Bush may not be the Worst President afterall

Tuesday, January 20 will mark yet another history making day in what has been a string of events for the history books here in America. On that inevitably cool day in January, President-elect Barack Obama will officially take office and begin his term in office, as he inherits what can simply be called, a giant mess. For most, another historic happening will occur that day; current President George W. Bush will no longer be the President.

For many, the day Bush leaves office is a sight welcomed, and has been anticipated for quite some time. One discussion that will be running rampant, as Obama begins to enact policy, is what legacy will Bush leave behind? How has his overall two terms affected America? Where will he go down in history in regards to the other former Presidents?

Believe it or not, Bush may not be the worst President in the history of America. Has he made mistakes? You bet. But not all mistakes can be laid at his feet entirely.

Let’s look back at the beginning. In 2001, Bush was faced with a terrorist attack, the likes of which only one other President has faced, and that was Franklin Roosevelt. In this case, Bush did the best he could, by getting information and going after the perpetrators of 9/11. Blaming the attacks on Bush is foolish and ill conceived. Blame can be put on the CIA, the airfield where the terrorist got their wings, and airline security. One could even make a case to place blame on Bill Clinton, but that may be a stretch as well.

Then things seem to go south. With ambition, false assumptions, and what turned out to be bad intelligence, Bush attacked Iraq. Can some blame go to Bush? Yes, but not all of it. The CIA can be blamed here, by giving Bush bad, misinformed intelligence on the situation in Iraq.

Did Bush go to Iraq to rectify his father’s missed opportunities? There is no concrete proof to sway one way or the other.

If that weren’t enough, the economy took a dive near the end of his Presidency, which certainly cannot be blamed on him. Instead, you could blame it on the chairman Bush placed to monitor the situation, or greed of Wall Street, or a simple lack of ethics. The bulk of the blame goes to the chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

It is easy to blame the President for everything that goes wrong in a country, he (or she) is the face of a Nation. But, when summing up President Bush’s legacy, it is ill advised to place all the blame at his changing doorstep. I believe that the history books and the historians will have to judge how Bush did in his 8 years in office.

I don’t believe Bush will go down as the worst. He is better than Carter, Nixon, Johnson, and some of the lesser known Presidents like Van Buren. Is Bush the best? By no means, but he certainly shouldn’t be judged as the absolute worst in history.