61% of Historians Rate the Bush Presidency Worst Ever

The History News Network conducted an informal poll of 109 historians, 61% of Historians Rate the Bush Presidency Worst 35% placed in the 31st-41st category while only 4 ranked it as 2nd-30th. "98.2% assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8% classified it as a success." Yes it's far too early to judge and the sampling was self-selected for those that choose to reply, but still.

"One historian indicated that his reason for rating Bush as worst is that the current president combines traits of some of his failed predecessors: ‘the paranoia of Nixon, the ethics of Harding and the good sense of Herbert Hoover. . . . . God willing, this will go down as the nadir of American politics.’ Another classified Bush as ‘an ideologue who got the nation into a totally unnecessary war, and has broken the Constitution more often than even Nixon. He is not a conservative, nor a Christian, just an immoral man . . . .’ Still another remarked that Bush’s ‘denial of any personal responsibility can only be described as silly.’

‘It would be difficult to identify a President who, facing major international and domestic crises, has failed in both as clearly as President Bush,’ concluded one respondent. ‘His domestic policies,’ another noted, ‘have had the cumulative effect of shoring up a semi-permanent aristocracy of capital that dwarfs the aristocracy of land against which the founding fathers rebelled; of encouraging a mindless retreat from science and rationalism; and of crippling the nation’s economic base.’

‘George Bush has combined mediocrity with malevolent policies and has thus seriously damaged the welfare and standing of the United States,’ wrote one of the historians, echoing the assessments of many of his professional colleagues. ‘Bush does only two things well,’ said one of the most distinguished historians.  ‘He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches.  His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.’ "

The author of the article wrote "In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States enjoyed enormous support around the world. President Bush squandered that goodwill by taking the country into an unnecessary war of choice and misleading the American people to gain support for that war. And he failed utterly to have a plan to deal with Iraq after the invasion. He further undermined the international reputation of the United States by justifying torture. Mr. Bush inherited a sizable budget surplus and a thriving economy. By pushing through huge tax cuts for the rich while increasing federal spending at a rapid rate, Bush transformed the surplus into a massive deficit. The tax cuts and other policies accelerated the concentration of wealth and income among the very richest Americans. These policies combined with unwavering opposition to necessary government regulations have produced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Then there is the incredible shrinking dollar, the appointment of incompetent cronies, the totally inexcusable failure to react properly to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the blatant disregard for the Constitution—and on and on."