The History News Network recently informally polled 415 historians and posed the question: just how bad is George W. Bush? The majority (eight in ten) deemed his presidency a failure. The others were on his payroll and felt it wouldn’t be appropriate to say anything bad about him. Republicans, if anything, mind their manners.
The report goes on to give a top list of reasons W’s presidency is a failure, among them “the doctrine of pre-emptive war, crony capitalism/being “completely in bed with certain corporate interests,” bankruptcy/fiscal irresponsibility, military adventurism, trampling of civil liberties, and anti-environmental policies.”
Again, the author states right in the beginning that this is an informal, unscientific survey of these historians, but it doesn’t take a Gallop poll to figure out that lying about WMD, stacking the court with crony-neocon judges, using Jesus as a marketing tool, and bulldozing the environment doesn’t help you win any popularity contests. It does go a long way into hurting our nation. But it’s not his fault. Seriously. The people who voted for him are to blame.
