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BuzzFlash Reader Commentary
February 26, 2003
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America's Top 10 Presidents vs. 'the Worst President in All of American
History'
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Maureen Farrell
In recent weeks, former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have
been vilified for criticizing a sitting president. And veteran reporter Helen
Thomas has been targeted by the Republican National Committee, whose
members were instructed to call her out for deeming G. W. Bush the
worst president in all of American history. But if former presidents can't
speak out and 82-year-old icons are intimidated, who will champion the
America we love?
William J. Ridings and Stuart B. McIver offer a solution. Authors of RATING
THE PRESIDENTS: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, From the Great and Honorable
to the Dishonest and Corrupt, they polled hundreds of academics and
historians throughout the U.S. and Europe and rated presidents in terms of
leadership, political skill, appointments, accomplishments and crisis
management and character and integrity. As is the case with any such list,
it's open for nitpicking, but even so, delving into the lives and words of our
nation's finest connects us to America's beacons. And though reminders of
our noble birth and traditional values underscore how far we've fallen,
these sentiments remain in the hearts of patriots everywhere. Here, then,
is a sampling of ideals set forth by our best and brightest, in contrast to
those we presently endure:
#1 - America's Top-Ranked President, Abraham Lincoln
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be
depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring
them the real facts. --Abraham Lincoln
Last fall, Congressman Jim McDermott shocked American pundits by
suggesting President Bush would mislead the American people in order to
drag them into war. Since then, the Guardian's Simon Tisdall called Bush
America's great misleader, CIA officials accused the president of using
cooked information to falsify Iraq's threat, and U.N. inspectors said the
administration's weapons of mass destruction evidence amounts to
garbage after garbage after garbage. Bush has been caught lying about
everything from Iraq's nuclear capabilities and Al Qeada links to blue chip
economists' phantom reports. And as the rationale for war has morphed
from weapons of mass destruction to regime change to disarmament,
to Iraqi liberation, a recent Gallup poll shows that 58% of Americans
believe Bush would conceal evidence or lie to win public support for his
war. Honest Abe, he's not.
#2 - America's 2nd Greatest President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - FDR
Remember when we learned that the president had received warnings of
possible terrorist attacks prior to Sept. 11 -- and headlines screamed,
Bush Knew? Or when Colleen Rowley gained fame explaining ways FBI
officials thwarted agents' attempts to investigate suspected terrorists?
Though those events were monumentally noteworthy, they were
overshadowed by terror alerts that this administration, and the complaint
media, interrupted coverage to issue. Even the latest elevation of the
country's terror alert, which was based partly on fabrications, was,
according to one White House source, a political decision as much as
anything else. This also falls under the presidential rating category of
dishonest and corrupt.
#3 - America's 3rd Greatest President, George Washington
The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred, or an
habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or
to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty
and its interest. -- George Washington
From the Axis of Evil to President Bush's description of Kim Jong Ill as a
pygmy to Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of old Europe, bellicose bullying
and habitual hatred have become standard diplomatic fare. When Richard
Perle, of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board, suggests that Germany's
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder should step down and says France is no
longer an ally, it's easy to see why the world is developing a habitual
hatred towards us.
On the other hand, examples of habitual fondness include our $15 billion
friendship with Turkey and a relationship with Israel that's caused Robert
Fiskian reactions in mainstream America. When Israel's Haaretz newspaper
reported that Undersecretary of State John Bolton promised Ariel Sharon
the U.S would deal with threats from Syria and Iran, Chris Matthews
protested. Sharon, the right wing prime minister of Israel has now issued a
list of other countries we're supposed to attack and liberate, he said.
Iran, then Libya and Syria after that. Doesn't it take a certain kind of guts
to tell the Americans who we're supposed to attack next? That takes a lot
of nerve.
Why isn't
