At 05:44 AM 3/30/2004 -0800 Richard Baker wrote:
>JDG said:
>> By whom? Under the usual standards that Presidents rate such
>> things, I expect that he will be placed near or at the top of
>> one-term Presidents if he loses re-election.
>
>Regardless of Bush Jr's merits, he surely doesn't compare favourably
>with Bush Sr, who skillfully managed the crisis in the global order
>caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and even fought a war against
>Iraq with the backing of most of the rest of the world (and even with
>French troops!).
But that last point is not one of the criteria on which Presidents are
usually judged. That is, we usually do not judge our Presidents by the
popularity of their policies in France and Syria. (both part of the first
Gulf War coalition)
At any rate, a similar case for George W. Bush's first term would be:
"skillfully managed the crisis caused by September 11th, led a
spectacularly successful War in Afghanistan (it is worth remembering how
much doubt surrounded the Afghan campaign in mid-September of 2001), and
fought a war in Iraq to completion with the support of the vast majority of
the world's industrialized democracies."
This surely compares quite favorably in the eyes of history to George H. W.
Bush's term. In addition, George H. W. Bush will certainly be remembered
for presiding over the mildest recession in modern US history, despite
taking office following the popping of an asset bubble, and maintaining
high levels of overall employment, GDP growth, and productivity growth
during that time. (Bush will also benefit in these ratings because
budget deficits tend not to be considered as very important in these
ratings. For example, Franklin Roosevelt rates extremely highly by
historians, despite creating Social Security.)
Thus, I wonder, by whom would George W. Bush be rated one of the worst in
history? Is it by someone (i.e. a historian) who has expertise in rating
such things? Or is it some partisan hack? Again, under the usual
standards, winning re-election is rated very highly, so to this point we
could only compare George W. Bush to other one-term Presidents based on an
assumption of a loss in Novemeber, since that is the only extent to which
we have data available.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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