Was George W Bush really the worst president in U.S. history?

[TheTGB]

I would say he is definitely up there though...out of 44 Presidents he's probably in the top 5 in my opinion. Truman and Wilson were pretty bad in my opinion too.

[drtom2005]

Well Presidents are judge by history, but I think starting two wars before completing thinking the process through places him up there as one of the worst. Taking away civl liberities places him up there. Torturing prisoners places him up there.

[streicher187]

Considering that they make Reagan looke like a great president and have turned him into a god among republicans anything is possible. They make him out to be the most popular president in history when he left office. And when you speak ill of him like they tried to do in a tv movie it gets pulled from the air..

The things that bush will have to live down are

9/11
Happened on his watch, can blame whoever he wants but happened on his watch and there were signs there something was going to happen

Katrina
After 9/11 our response to disasters was supposed to be great, it was terrible and we watched on tv as people died. This showed that he put friends in office who didn't deserve to be there and it cost lives.

Afgan/Bin Laden
These are the same, if he had done afganistan right Bin Laden would be in prison or dead, went in on the cheap then started another war. The Soviet Union lost in Afgan(because of US help) now we are losing ground(looks like because of Russian help).

Iraq
EVEN IF Iraq is a free country in 10 years they should still be asking WHY we are there? The reasons were not authentic and kept changing. Sad thing is if Obama takes troops out and all hell breaks loose he will get blamed for it.

Gitmo/Abu Grabass
He will always be know for taking away rights of people including children and using torture to get information.

Wiretapping
Will be fighting legality of this for years, whistleblowers have come forward telling their story and how Americans and news media have been spied on not just overseas.

other things from last 8 years
Valerie Plame
Federal Judges fired
Sex/Drugs for favors with oil company by department of inter.
Lack of support for troops and vet neglect at walter reed

No bid contract that allowed Civilian contractors in Iraq getting soldiers killed and stealing money..

Stripping of habeas corpus

Doubling of National Debt

Allowing Iran and North Korea to advance their Nuke programs and refusing to talk

The Patriot Act

Ground Zero declared non toxic by EPA during cleanup

2000 election in Florida


I know how can you prove he knew about any of this, the point is as he said he is the commander in chief and in charge of the agencies. He should be accountable for their actions as any boss would be.

Aside from the scandals he managed to create a useless department in Homeland Security, Spend trillions on Medicare and other HUGE goverment spending programs that is as from from conservative as you can get.

And I'm sure some will say "he kept us safe" my answer is how do you know? how do you know that the terrorists planned other attacks in the US that were stopped? All the ones you heard about were US citizens who were stupid and usually caught by kinko workers not the goverment. It took years to plan the last attack I'm sure so why did people assume there would be another one?

[Diamondlistings]

I believe he himself wasn't the worst, although he let everything slide by him, but his party itself was the worst. They allowed almost anyone to do something, they let countless things get away

[DAVE30]

I am going to YES!!!!

[haybierman]

9/11
Happened on his watch, can blame whoever he wants but happened on his watch and there were signs there something was going to happen

Yes it did happen on his watch, but it was the FBI that blew the call, not GWB.

Katrina
After 9/11 our response to disasters was supposed to be great, it was terrible and we watched on tv as people died.

Our response was dictated by the Governor of Louisiana. FEMA is not allowed to enter any state for relief efforts unless invited. The Gov. didn't let them in until it was far too late, not to mention that she had no idea what resources were needed. In her message to FEMA she said "send everything". I'm sorry but you have to be more specific than that to reasonably expect a timely response.

Afgan/Bin Laden
These are the same, if he had done afganistan right Bin Laden would be in prison or dead, went in on the cheap then started another war. The Soviet Union lost in Afgan(because of US help) now we are losing ground(looks like because of Russian help).

Agreed.

Iraq
EVEN IF Iraq is a free country in 10 years they should still be asking WHY we are there? The reasons were not authentic and kept changing. Sad thing is if Obama takes troops out and all hell breaks loose he will get blamed for it.

Again, I agree

Gitmo/Abu Grabass
He will always be know for taking away rights of people including children and using torture to get information.

Fair enough, but like I said in the first post, he isn't the only one who supported this.

Wiretapping
Will be fighting legality of this for years, whistleblowers have come forward telling their story and how Americans and news media have been spied on not just overseas.

Everybody has different viewpoints on the balance of liberty vs. security. It is impossible to argue this as it is all based on personal preference.

Federal Judges fired

Uhhh do you realize how often stuff like this happens in EVERY Presidency?

Sex/Drugs for favors with oil company by department of inter.

Was Bush directly involved in this?


I can't even comment on the rest because it looks like you're just throwing up a ton of crap against the wall and see what sticks.

I just ask one favor - instead of just posting some rant that might in some way be relevant to the actual initial posting, could you do what the rest of us do and actually directly answer the posts that we respond to? I think its only fair that if we take the time to address your issues you could do the same by addressing ours.

[RedGoneWILD]

i am far from a presidential historian, and i completely agree with jammingjames that you cant truly judge a presidency until years later, but yes, bush 2 is the worst president of all time...if for no other reason than as an American i'm entitled to say that

anybody who declares himself the war president, starts 2 wars, and finishes 0 has to be ranked at or near the bottom of the list

[BravesFan4Life]

I am by no means an American Historian...I am a Historian(my degree proves that :)) but I tend to dabble in more Marxist and Communist history. Needless to say we do have to learn American History because well yeah I live in the USA. That being said.

I would have to say no for a few reasons:

1. Yes he did biff a lot of things but he will really only accurately be judged about 10 years from now. You have to let all the policies, etc completely take hold or fade away before you can truly judge a president. Will he end up the worst? He has damn good potential but there have been some real screw jobs.

2. Take a look at the post Lincoln period. Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached because he was trying to essentially keep the old racial lines that the Civil War had just seemed to eliminate. Good ole General Grant that followed him had a presidency ripe with scandal and corruption. He was a puppet president and no more. Truman had his share of messes, Nixon and Watergate. I do not have all the facts to elaborate further in my head on those last two.


I do take some offense to this:

Woodrow Wilson wasn't so great either. After WWI, he allowed the British and the French to impose a harsh restrictions on Germany in order to get their support for the founding of the League of Nations. The allies' grinding Germany's nose in the dirt brought Hitler to power and caused World War II. Wilson also paid the Russian Government to stay in World War I, thus causing the revolution that brought the Bolshevik party to power. Wilson then sent U.S. troops to try to defeat the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war, which contributed to the suspicions that eventually led to the Cold War. Wilson also conducted many military interventions in Latin America, mostly to help U.S. business interests. He also was the first president ever to mobilize the entire U.S. economy for war and was thus the father of permanent big government. Wilson's violations of civil liberties during World War I were the worst in U.S. history and make Bush's look fairly mild.

It was not just Wilson whom conducted many operations in Latin America pretty much every president including W have in some form or fashion intervened in Latin American politics. Usually it was in the name of anti communism but they usually ended up being plays for money and big business(which yes Wilson did start but he was not the only one). The troops Wilson sent to aid the Whites in the Russian Revolution really had little to do with the Cold War. It did not help that he intervened on behalf of the Kerensky government but it had nothing to with the early Bolshevik government run by Lenin and Trotsky. It was Stalin whom, assumed the reigns after Lenin's death and Trotsky's subsequent ousting from power, that proliferated the Cold War because of the arms race with the US after WW2. Stalin was not a particularly bright man like Lenin or Trotsky, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time and used force primarily to get what he wanted. Kruschev, Brezhnev, etc all just continued his policies until they were finally put to rest by Gorbachev and Yeltsin.


I do think that Wilson mobilizing the entire economy and government proved one good thing, that this country has the ability to do great things if it wants to...what it does with that ability and power is a whole other issue though.

[gatorboymike]

I'd have to say Harding and Coolidge were the two worst presidents in American history, but Bush most definitely rounds out the bottom five along with Nixon and Reagan.

[jaybird_1981]

I'd have to say Harding and Coolidge were the two worst presidents in American history, but Bush most definitely rounds out the bottom five along with Nixon and Reagan.

Reagan is in your bottom five?