George W. Bush the Worst President Ever?

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.

Historians do tend, as a group, to be far more liberal than the citizenry as a whole -- a fact the president's admirers have seized on to dismiss the poll results as transparently biased. One pro-Bush historian said the survey revealed more about "the current crop of history professors" than about Bush or about Bush's eventual standing. But if historians were simply motivated by a strong collective liberal bias, they might be expected to call Bush the worst president since his father, or Ronald Reagan, or Nixon. Instead, more than half of those polled -- and nearly three-fourths of those who gave Bush a negative rating -- reached back before Nixon to find a president they considered as miserable as Bush. The presidents most commonly linked with Bush included Hoover, Andrew Johnson and Buchanan. Twelve percent of the historians polled -- nearly as many as those who rated Bush a success -- flatly called Bush the worst president in American history. And these figures were gathered before the debacles over Hurricane Katrina, Bush's role in the Valerie Plame leak affair and the deterioration of the situation in Iraq. Were the historians polled today, that figure would certainly be higher.

Even worse for the president, the general public, having once given Bush the highest approval ratings ever recorded, now appears to be coming around to the dismal view held by most historians. To be sure, the president retains a considerable base of supporters who believe in and adore him, and who reject all criticism with a mixture of disbelief and fierce contempt -- about one-third of the electorate. (When the columnist Richard Reeves publicized the historians' poll last year and suggested it might have merit, he drew thousands of abusive replies that called him an idiot and that praised Bush as, in one writer's words, "a Christian who actually acts on his deeply held beliefs.") Yet the ranks of the true believers have thinned dramatically. A majority of voters in forty-three states now disapprove of Bush's handling of his job. Since the commencement of reliable polling in the 1940s, only one twice-elected president has seen his ratings fall as low as Bush's in his second term: Richard Nixon, during the months preceding his resignation in 1974. No two-term president since polling began has fallen from such a height of popularity as Bush's (in the neighborhood of ninety percent, during the patriotic upswell following the 2001 attacks) to such a low (now in the midthirties). No president, including Harry Truman (whose ratings sometimes dipped below Nixonian levels), has experienced such a virtually unrelieved decline as Bush has since his high point. Apart from sharp but temporary upticks that followed the commencement of the Iraq war and the capture of Saddam Hussein, and a recovery during the weeks just before and after his re-election, the Bush trend has been a profile in fairly steady disillusionment.

Read the rest of a very detailed analysis of Geroge W Bush by Rolling Stones.

Ranomd Thoughts

The creation is always at the mercy of the creator. The ownership does not change until the desire to become its own master overcomes the balance.
~Random thoughts

I wrote that thought down because the idea doesn't make sense to me. I tend to forget those ideas that I don't understand. To a certain degree, it is hard for me to comprehend what is drastically different from me. I suspect it is a unversial human condition, yet what do i know? I only have my own point of view to judge from.

$2900 NT

It is raining in the evening. It hasn't rained in a while to my knowledge. Of course, what do I know? I go to work at 8am and comes home at 10pm. I hardly ever see what the weather is like working from the basement of a very tall and impressive building. Why worry about security issue and place the office in the basement when you build an impressive tall building? Seems like a waste.

It was nice actually feeling the rain. I was inbetween buildings and meetings. For a minute I just stood there, right outside under the open sky, and felt the rain. Pretty sure some of the busy walkers though I was crazy standing there and letting the rain fall on me. But it was alright, the nice memory will probably last freshly in my mind until next week, the strangers occupying the same street will probably never be seen again in this city of millions.

Speaking of millions, the company asset this year is roughly 1.5 billion NT. Which means 125 million every month, 41 million every day, 174 thousand NT every hour, 2900 NT every minute, and 50 NT every second. Every second, the cost equal to a meal is being earned by the company. Puts a new perspective on what I choose to do with my seconds. That 60 seconds standing outside in the rain was $2900 NT to the company. I suppose I can think of that rain as a bonus for a job well done. I wish it would rain more often; I wish I am outside more often.

Trivility: The Hero

Hero Name: Unknown
Hero Age: 25

Title: Company Sales Assistant, On Site Engineer, Office Translator; aka Do-What-Needs-To-Be-Done.

Level: 1
Hit Point: 13
Special Attack: Long Speeches that Puts Enemies to Sleep (Magic Sleep Spell Level 2)
Weakness: Alcohol (very low tolerance)

Brief Synopsis: Technically, we are not very sure if "Mr. Unknown" is a hero or not. Normally it is a very clear-cut case. If you can walk into a random house, grab all the treasure from another person's cabinet without objection. You are the de-fact-to hero of the story.

Another way to tell if you are the hero is the abundance of dialog, where as a poor grunt will usually only have one or two things to say, then henceforth repeat the same line over and over until the end of time. In this case, some people "Mr. Unknown" knows really do repeat the same thing over and over like a broken record.

Usually a hero has something at stake, something that requires saving; either a girl or the world. In this case, all the girls "Mr. Unknown" knows are all strong and capable. They don't require any saving. The world is not under any immediate and dire threat either, which rather obsoletes a hero's job. Perhaps, the only person that requires saving is "Mr. Unknown" himself. Can a hero arise from the rescue of his very own self? No one knows.

A hero also has sidekicks, usually a healer (preferably a girl in this case), a brute (usually a guy), and a thief (someone fast, usually thin and small). Looking around at the male co-worker who shares the same office, he doesn't look like a brute. I also question his desire to join in as my sidekick on this odd adventure. He is good at On Site Inspection, and his special technique involves a sliding ruler. He is also looking at me funny at the moment. The girl sharing the same office is not exactly a healer either. Nor is she a nurse or doctor, but I assume she knows a bit of first aid simply because she is a mother of 2. Any mother should be qualified as an honorary nurse. Her special skill is typing, in Chinese. She does that very well. Her MSN skill is legendary. However, I don't think she would wish to be my sidekick either. When you have two hell-raisers I imagine any free time you have would go towards sleep. The last category is hard to fill too, I don't know any thief. However, I have met some politicians. But they seem too busy to join me. Besides, I think those politicians are already hired by the "other side".

yes, "Mr. Unknown" has no side kicks at the moment. Not even a dog, "Mr. Unknown" has never had a warm-blooded pet in his whole life. He did, at one point or another, have had a gold fish. But you can hardly call a life form who lives in an entirely different median of atmosphere "pet". You can't really walk a fish, nor can you hug a fish. On a whole, fish makes a pretty lousy pet.

So, going back to the original question. Is "Mr. Unknown" a hero of his own life, in this game of existentialism? I don't know, but I sure wish "Mr. Unknown" figure out where that save and reload button is located. That would make this game a lot easier. Short of that, is there a walkthrough guide "Mr. Unknown" can download and read?