The Worst President Ever?

Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, in an Opinion column at USA Today, wrote this:

Mea culpa to Bush on Presidents Day
Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY founder

Our great country has had 43 presidents. Many very good. A few pretty bad. On Presidents Day next Monday, it's appropriate to commemorate them all.

I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid. He was one of the worst. I've personally met every president since Dwight Eisenhower. He was one of the best.

A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."

"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.

I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.

No offence to Al, but the day I found out GW was running for president, I was extremely leery! I wasn't crazy about his father, and having somewhat followed his career as a governor, I was sure I didn't want him as my president. I am still awed at how his presidency even came about.

When the media and people I knew were saying what a down to earth man GW was, he was the type of guy you'd want to have a beer with, I cringed. I couldn't see what they were seeing in him. What I saw was an arrogant, spoiled son of a former president. And when I heard Cheney was his choice for VP, my blood turned to ice.

At that point I knew nothing about PNAC, but I am old enough to remember the Nixon years and the Reagan years. I remembered Iran Contra and all the players involved. And lo and behold, these people were brought back for the GW reign! At that point I knew we were in trouble.

Later, after 9/11, people were still saying Bush was a great president. I still didn't see this. I wondered why he wasn't heard from for over 24 hours after 9/11. I heard about the school in Florida that he was at at the time of 9/11. I heard about Air Force One flying around until they decided to land somewhere safe. Then I heard about the Saudis being flown out of the country when there was a ban on all aircraft from flying for days after 9/11. I knew, when other didn't, that something was terribly wrong. So many people were singing his praises, but I was wondering what they saw in this man and was I the only one feeling this way.

That feeling of being alone was only exacerbated by the news stations, the Main Stream Media, saying what a great job Bush was doing. This feeling of being alone didn't pass until Air America Radio came to be and I realized I was not alone.

Then came Iraq and the lies to get into a war with Saddam! But that's another post all together!

Did any of you feel like I did? Alone in dreading Bush's presidency?