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W stands for "worst"
The question has echoed in alternative media for months. As coverage of the spiraling violence in Iraq and the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina shines a spotlight on the Bush administration's two biggest failures and Joe Scarborough has the nation buzzing over whether the president is "an idiot," people increasingly are beginning to wonder whether George W. Bush is the worst president in history. While President Bush has some stiff competition, this is one race Bush can win without the intervention of the Supreme Court or an unscrupulous Secretary of State.
Recent surveys have shown that historians overwhelmingly rate the Bush presidency as a failure -- but is it the worst? Bush' principal competitors for this title are all failed one-term presidents defined by several key deficiencies -- leading the nation toward or failing to avoid a major calamity, economic mismanagement, lack of credibility or competence, intransigence, opposing civil rights and corruption.
Presidents William Tyler (1841-45), Millard Fillmore (1850-53), Franklin Pierce (1854-57) and James Buchanan (1857-61) are each condemned for failing to prevent and/or increasing the likelihood of the Civil War, with President Buchanan's failure to oppose efforts by southern states to secede from the Union being rated as the greatest presidential blunder of all time.
While it is hard to match the devastation of the Civil War, President Bush will be remembered not only for failing to act despite warnings prior to both Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina, but for leading the nation into an unnecessary and failed war in Iraq that diverted attention from the war against Al Qaeda and seriously damaged our global standing.
It should be no surprise that President Bush is a distant cousin of President Pierce. Just as Pierce left office with very little credibility, today nearly 60 percent of Americans consider Bush to be dishonest and untrustworthy since, as one historian noted, he has "systematically lied to the American public about almost every policy that his administration promotes."
President Andrew Johnson's (1865-69) intransigence and opposition to civil rights legislation led to his impeachment and earned his spot in the hall of shame. Senator Sumner noted that Johnson was "his own worst counselor (who believed) that following counsel and making concessions were a display of weakness." This description could easily be applied to the "my way or the highway" philosophy of the Bush administration.
While Johnson may have opposed the expansion of freedom to freed slaves, the Bush administration has sought to roll back or deny existing liberties to citizens through its domestic spying program, use of indefinite detentions and its support for amendments prohibiting flag burning and gay marriage.
President Warren Harding (1921-23) once admitted to an aide that he was in over his head and should never have been president, while his contemporaries labeled him as "corrupt, incompetent (and) lacking the ability to speak authoritatively about public questions." Harding, however, is primarily condemned for corruption and ideological rigidity in pushing for a nostalgic return to the "normalcy" of a rural society despite the nation’s transition to an urban industrialized society.
President Bush -- whose competence, intellect and communications skills also have been seriously questioned -- similarly came into office emphasizing a Reagan-Bush era agenda of tax cuts, regime change in Iraq and star wars missile defense, only adapting the program justifications and not the programs themselves for this new century. While the Bush administration has not been racked by corruption, this may be because it has escaped scrutiny due to its excessive secrecy and a compliant Congress that abandoned its oversight responsibility.
In terms of economic management, President Herbert Hoover (1929-32) gets the lowest marks for failing to forcefully respond to the Great Depression. Creating an economic disaster, however, is far worse than failing to alleviate one. Former Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson condemns Bush for "presid(ing) over the biggest, most reckless deterioration of America ’s finances in history," turning a record budget surplus into a record deficit, incurring more debt than all prior presidents combined and leaving the government bankrupt and ill prepared for the looming retirement of baby-boomers.
Even among his august one-term competitors, President Bush stands out because of the breadth of his failures and the fact that while the other presidents primarily are condemned for failing to navigate out of stormy waters, he recklessly created his own storms both at home and abroad whose damage is compounded over two terms.
President Bush once claimed that he is the "master of low expectations." In ranking the Bush presidency, historians inevitably will conclude that Bush lived up to those expectations.
Bennet Kelley (bennet@bennetkelley.com) is the former national co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s young professional arm, publisher of BushLies.net and a Santa Monica lawyer.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
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