ARCHIVES FROM THE PAST -- President Bush. . . The Ranking, The Legacy, The Sadness

To tidy up some of the scattered orphans that I've sewn throughout the universe of blogs, I'm resettling some of the best of my pithy little missives right here.  ((The ones that I thought stunk. . .. you'll have to search and destroy on yer own)))

Originally Posted by Gene_: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:22:10 AM

Let’s talk legacy.

I know the President flatly states that he doesn’t worry about such things, but be assured, he surely does.

There is one thing that he does not have to worry about though, and that is his spot on the totem pole of the 43 men who have held the office so far.

Sad to say, this President, George W. Bush, will no doubt be ranked near the very bottom of the list.

When you look at the men who, let’s face it, were just plain bad for the country,  most of them could’ve had decent administrations, if not great ones, if it weren’t for usually one or two glaring, horrible confutations with administrative progress.

At the bottom are names like Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, James Buchanan, Lyndon Johnson and most of the mid nineteenth century president’s.

Now, we have George W. Bush.

At the bottom, I think that Andrew Johnson is probably our worst President. Why, you say, would I place him at the bottom? Surely, not for his taking over suddenly and unexpectedly because of the assassination of President Lincoln.

You are correct; his stance as remaining a Senator while his state seceded and his ascendancy to the Presidency was honorable. Andrew Jonson’s major error was fighting for a soft landing for the rebellious states. He then pulled out the veto pen on the reconstruction efforts that Congress and the nation were trying to put in place. Finally, when Congress got so angry with him that they set out a hackneyed impeachment trap for him, he bit.

In all fairness, it was a trivial way to impeach the President, but Johnson knew this. He knew that Congress was wholeheartedly against him and yet he still couldn’t resist their trap to impeach him.

So, for trying to retard the progress of newly freed blacks, negating the deaths of 300- thousand men and being impeached, Andrew Johnson will probably remain the nadir of the American Executive Branch of government.

Johnson is just barely below the great General, but out and out thug, even for his time, AndrewJackson, Two phrases_ threatening to hang a senator, and Trail of Tears.

Next on the list of the shameful, just below of theOTHER President Johnson, Lyndon Baines, comes our current killer and chief George W. Bush.

At least LBJ. could claim he was ensuring the rights of black America at the same time he blossomed a war of choice.

President Bush’s war of choice has no such lofty counter balance.

 If he had fought hard enough He might have pushed through a much needed Social Security revampment, or he should have shepherded his revolutionary “no child left behind” program all the way through. He may still, though hopes are dim, come out victorious in our “legitimate” war on terror.

However, for both of these Presidents the verdict is, when you send thousands of young men and women in uniform to their deaths, for specious or flat out wrong arguments you should never be rated very high in the pages of American history.

This is truly a Greek Tragedy – American style.

Cheers !!!