I was optimistic when Carter won, but he spent four years spinning his wheels trying to get a handle on what he was doing. Carter was president when I got married and our first child was born. Runaway inflation made it a miserable time to start a family. He gets a C-. I like Carter personally and wish he had done better.

I was optimistic when Bill Clinton won, but was disappointed when at the end of his eight years he failed to reverse the middle class squeeze that became epidemic under Reagan and Bush the Preppy. Clinton at slowed down the rate of the increase in the income gap, so I will award him the best president of my lifetime, in spite of pursuing a basically Republican policy that featured a disastrous trade agreement (NAFTA) and an equally disastrous deregulation of finance industry that set the stage for the crash of 2008. While Reagan and Bush the Preppy each get a D-, Bill Clinton gets a C.

Bush the Frat Boy served two full terms as president despite never being elected to either. He began two wars, one premised on a pack of lies and allowed large amounts of funds to AWOL in one them; he pushed upper class tax cuts that were supposed to create jobs and growth, but produced the opposite and capped off his his tenure in the White House with the global market crash of 2008, although much of that was caused by Clinton's unwise deregulation of Wall Street, as already noted. Nevertheless, the Frat Boy either didn't see it coming or just had no will to do anything to stop it. This led to the TARP program in which crooked Wall Street banks were bailed out, the last big heist of the Bush administration. The Frat Boy gets an F.

I was utterly giddy about the election of Obama, who promised national health insurance, the end of the Iraq War, to employ a less`belligerent foreign policy and restore lost civil liberties at home. His healthcare package was a big improvement over the largely privatized system that preceded did not include a public option and let millions to remain uninsured. Spying on American citizens by the NSA began during the Frat Boy's tenure and Obama continued it without apologies. He got us out of Iraq, but then started us well on a primrose path back. He will pass to his successor the war in Afghanistan, which he also inherited from Bush the Frat Boy. His goal of a less belligerent foreign policy has similarly mixed results. Obama's greatest success has been due to his preference for negotiating with adversaries as opposed to simply going to war as a first option. The best example of this is the nucl;ear deal with Iran. On the other hand, Obama continues belligerent action in the world's trouble spots with drone strikes that have a high likelihood of creating a great deal of collateral damage. Otherwise, upon taking office, Obama failed to prosecute Bush administration war criminals or Wall Street criminals who nearly destroyed the world economy. Although Wall Street fraud continues, Obama's justice department has only levied fines to punish the banks for their misbehavior and failed to bring any criminal case against any crooked bank executive.. To date, this has failed to abate Wall Street fraud. Finally, Obama has continued negotiating free trade deals that hurt American workers and make it easier for corporations to avoid taxes and bring cases against governments challenging their right to mandate limits on pollution or occupational safety and health standards. Obama's legacy will look a lot better if the three remaining trade pacts he has in the queue fail to pass Congress. Obama gets a C-.