Worst Ever

When people ask me who is the worst president ever, I have always answered James Buchanan. He was the one before Lincoln. After Lincoln's election but before his inauguration, Buchanan did nothing as the Southern states seceded, seized federal property and arms, and began building their own army. That is pretty serious dereliction of duty. But I've finally gotten to the point where I must now answer George W. Bush. The lies he told today finally pushed me over the edge. The man's moral putrescence is the last straw. When combined with his blundering incompetence and assault on the Constitution I have to conclude he now stands alone.

You see, today he signed the new G.I. Bill. Senator Jim Webb's bill will guarantee a veteran four years of college expenses after three years of service, similar to what the G.I. Bill originally did after World War II. In his signing statement Bush congratulated Congress for working with him on the law. The truth is Bush opposed the law and repeatedly threatened to veto it. There was no work with him on it. Congress simply defied him and passed it anyway. He lied about this. Then, he named a few Representatives and Senators whom he felt deserved credit for the legislation. The last one he named was Sen. McCain. The truth is Sen. McCain loudly opposed the bill. When it passed the Senate 75-22 McCain was absent and did not vote. Bush lied about this, too.

Bush wanted to make sure he and the Republican nominee got credit for passing this popular Act, even though they both fought it and tried to defeat it. When it passed by a veto-proof majority over his opposition he then went ahead and signed it and tried to pawn it off as his own and Sen. McCain's idea. In case you were wondering, the reason they were against it was they were afraid it made the benefits too good and would make it more difficult to secure re-enlistments.

At any rate, you think the man would learn. With an approval rating at 28% it should be clear by now the American people no longer believe him when he lies to them. After Iraq, Katrina, Valerie Plame, global warming science, the deficit, the economy, the "Clear Skies" initiative, torture, wiretapping and all the other baldfaced lies he has told over the past seven plus years, you'd think he would be at least savvy enough to try to restore some credibility by being honest now and then. But no. He does as he has always done. He says what he wants people to think is the truth, even when he knows it is false and even when it should be obvious the lie will be easily exposed because of his own numerous prior statements on the topic.

I don't know whether this recurrent pattern of absurdly transparent lying comes from his privileged background, of living the kind of life where no one ever dared contradict him. I don't know whether he keeps doing it because it worked for him for his first four and a half years until the majority caught on. I don't know whether he is simply a sociopath who has no conscience or a psychopath who creates his own "reality" as he goes along. At this point, it no longer matters to me.

What matters is that this president has mismanaged everything with which he has been entrusted while systematically working to deprive the American people of their constitutionally guaranteed liberties. And what makes it intolerable is that he has done it while insulting our intelligence and common decency by telling the most childishly obvious lies about it from beginning to end.

I pray the country can survive another six and a half months of this tawdry hack until his riddance becomes official. His venality has finally driven me to the inescapable conclusion that yes, George W. Bush is the worst president ever.