Historians Rate Bush’s Presidency As “the worst ever”

61% of Historians Rate Bush As the Worst President In American History

In early April, the same week a Pew Research Center poll found that the American public approval rating of President George W. Bush had dropped to a new low of 28 percent, a poll of professional historians had even worst results. An informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted by the History News Network found that 98.2 % believed the Bush presidency was a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

When the historians were asked to rank Bush with the presidencies of the other 41 presidents, 61+% felt that the current president is the worst in American history. Another 35% rated Bush to be in the 31st to 41st category, and at least two of those historians placed him next-to-last, with only James Buchanan being worse. “He is easily one of the 10-worst of all time and-if the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities matter-then probably in the bottom five, alongside Buchanan, Johnson, Fillmore, and Pierce,” wrote one historian.

The poll found some historians hesitant to consider the Bush presidency as the worst ever, placing him instead in the “nearly the worst” group. One historian said, “It is a bit too early to judge whether Bush’s presidency is the worst ever, though it certainly has a shot to take the title. Without a doubt, it is among the worst.”

“As far as history goes and all of these quotes about people trying to guess what the history of the Bush administration is going to be, you know, I take great comfort in knowing that they don’t know what they are talking about, because history takes a long time for us to reach.”- George W. Bush, Fox News Sunday, Feb10, 2008.

[For the original article, go here to the History News Network.]