have led to wholesale re-colonization of the Western Hemisphere and the reduction of the U.S., North and South, to quasi-colonial status within the British, French, or German Empires); (3) Grover Cleveland (a man of utmost honesty, the last true Jeffersonian in the White House; he resisted attempts to draw the U.S. into overseas adventures); (4) Ronald Reagan (unlike his predecessors, effectively fought the Soviet bloc, driving them to ultimate collapse soon after he left office in 1989); (5)Calvin Coolidge (the last limited government Republican to hold the Presidency; really believed the old adage that the government that governed best is the one that governs least; Federal spending and borrowing declined during his watch).

Presidents worthy of honorable mention: Thomas Jefferson (the most intelligent man to hold the office; successfully fought piracy in North Africa and the Caribbean; mostly held to his limited government precepts while in office); James Madison (successfully defeated the British attempt to retake their old colonies, the War of 1812); James Monroe (recognized the need to protect the fledgling new republics of Latin America from foreign re-colonization through the Monroe Doctrine); Andrew Jackson (favored decentralized government, by opposing the Bank of the United States; kept the South Carolina hotheads in line when they threatened secession over tariffs; was willing to defy the Supreme Court when he disagreed with their decision); Andrew Johnson (tried to follow Lincoln's moderate views on Reconstruction; has he succeeded, the South might not have held the postwar bitterness caused by the Radicals' tyrannical state governments); William Howard Taft (resisted many of the Progressives' big government initiatives, causing his being opposed by both Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt); Dwight Eisenhower (kept the budget balanced; restored stability to the Federal government after two decades of liberal expansion and programs).

[MegaSilver]

by "dead weight loss" do you mean the use of money spent by the government? Or do you mean the debt the government incurs by spending what it doesn't have?

Neither. When the government imposes a tax on a good, it has an effect similar to lowering the demand curve or raising the supply curve (depending on who is being taxed, but either way, both the consumer and the producer share the burden of the tax). But it doesn't just cut into the total surplus; it actually creates what's known as a dead weight loss, a piece that goes to neither the consumer nor the producer nor the government. It's gone forever, out of the economy (until you get rid of the tax).

When the government spends money (even money it doesn't have) it does grow the economy. Things are still being bought and sold. Money is still exchanging hands.

Yes, it does, but if that money was being spent in the private sector, the economy would grow even MORE.

[GOPcapitalist]

My list of worst presidents in history starting with the very bottom:

1. Lincoln
2. FDR
3. LBJ
4. Clinton
5. Carter
6. Grant
7 - 11 (arrange in any order because they were all equally forgettable) Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Garfield, Arthur

[Texas Federalist]

What a silly post. While I admit that reasonable people disagree about the merits of the civil war, your post assumes the fallacious premise that the Democrats in 1860 were the same party as in 2004, simply because they have the same name. There were two political cleavages which realigned the parties in the intervening period - around 1900, when the merits of the gold standard became the central political issue and in the 1930's, when the rise of the welfare state became the main issue. There were massive party migrations during each of the periods such that afterwards, the parties were the same in name only.

Oh, and I assume the president other than Lincoln at the top of your list wouldn't be Washington, because he was a traitor too, right?

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[Lancey Howard]

Great find!
BUMP

[Mo1]

.

[Texasforever]

Wait a minute, Kerry hasn't even been elected yet.

"President Kerry" would be the most dangerous president in history.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Your last quotation attempting to equate the lunatic traitors of 1861 with the real patriots of 1776 merely shows the vacuousness of any attempt to defend the DemocRAT Insurrection. There was no government constitutionally empowered to govern the Colonists of 1776 there was one to do just that in 1861. That Constitution and the Union it established were attacked by the DemocRAT Insurrection. Arbitrary pronouncements of the Royal Will were attacked in 1776. Huge difference.

By tearing itself into three parts the DemocRAT party 1860 allowed Lincoln to win then concocted a phony "tyranny" and launched its insane rebellion attempting to avoid the consequences of its political folly. Having barely taken office, Lincoln did nothing to provoke them nor would he have interfered unconstitutionally with the Slavers only REAL concern, slavery.

Washington and Lincoln were the greatest presidents the nation ever had. Both had to address the lunacy of secession and Washington did just that in the Farewell Address.

DemocRAT power has always relied upon the big city machines (and for the same reasons) and corrupt political organizations pretending a Populist concern outside the cities. Aaron Burr and George Clinton would be just as at home in the DemocRAT party of today as they were in 1800 so would most of the others who are DemocRATS. "Policies" have always mattered less than tactics and strategies to attain power to that party.

[Tinman]

"John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5800 per year."

Just a slight correction, DDE sent military "advisors" to Vietnam in the '50's, after the French were forced out. The 58,000 names on The Wall go back to 1959.

This was LBJ's war. He's responsible for the escalation, in 1965.

Regards

[Texas Federalist]

Washington and Lincoln were the greatest presidents the nation ever had.

I am sure that, for your kind words, Lincoln is looking up at you right now, smiling. Regards.

[justshutupandtakeit]

You can't sneak that through since Lincoln need look up to no man but certainly would have a higher position from which to look than any of the DemonRATs who tried to destroy the Union and Constitution. Or their contemporary enablers and current rationalizers.

[pjd]

I just recieved the article in an eamil today, and it had a few interesting things added, so I'll post it here:

> Facts
>
> There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of
> January..... in the fair city of Detroit (Michigan) there were 35 murders in
> the month
> of January. That's one American city folks, about as deadly as the entire war
> torn country of Iraq!
>
> Worst president in history?
> Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement ...
>
> FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From
> 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.
>
> Truman finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never
> attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of
> 18,333 per year.
>
> John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never
> attacked us. I think history might show Eisenhower committed the troops and
> Kennedy
> was honoring that commitment.
>
> Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From
> 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.
>
> Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never
> attacked us.
>
> He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and
> did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
>
> In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated
> two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors
> in Lybia, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a
> terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. We lost 600 soldiers, an
> average
> of 300 a year. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist
> attack at home.
>
> Worst president in history? Come on! The Democrats are complaining about
> how long the war is taking, but... It took less time to take Iraq than it took
> Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51 day operation.
>
> We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time
> than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
>
> It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy
> the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police
> after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
>
> It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in
> Florida!!!!

[clomp]

You idiot. Germany and Italy both declared war on the United States first. Being a part of the axis powers with Japan, they declared war on the U.S. after Pearl Harbor.

[Political Junkie Too]

One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history.

Remember, these are also the same people who claim that we are extremists, that President Bush nominate extremist judges who are outside the mainstream.

When they use phrases like "worst president in U.S. history,""worst bill ever," and "incompetent," who's being extreme?

-PJ