Michael VDG has put up a couple of smart posts on whether George Walker Bush is the worst president ever, one of which includes a link to a series of WaPo “Outlook” section columns in which historians and other pundits take a stab at that question and perhaps an even more important one at this juncture: What can the president do during the last two years of his second term to salvage his legacy?
I myself addressed the issue at my home blog on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and used the set of images above from “Mug Shots,” a wicked and wickedly expensive limited-edition boxed set book, to hammer home my points. (No, I don’t own it, but the rare book and manuscript library where I work for beer money does.)
If you are a timid soul, you probably don’t want to read Assessing George Bush on the Anniversary of 9/11 (Or Why No Stem Cells Were Killed in Iraq).
An excerpt:
“As someone who bleeds red, white and blue for the United States, values its institutions and served in its armed forces, as a student of American history, observer of eight presidential administrations and sometime White House visitor over a long career in journalism and then a second life as a blogger, I make the following statement with authority, but not one iota of satisfaction:
“George Bush is the worst president in U.S. history.
“Comparing Bush to James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, who are routinely cited by historians as being the worst presidents, would seem to be unfair. After all, these mediocrities held office in less complex and troubled times and only Harding served when the U.S. was a global power with the attendant challenges and responsibilities.
“But this is precisely why George Bush will be judged the worst president.”
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