Rate the Presidents, Installment #43: George W. Bush

[JonathanSwift]

George W. Bush, 2001-2009

Previous Results
Abraham Lincoln: 4.45 Stars
George Washington: 4.42 Stars
Chester A. Arthur: 3.8 Stars
Dwight D. Eisenhower: 3.7 Stars
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 3.67 Stars
Thomas Jefferson: 3.65 Stars
Theodore Roosevelt: 3.59 Stars
James Monroe: 3.57 Stars
John Quincy Adams: 3.5 Stars
Grover Cleveland: 3.46 Stars
Grover Cleveland: 3.46 Stars
John F. Kennedy: 3.43 Stars
Harry S. Truman: 3.38 Stars
James Madison: 3.23 Stars
William Howard Taft: 3.15 Stars
Zachary Taylor: 3.15 Stars
James A. Garfield: 3.14 Stars
Calvin Coolidge: 3.12 Stars
Ulysses S. Grant: 3.06 Stars
Martin Van Buren: 3.04 Stars
George H. W. Bush: 2.95 Stars
Jimmy Carter: 2.86 Stars
James K. Polk: 2.85 Stars
Bill Clinton: 2.79 Stars
Gerald Ford: 2.73 Stars
Ronald Reagan: 2.62 Stars
John Adams: 2.58 Stars
Lyndon B. Johnson: 2.53 Stars
Warren Harding: 2.48 Stars
William McKinley: 2.47 Stars
Andrew Jackson: 2.43 Stars
William Henry Harrison: 2.38 Stars
Woodrow Wilson: 2.36 Stars
Millard Fillmore: 2.33 Stars
Benjamin Harrison: 2.33 Stars
Richard Nixon: 2.29 Stars
Rutherford B. Hayes: 2.15 Stars
Herbert Hoover: 2.11 Stars
John Tyler: 2.11 Stars
Andrew Johnson: 1.72 Stars
Franklin Pierce: 1.6 Stars
James Buchanan: 1.41 Stars

[ProgressiveCanadian]

The worst.

[Antonio the Sixth]

1 star. An utter disgrace to the office.

[Blair]

Expanding Medicare, and no child left behind should both be praised as legitimate progressive actions. Along with the fact it's a hard hard job to be commander in chief after 9/11-I can appreciate that it was not at all easy.

However post 9/11 GWB seemed to be overwhelmed. The initial stages of Afghanistan were badly thought out-the failure to get Bin Laden, putting Karzhai in charge and then forgetting about it until '06 was a bad decision. The Afghanistan strategy was one that could have worked at first-it was just poorly managed.

However the entire war on terror was awful, Ironic I know coming from a guy call Blair. Stripping soldiers of their human rights under the Geneva convention is awful, no matter how you look at it. Then torturing them, and keeping them without trial is even worse. I'm sure someone will claim 'oh yeah we got information' There's shaky evidence of that I also don't think that it can be defended morally at all, when the US prides itself on being opposed to that.

His reaction to Katrina as well makes him one of the worst post war presidents-appointing your friends to key positions often happens in politics, but appointing stupid friends with no experience, and pulling money of the FEMA is not good

[Antonio the Sixth]

5 stars (normal, sane, etc.) because he knew how conservative values had to be implemented. Most Democrats (including Gore) would have invaded Iraq as well, so I don't know why Bush is blamed for that.

If this was an attempt at humor, it failed quite miserably.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1 star. An utter disgrace to the office.

You sure?  It's pretty hard to disgrace the office of President of the United States of America.

[Antonio the Sixth]

1 star. An utter disgrace to the office.

You sure?  It's pretty hard to disgrace the office of President of the United States of America.

I know, which makes his feat even more impressive.

[OSR stands with Israel]

1 star for that horrid decision to invade iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11 and had no WMD, then disbands the entire army which later turns into the insurgency we fought the whole time we were there then turns into ISIS. Also he turned a 200 billion dollar surplus into a trillion dollar deficts. Also he greatly expanded excutive power and acted like a unitary excutive with all those signing statements.Signed the Patriot act,. Also the economy sucked when he left. tied for the worst with carter for post hoover presidents

[ScottieF]

Probably the worst president in nearly a century and a half. Led us into two failed, costly and pointless wars that disgraced America's global reputation, grossly violated the Geneva Conventions through torture, set up a massive Orwellian surveillance apparatus, was totally incompetent and lost control of his administration to the empire-building neocon lunatics be surrounded himself with, pandered to the Religious Right like no other president, implemented voodoo economics and presided over the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Easy 1 star.

[YaBoyNY]

Easily 5 stars.

We should abolish term limits and have him return in 2016.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Easily 5 stars.

We should abolish term limits and have him return in 2016.

Lol

[OSR stands with Israel]

5 stars (normal, sane, etc.) because he knew how conservative values had to be implemented. Most Democrats (including Gore) would have invaded Iraq as well, so I don't know why Bush is blamed for that.

Also LOL@voting 5 stars for Clinton and 1 for Bush.

You think Clinton was worse then bush

[OSR stands with Israel]

Probably the worst president in nearly a century and a half. Led us into two failed, costly and pointless wars that disgraced America's global reputation, grossly violated the Geneva Conventions through torture, set up a massive Orwellian surveillance apparatus, was totally incompetent and lost control of his administration to the empire-building neocon lunatics be surrounded himself with, pandered to the Religious Right like no other president, implemented voodoo economics and presided over the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Easy 1 star.

You think he was worse then Hoover

[YaBoyNY]

5 stars (normal, sane, etc.) because he knew how conservative values had to be implemented. Most Democrats (including Gore) would have invaded Iraq as well, so I don't know why Bush is blamed for that.

Also LOL@voting 5 stars for Clinton and 1 for Bush.

You think Clinton was worse then bush

Probably the worst president in nearly a century and a half. Led us into two failed, costly and pointless wars that disgraced America's global reputation, grossly violated the Geneva Conventions through torture, set up a massive Orwellian surveillance apparatus, was totally incompetent and lost control of his administration to the empire-building neocon lunatics be surrounded himself with, pandered to the Religious Right like no other president, implemented voodoo economics and presided over the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Easy 1 star.

You think he was worse then Hoover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

[Gass3268]

Horrid, 1*

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

One of the most inept, idiotic and out of place presidents ever to grace the office. In every conceivable measure the man was a failure. Debts and deficits blew out with unsustainable tax cuts and cooperate handouts. The few domestic "sweeping legislation" passed, like Medicare Part D and NCLB, were monsterous boondoggles. Mediocre and sometimes despicable people were promoted far beyond their ability, leading to various departments and agencies (the EPA, interior, FEMA, the justice department, much of the pentagon etc) becoming essentially moribund and dysfunctional. Remember "Brownie"? Remember the succession of non-entity AG's rubberstamping indefensible practices? Even the very last period of office was one of failure, with Paulsen and his team mistepping all over the place throughout the economic crisis.

Perhaps worst of all (and most indicative of the chaos in general) was the hideous botching and mismanagement of the dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if you think these were worthwhile wars, the manner in which they were conducted created enormous debt, two sprawling quagmires that now border on human catastrophes and undermined any general goodwill the world had towards the U.S. for generations. The fact is Bush and team should have recognised that people like Tommy Franks were failing, and instead chose to sweep the issue under the carpet for years - even as the Taliban and rebels rang rings round the scandal-plagued invasion forces in both theatres; even as Rumsfeld sent out soldiers to die in hick armour; even as Bremer threw the baby out with the Ba'ath water, and condemned Iraq to be a a failed, ungovernable state for decades to come etc.

Aside from AIDS in Africa, I can't think of a single issue that the Bush admin will be remembered even remotely positive for. His failures continue to shame the U.S. Really I haven't even scratched the scandal, idiocy and incompetence that will define bush Jr and his team to future historians. It just needs to be said that, even with the benefit of very little time to mull over the precise implications of his misrule; it is abundantly clear that Dubya is among the worst leaders in American history and a textbook example of a man fundamentally incapable of holding executive power.

[Crumpets]

I almost want to give him two stars because he was so utterly incompetent that I think he truly did not understand the implications of the decisions he made and many were the result of his cabinet rather than Bush himself. Furthermore, there were some good policies implemented while he was in office (his AIDS program, for example).

But no. One star.

I hate to link to Keith Olbermann, since I think he's basically liberal O'Reilly, but I think he nailed this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-j1Q0zeHo0

[CapoteMonster]

1 star for all the reasons people have mentioned.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Why was I forced to give this garbage a star?

[Mr. Smith]

1 star. An utter disgrace to the office.

You sure?  It's pretty hard to disgrace the office of President of the United States of America.

Ah yes, but politics has a way of making the impossibly negative possible, does it not?

Anyway, obvious 1 star is obvious 1 star.

[Sumner 1868]

Probably the worst president in nearly a century and a half. Led us into two failed, costly and pointless wars that disgraced America's global reputation, grossly violated the Geneva Conventions through torture, set up a massive Orwellian surveillance apparatus, was totally incompetent and lost control of his administration to the empire-building neocon lunatics be surrounded himself with, pandered to the Religious Right like no other president, implemented voodoo economics and presided over the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Easy 1 star.

You think he was worse then Hoover

Hoover caused no geopolitical crises.

Anyway, I vote one star, though this better explains my view:

Why was I forced to give this garbage a star?

[The Last Northerner]

His response to 9/11 was respectable but that's about it. It's hard not to put him in the bottom 5.

[SATW]

4 stars, great man and leader.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

One star. Worst President of my (short) lifetime.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

His response to 9/11 was respectable but that's about it. It's hard not to put him in the bottom 5

Wasn't his response to read a children's book, dither and make some speeches namrchecking FREEDOM a lo while dragging out the commission so the dumkopf spooks who allowed terrorists to slip through the cracks all could hurriedly shred their files?