And now for your reading enjoyment Helen rates the presidents
Helen Thomas rates the presidents
UPI's White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who's covered every president since John F. Kennedy, came to Brown Nov. 20 to discuss her unprecedented and pioneering career in journalism. Before her arrival, she talked by phone to Linda J.P. Mahdesian, offering a report card on the presidents since JFK. In honor of Presidents Day Feb. 16, the George Street Journal presents Thomas' list.
Johnson: Terrific. His outstanding contribution to the country was the Great Society. In the wake of the Kennedy assassination, he got through more tremendous social legislation since any president since Roosevelt - medicare, voting rights, civil rights, federal aid to education including Head Start, public housing, the environment, national parks, anti-poverty, you name it. He covered all the bases. His denouement was the Vietnam War. He didn't want to be the first president to lose a war - not that he would've been. But the best side of the ledger was his domestic achievement.
Nixon: He always had two roads to go, and he always took the wrong road. His great contribution is considered to be the trip to China. But he was part of a China lobby that kept Kennedy and Johnson from not only recognizing China, which was far-fetched, but banning it from joining the United Nations. In 1968 he promised to end the Vietnam War. Four-and-half years later, we were bombing the hell out of Hanoi. On the other hand, on the domestic side, he took a moderate approach to domestic affairs, he created the EPA and some other things. But his chief concern was foreign policy. He certainly was able to exert his efforts. He understood divide and conquer. When he found out that Communism was not monolithic, he proceeded to divide the Soviet Union and China. ...His dark side prevailed too often.
Ford: Very good president. He filled a gap in a very traumatized country. He stabilized the country, restored the confidence in the presidency. He got the country back on keel after the first president in history was forced to resign. He was very well liked, though the pardon took away from his presidency and hurt his reelectionc hances.
Carter: He certainly had several foreign policy achievements. The centerpiece was human rights, which was immediately abandoned by the Reagan administration and low on the agenda of the State Department ever since. He did save a lot of lives - political prisoners in Latin America and so forth - using our foreign aid to persuade the more tyrannical governments, he negotiated the Panama Canal treaty, the Camp David accords, and the SALT II treaty which was never ratified. He tried for four years to get hospital cost containment and the insurance industry and the hospital association laughed in his face. People are paying the price now. He was quite a visionary. He's making the best past president we've had in modern times. He was not successful with Congress, even when his own party dominated both the House and the Senate. He wasn't able to connect with the leaders - except when the chips were down.
Reagan: He was and is the most conservative president in the last 50 years. He turned the country to the right; it's still moving in that direction. There was a Reagan Revolution - ketchup was a vegetable on the school lunch menu. He certainly contributed - not the total success story of bringing the Soviet Union to its knees - but certainly he added to it by the tough arms race. He increased the Pentagon budget nine percent. He spent $1.5 trillion on new weapons, many of which are still on the drawing board. He was very amiable, very friendly, it was hard to dislike him. He never lost the support of the people despite the Iran-contra scandal. His winning personality and sense of humor stood him in good stead.
Bush: Foreign policy was his love. He feels that we didn't give him enough credit for his domestic achievements. But during the Gulf War he reached 90 percent in the popularity polls, which is unheard of. Still, it was the economy that took him out of the play. He held a lot of news conferences, we had good access as reporters. In retrospect, he certainly did try to moderate the Reagan revolution, although not totally. He was trying to win the support of the conservatives, but they never thought he was truly whole-heartedly behind their agenda. They always had a sneaking suspicion that he was a moderate underneath it all, whatever that is.
Clinton: I think education will be his major legacy. He's made tremendous strides in enhancing and broadening access to higher education, making two-year community college tantamount to getting a high school diploma - with tax credits, Pell Grants. His heart's in the right place. He tries to be a New Democrat, not an old-line liberal Democrat. That came to a test on the fast-track legislation where labor was able to influence House leaders. He lost his first two years in his people - twenty- and thirty-somethings trying to run the world. He's got his sea legs in terms of foreign policy.