Historians Still Despise George W. Bush

[BainsBane]

By David Austin Walsh
4-26-13

"Former president George W. Bush has had his best week in years. His public approval ratings have hit a seven-year high, publications around the country have published articles reassessing his legacy, and he was warmly joined by all of the living former presidents at the dedication of his new presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. . . .

The past week, however, saw Julian Zelizer pen an article for CNN entitled "History's still out on George W. Bush," while Stephen Knott, writing for the Washington Post, claimed that the former president has been the victim of a "rush to judgment" by historians.

So will historians revise their collective opinion of George W. Bush?
It doesn't appear likely.

The History News Network conducted an informal poll on Thursday asking American historians from the nation’s top research universities and liberal arts colleges to grade the presidency of George W. Bush on an A-F scale, based on fourteen different metrics, ranging from foreign policy to the economy to transparency and accountability.

Sixty-four historians responded. Thirty-five -- over half -- rated his presidency an outright failure.


Overall (not a composite): F
Communication ability D-
Relationship with Congress C
Supreme Court appointments D
Handling of the economy F
Executive appointments D
Diplomacy & foreign policy F
National security D-
Civil rights & civil liberties D-
Innovation and initiative D
General leadership D
Vision D
Transparency & accountability F
Integrity D+ 1.45
Crisis management D
Ability to learn from mistakes D- "

http://hnn.us/articles/historians-still-despise-george-w-bush

[Hissyspit]

1. F's straight down the line from me. nt

[BainsBane]

5. This from the comments section

garthpool • 11 days ago −
George W. Bush always catches a break. Now it's grade inflation.

[calimary]

23. That's a good one!

George W. Bush always catches a break. Now it's grade inflation.

Seriously. I'm gonna be 60 in a couple of weeks. I can remember back a few Presidents. dubya was worse than the worst. He was reagan times about 15. Somehow he had an appeal that helped anesthetize much of America to just how foul his time of presiding was.

I'm sitting here trying to think back on the various odiferous types who lurked behind the curtain in other really freakshow Presidencies. Because with ALL administrations, it's not just the President you send into office. It's all the people he's bringing in with him, or whom he plans to appoint or nominate for something. That part is key.

nixon and reagan come to mind. haldeman, ehrlichman, john mitchell, charles colson, all these fiends during the nixon era, plus the Watergate Burglars. For reagan it was john poindexter, oliver north, elliott abrams, caspar weinberger, and more. It was Criminality on Parade with both their regimes. But maybe what makes them NOT the worst was that, back in those days, there was enough strength among the opposition to contain at least some of the shit that came out, and the shitters responsible for it. And back then we had a vigorous, muckraking, and impartial news media bent on telling the truth regardless whether it generated profits or furthered an agenda. At least back in nixon's day, a whole bunch of his scheming conniving little cabal wound up ousted from their jobs, facing charges and in numerous cases, federal prison. reagan's administration was epically criminal, record-setting at that:

The presidency of Ronald Reagan in the United States was marked by multiple scandals, resulting in the investigation, indictment, or conviction of over 138 administration officials, the largest number for any US president.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_administration_scandals

At least some people were held accountable, even if reagan himself escaped impeachment over the Iran/Contra Affair. And of course, we all know what happened with richard Nixon, the first time a President actually had to pay in full for the bad things he did. But dubya's? None. Well - one. scooter libby. Who btw still walks free to this day and uncontrite. He's never seen a day at a federal penitentiary, even one of those "Club Fed" types where white collar criminals go for their timeouts. And in dubya's den, there are actual war criminals. Plus one who many honestly and soberly describe as evil. ALL THE MALFEASANCE of the bush/cheney years, and not one individual has had to face any music except for that from some local orchestra playing them onstage at yet another speaking engagement along the "mashed-potato circuit".

None of these schmucks in bush/cheney & co. has had to pay a price for what he/she did.

[secondwind]

26. I hope history will be kind to this POTUS.

[WinkyDink]

33. I hope history will let the chips fall where they may, frankly.

[unblock]

30. "somehow he had an appeal"?

*reagan* had an appeal. that at least i understand. there was a stark disparity between his emotional and his objective reality. he governed like a mean, selfish, corrupt piece of horse droppings, but he had a very charming style, he was witty, he had decent speechwriters, and so on. i understood his appeal, all you had to do was ignore the actual issues and he seemed like a great president.

shrub on the other hand was a disaster through and through. i do not understand any appeal. in fact *all* republicans i've ever known to support him did so with their head held low. they were party loyalists and felt compelled to support him, but they were clearly not proud of him.

the only appeal shrub had, imho, was the appeal of the republican party itself, which he had as its chief representative, and if it weren't for that he would have had nothing. people who liked him did so because they wanted to like him, because it was politically necessary to like him. not because he was actually likeable.

[calimary]

44. I don't understand the appeal, either! You and I - and most clear-headed people who are grounded in

reality and who don't spend a lot of time polluting what's left of their brains by watching Pox Noise - certainly everybody here on DU - weren't fooled. But so many others in this country were. Ate the whole thing. Swallowed it whole. And asked for seconds. Remember how what people said of him so often that he was someone you could go have a beer with? And THAT made no sense to me, either, because why on earth should you be wanting to go have a beer with a dry drunk?

Unfortunately, "somehow he had an appeal." I have friends who've gone all the way over to the Dark Side. And I have heard them say, straight-faced and with all sincerity, that dubya was one of our better presidents.

[JI7]

2. he will get more unpopular as time passes

[BainsBane]

3. I think that depends who follows

If these teabag fruitcakes take the presidency, he may start to look good in comparison. The GOP gets nuttier by the day.

[Cha]

4. Good they're not rewriting history.

Just 'cause he built a liebury building for My Pet Goat.

[jambo101]

6. I thought GWB was a moron from the get go

Amazingly he got in for a second term,I thought it quite obvious Rumsfeld and Cheney were the real powers behind that presidency as Bush was just such a idiot.
Very fortunate for America that theres a two term limit,had he stolen a third term America would have been done.

[BainsBane]

7. without term limits

Ronald Reagan's corpse would be propped up in the Oval Office to this day.

[cali]

8. that is one awful headline.

It makes it sound like historians have a personal grudge and aren't making professional asssessments

[BainsBane]

9. I see your point

It does make it look personal, but it is the headline the History News Network used.

[cali]

20. oh yeah, I know. I wasn't suggesting you made it up

[Art_from_Ark]

10. A D+ for integrity?

Must be a "gentleman's D+"

[BainsBane]

11. It's an average of 68 ratings

As one of the commenters noted, Bush is benefiting from grade inflation.

[Art_from_Ark]

13. I would say that that grade, at least,

was DEFINITELY inflated.

[Warpy]

19. Well, he did cling to being wrong about everything no matter what the facts were.

Sensible people would call him pigheaded. Some people out there are not sensible and laud him for the courage of his convictions.

Give me a muddler, please, with the good sense to realize when something isn't working and try something else.

I pointed out many times during his misadministration that history is written by the literate and the literate were not going to approve of much of anything he did.

[olddots]

12. i hope that the criminals who enabled the smirking chimp see some justice

while the earth is still in existence.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. His was, to put it mildly, a clusterfuck of a Presidency.

[BainsBane]

17. That is probably the one thing

every single person on this board agrees on.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. He was a uniter, not a divider.

There you go.

[pinboy3niner]

15. If going down in history was his goal, then...

Mission Accomplished!

[MFM008]

16. fubar

whats lower than F? G ?? Bush gets a G or H or Z.

[Ron Obvious]

21. "Failure" is too generous

I'm thinking 'catastrophic' is closer to the mark.

[LostOne4Ever]

22. WTF?

Why the hell are historians giving him such high marks? Damn it, even historians forget their history.

F------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On all categories!

[BainsBane]

40. grade inflation

[fasttense]

24. Considering this was the 1st time the Supreme Court Picked the President

they did an awful job. Maybe they should have just counted all the peoples votes.

[Unknown Beatle]

25. Historians Still Despise McMonkey?

Not just historians, people from all walks of life from all over the world still despise him. I despise him more now than I did when he was the fake president, and that's saying a lot because I get sick just looking at him, much less listening to him.

Fuck bush and the rest of his henchmen, especially dick the prick! ASSHOLES!

[secondwind]

27. I hope history will be kind to this POTUS.

[WinkyDink]

34. And you're saying this twice because?

[spicegal]

28. This country still hasn't recovered from Bush cabal, and I wonder if it ever will.

What's worrisome is that there's nothing to prevent another Bush. He was never qualified, yet sold to the public, at least enough of them. I refuse to say he won in 2000. We can thank Florida and the SCOTUS for that debacle. Pox on our SCOTUS, another institution I've lost faith in.

[WinkyDink]

35. No, we shan't, and the disaster precedes 43 AND 41.

[deutsey]

38. I agree

It goes back to the mid-'70s, imo, when the right-wing reaction began in earnest. When Reagan got in the White House, that's when the disaster began to unfold.

[Half-Century Man]

29. The lone option

The only reason I give him Fs is because Qs are not an option

[MotherPetrie]

31. But Bush still gets the last laugh. He gets to enjoy retirement while his successor

Helpfully covers his criminal ass.

[WinkyDink]

32. I don't think "despise" is the correct word for historians. That they see him and his deeds with

clear eyes and objectivity is what counts.

[BainsBane]

39. Few historians believe in "objectivity"

But I agree that give him low marks would be a better choice of words.

[tanyev]

36. Oh, that's obviously a bunch of librul commie soshalust historians.

They should be asking fair and balanced historians like David Barton.

[Daniel537]

37. Pffftt. You don't need a Historian to know this.

Anybody with half a brain who lived through his regime(i refuse to call it an administration since the murderer was anointed, not elected) knows what an absolute cluster-fuck it was. I can't believe this shit was even debated when that stupid "libruree" was opened.

[Safetykitten]

41. And?

[indepat]

42. When enough time has passed for the ruinous impact of junior's reign to be fully assessed,

suspect some of those ratings will tumble a tad, especially for the integrity and Supreme Court appointments metrics.

[Samantha]

43. I think the D- on national security was generous

I only say that because I live in the Washington, DC area and I was here 9/11/2001. I knew from the first moment of the attack I would blame him for falling down on the job. I have never changed my mind on that subject.

I think that D- should be an F-. Just my opinion....

Sam

[Buzz Clik]

45. Is there anyone out there delusional enough to think Bush was not an incompetent boob?

The one grade I might tick up a tad was integrity. I believe he was clueless enough, particularly in the first term, to believe all the bullshit Cheney was feeding him. I'd give him a solid C.

[Greybnk48]

46. "Despise," or more accurately assess?

What a weird word to use, "despise," as if the accurate reporting of someone's legacy is somehow an emotional or visceral response that may change with time. What they said was true, and truth does not change.

edited to add punctuation.

[BainsBane]

47. I agree the headline is problematic

but it is the one from the History News Network.