HNN Poll: 61% of Historians Rate the Bush Presidency Worst

[Patrick2]

Partisan historians aren't historians...they're propagandists.

History's fuction is to discover the past and to create a narrative that helps us understand it.

Hopelessly naive. That's what they are SUPPOSED to do. But starting a few decades ago, leftwingers undertook the task of revising history to show everything was the fault of white men and america.

If one comes at that task with an agenda (liberal conservative, what-have-you) then one is no longer truly an historian.

Welcome to the leftwing-controlled academy.

As the right wing trumpets the value of Warren G Harding and Calvin Coolidge

Shaaaaaduppp.

 

[Avorysuds]

smart people have a left leaning bias.

Thank you TM, I knew I could count on you.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Still waiting for that list of conservative historians that have been blacklisted.

 

[Animus]

As much as I don't like what Obama is doing in office at the present time, I can't see how he is rated worst overall with just 3 years as a body of work. I think we need to reflect on his Presidency 10+ years from now to know for sure. Clinton was viewed by some as a good to very good President but CRA, NAFTA, and ending the Glass-Steagle Act has done plenty of harm to our economy.

 

[Big Fitz]

"There are lies, damn lies, statistics, opinion polls and computer models." My former sig line from another forum. An expansion of Mark Twain's original quote.

 

[Truthmatters]

hmmmm

 

[JakeStarkey]

Still waiting for the list of conservative historians that have been blacklisted.

 

[rightwinger]

Bush was rated a better President than William Henry Harrison who only lived for thirty days in the job. He has something to be proud of

 

[rdean]

A Pew Research Center poll released last week found that the share of the American public that approves of President George W. Bush has dropped to a new low of 28 percent.

An unscientific poll of professional historians completed the same week produced results far worse for a president clinging to the hope that history will someday take a kinder view of his presidency than does contemporary public opinion.

In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

At least two of those who ranked the current president in the 31-41 ranking made it clear that they placed him next-to-last, with only James Buchanan, in their view, being worse. “He is easily one of the 10-worst of all time and—if the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities matter—then probably in the bottom five, alongside Buchanan, Johnson, Fillmore, and Pierce,” wrote another historian.

The reason for the hesitancy some historians had in categorizing the Bush presidency as the worst ever, which led them to place it instead in the “nearly the worst” group, was well expressed by another historian who said, “It is a bit too early to judge whether Bush's presidency is the worst ever, though it certainly has a shot to take the title. Without a doubt, it is among the worst.”

History News Network | Because the Past is the Present, and the Future too.

Here's why.....

It's got to be rough for Bush to look at a cartoon like that and know it's the truth. I wonder if he's started drinking again?

 

[rightwinger]

A Pew Research Center poll released last week found that the share of the American public that approves of President George W. Bush has dropped to a new low of 28 percent.

An unscientific poll of professional historians completed the same week produced results far worse for a president clinging to the hope that history will someday take a kinder view of his presidency than does contemporary public opinion.

In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

At least two of those who ranked the current president in the 31-41 ranking made it clear that they placed him next-to-last, with only James Buchanan, in their view, being worse. “He is easily one of the 10-worst of all time and—if the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities matter—then probably in the bottom five, alongside Buchanan, Johnson, Fillmore, and Pierce,” wrote another historian.

The reason for the hesitancy some historians had in categorizing the Bush presidency as the worst ever, which led them to place it instead in the “nearly the worst” group, was well expressed by another historian who said, “It is a bit too early to judge whether Bush's presidency is the worst ever, though it certainly has a shot to take the title. Without a doubt, it is among the worst.”

History News Network | Because the Past is the Present, and the Future too.

Here's why.....

It's got to be rough for Bush to look at a cartoon like that and know it's the truth. I wonder if he's started drinking again?

By the end of his presidency Bush was in shock. He had plans for the Bush Doctrine to reshape the Middle East, he had plans for his tax cuts to kick the economy to new heights. Instead, everything collapsed around him.
His advisors all gave him rosy predictions of how easy everything would be. Instead, Bush was betrayed by his closest advisors and was stuck being the worst president in modern history

 

[SFC Ollie]

They haven't seen the Obama Presidency yet...........

 

[rightwinger]

They haven't seen the Obama Presidency yet...........

From what we have seen he has already done much to clean up the Bush mess and has more meaningful accomplishments than either Bush

 

[SFC Ollie]

They haven't seen the Obama Presidency yet...........

From what we have seen he has already done much to clean up the Bush mess and has more meaningful accomplishments than either Bush

LOL That's why we like you, you're so funny.........

 

[Big Fitz]

hmmmm

Oh look! Necrotardia.

 

[rdean]

Here's why.....

It's got to be rough for Bush to look at a cartoon like that and know it's the truth. I wonder if he's started drinking again?

By the end of his presidency Bush was in shock. He had plans for the Bush Doctrine to reshape the Middle East, he had plans for his tax cuts to kick the economy to new heights. Instead, everything collapsed around him.
His advisors all gave him rosy predictions of how easy everything would be. Instead, Bush was betrayed by his closest advisors and was stuck being the worst president in modern history

I'm not sure Bush was "betrayed". I think if him as a "typical" rich kid who has been pampered and told he is so smart and good. He has lived such a life of privilege. He doesn't really know anything. He has accomplishments which consist of getting people to vote for him.
A clear thinker would realize that if the entire world wanted "freedom and democracy", then there wouldn't be any place for despots such as Saddam. Instead, many people like a "strong leader".
Look at the right wingers in this country. As soon as Republicans get into power, they pass laws to limit women's rights. They want to pass laws against gays (check out the Texas Republican State Party Platform). They want to mandate religion and so on. Not quite for the "freedom and democracy" they claim to be.
Bush had the fantasy that he would "march into Baghdad and the people would cheer and throw flowers and hard candies and establish an "America Appreciation Day".
Instead, he dodged shoes and helped created a hard right Islamic Theocracy where the women are now in Burkas.
Unfortunately, other Republicans are in such denial, they just don't believe it. They feel Iraq is now a democracy and the people are just like us. Only with the women in Burkas. Republicans will even say Iraqi women ALWAYS wore Burkas. Which, of course, is a lie.
Bush was simply a dumb man who was in way over his head. But he seemed confident, so people followed him, especially Republicans.

 

[Katzndogz]

obama on the other hand has dozens of deaths in Iraq on the first day we got out to be proud of.

obama has a LOT to be proud of. In Egypt women are being stipped and beaten in the streets. In Libya black people are randomly slaughtered. Afghanistan is going to return to the taliban. The US is broke and selling the infrastructure to China.

It's all about the accomplishments.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

smart people have a left leaning bias.

Hitler Stalin and Mao were leftists. Our liberals spied for Stalin. They had no idea who caring for the other guy could turn into 40 million slowly starved to death.

 

[JakeStarkey]

They were statists.

You are not a conservative, instead a very dangerous reactionary wack from the far right.

 

[Liability]

Let's see......Historians are a bunch of elitist liberals

Just like ...Scientists are a bunch of elitist liberals


Don't like the message...attack the messenger

Nah. It's just that small minded libs place a whole lot of stock in such obvious tripe when it suits their agendas and matches their preconceived views.

 

[JakeStarkey]

As do small minded cons.

That is a problem I hope this election will help begin solving: isolating the far lefties and far righties beyond the realm of what is reasonable and acceptable.