Rating the Presidents

Townhall ^ | Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | Bruce Bartlett

[TampaDude]

A lot of crap was thrown at Reagan when he was in office, too. Looking back, we realize that Reagan did the right thing. Hopefully, history will vindicate Bush as well. Time will tell.

[MadIvan]

There are various ways of calculating "best". In terms of achievement of stated objectives, one would have to put James Polk at the head of the class. In terms of personal character, I would put John Quincy Adams at the top (he suffered from what would be called clinical depression, but always managed to function in spite of it). In terms of lasting impact, Washington and Lincoln score well.

It depends on what you value. Certainly, there are Presidents who are truly awful by any measure - Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan spring to mind.

Regards, Ivan

[kromike]

The absolutely worst-ever (and last) President we will have will be a "President Rodham". If "it" somehow gets elected, there won't be any more elections...

[ICE-FLYER]

This whole effort to write HISTORY before it is really full is simply politically motivate crap from the left. They want to frame the debate over the person in question all the while making their guy look like a saint when he acted like satan.

Bush, unlike his predacessor, is a few things Clinton was not...principled, and a leader who did not ebb and flow. This does not mean he is perfect, or did all things right, it means he was different in approach and integrity.

The left can not deal with this so they will be out early to write Bushes history as mere deflection from accurately telling the story of the impeached president they love.

[RexBeach]

I believe President Truman thought he would have been impeached had he not dropped the bombs on Japan. But he also thought it was the right thing to do.

But Mr. Bartlett errs, I think, when he opines that Truman probably did not have to drop the nukes on Japan. There was just no way American intelligence could have known how Japan would have reacted to an invasion of the home islands. Most estimates of casualties that I have read over the years put American losses at more than a million men.

Dropping the bombs also kept the Soviet Union out of Japan.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

There may come a day....hopefully long after I am wormfood...when Sharia is the law of this land.

George W. Bush will be remembered, through the fog of time, as a visionary who saw the Islamic extremists for what they were.

[Clifford The Big Red Dog]

Harry Truman left office with the lowest poll numbers in history, yet today he's considered one of the greats.

And Harry's one of the few Democrat presidents I respect and admire.

[pgyanke]

George W. Bush will be remembered, through the fog of time, as a visionary who saw the Islamic extremists for what they were.

A small minority of a very peaceful religion?

[mak5]

That is why I have always put Polk at the top of my list. He kept every campaign promise, including one not to run again. (He hoped to be drafted by his party and wouldn't have lived into a second term, but he didn't run.)

Kennedy has recently begun to show up in the "most overrated" category in these surveys, and they are ranking Clinton as about equal to Coolidge, in other words, as not important, leaving problems for his successor to deal with.

[AdvisorB]

I think these leftist/socialist/liberal/cut-and-run historians are in for a big surprise. Mugged by reality, again.....

[fschmieg]

True historians do not attempt to judge until sufficient time has passed. Therefore, those who contributed to that Post farce cannot truly claim the mantle of historian.

[Rummyfan]

One said that he is the worst president, ever; a second agreed that he was pretty bad, but still might redeem himself in his last two years

BS Alarm right there! they overlook Carter, LBJ, and Buchanan to say President Bush is the worst? I myself would put him in the Top Ten.

[Sans-Culotte]

There may come a day....hopefully long after I am wormfood...when Sharia is the law of this land.

George W. Bush will be remembered, through the fog of time, as a visionary who saw the Islamic extremists for what they were.

I agree with the first part of your statement, but not the second. But I think GWB may well be remembered as the president who saw more of the danger than his democrat counterparts, but who nonetheless, labored under a misconception that Islam was a "religion of peace". He will certainly not bee seen as a Chamberlain, but he is no Churchill, either.

[graf008]

Through in Harding as well...he was very bad.

[MadIvan]

I'd have to say in Coolidge's defence that he didn't leave major problems - Hoover turned what was a natural hiccup in the business cycle into something much worse by trying to interfere.

The old story goes that after Hoover was nominated, Coolidge ordered a bottle of whiskey and locked himself in his hotel room. He also said of Hoover, "That man has given me a lot of unsolicited advice, all of it bad."

Regards, Ivan

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "But Mr. Bartlett errs, I think, when he opines that Truman probably did not have to drop the nukes on Japan."

Mr. Bartlett errs throughout the article, but it's this point I find him completely devoid of context.

My Stepfather was a Chief Petty Officer on the USS Belleau Wood, a light carrier, when it was on its way with the rest of the fleet to assault the mainland of Japan. Dad said when news of the bombs dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were announced, one could hear a universal sigh of relief coming from the fleet--and he wasn't speaking figuratively, either--as thousands of men discovered the assault would not take place. A few broke into tears.

Conventional invasion of Japan would have meant, at a minimum, a million American casualties. A million.

Truman made the right decision. And another thing, too: Bartlett's low evaluation of Roosevelt and Wilson are way off the mark. For one thing, Roosevelt's superb performance as Commander-in-Chief during WWII far outweighs any damage done by the New Deal, and for another, Wilson was forced by the Germans into WWI--the last thing Wilson wanted was European entanglement. Unrestricted submarine warfare, the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram and more were provocations no President could ignore and remain President for long.

Seems to me Bartlett's allowing his biases to color his judgments, the very thing he accuses liberal historians of doing.

[television is just wrong]

the only thing those two have done that I don't agaree with is giving amnesty to illegal aliens. and encouraging more of them to come here.

[MadIvan]

Through in Harding as well...he was very bad.

I disagree. The business cycle turned sour after Harding took office, partially as a natural response to the end of World War I. Harding slashed taxes and what could have been a recession turned into a boom.

Regards, Ivan

[LS]

Whenever anyone is sinking our ships, killing our people, and trying to get Mexico to go to war with us, I'd say we had "national interest" in WW I. And when, despite being bombed to hell and cut off by sea, the Japanese gave no indication whatsoever of surrendering prior to Aug. 6, I'd say Truman was EXACTLY right to bomb them, and to drop BOTH.