Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Who’s the Worst President of Them All?

Barack Obama is doing his level best, but has so far by a wide margin, failed to eclipse George W. Bush as the worst president in the 235 year history of the United States of America. Other chief executives of recent times have been abysmally bad for the nation’s welfare, but in the final analysis, Mr. Bush takes the prize as worst of them all.  

His presidency started out well enough; peacefully, and with considerable monetary surpluses left over from the great economic boom of the 1990’s; however, it was his reckless, emotional, and foolhardy response to the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, and the ensuing aftermath of sheer governmental panic on his watch, which started his country down the path to ultimate political and financial disaster.

Granted, the 9/11 terror attacks called for prompt, thoughtful, and reasoned responses; measured responses; focused responses – the same kind of responses which eventually brought Osama bin Laden down, for instance.

They did not justify a decade long military war in Afghanistan. They did not justify a war and subsequent military occupation of Iraq. They do not justify U.S. military involvement and political meddling in Pakistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and the rest of the hopelessly tumultuous Middle East.

United States government incompetence, stemming directly from the Bush administration blunders, has so far cost the American taxpayers upwards of $4 trillion dollars for nothing whatsoever in return, over 6,000 dead and 70,000 wounded American soldiers; in addition to the deaths and wounding of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians caught in the lethal crossfire, as well as substantial diminution and damage to individual liberty and constitutional rights at home.  

The American people will be paying a steep price for George W. Bush’s malfeasance in office far away into the future. President Obama, with the help of his gargantuan administration, and a Congress, consisting of both irresponsible Democrats and Republicans, is only making the situation worse.

All of them share responsibility for the easy credit policies, real estate value implosion, unemployment disaster, massive deficit spending, out of control debt, and national economic meltdown of the last decade, which has the United States on the edge of default and bankruptcy.

There are precious few, if any, political personalities on the radar screen today who have what it takes to turn this unwieldy American ship of state around. Both of the major political parties have demonstrated time and again that they either can’t or won’t do it.

Congratulations to you again, former President George W. Bush. You own the dubious distinction of being worst of them all. You deserve it.

I can’t give you all the credit though. You certainly have plenty of bad company.