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March 21, 2006

W: Worst President Ever?

I'm not enough of a historian to attempt to weigh GWB against Grant or Buchanan. And obviously, a lot depends on how Bush handles the next three years - while Iraq has been a catastrophe, the spillover hasn't yet threatened American global hegemony. That may start to happen in the next few years, as our military remains spread too thin, other countries pull farther away from alliances with our rogue state, and international investors begin switching their holdings from dollars to euros (something Dubai has already threatened to do in the aftermath of the whole port sale drama).

Actually, that in itself wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. America's days as the world's only superpower are probably numbered, no matter what any president does. We're clearly moving into the decline phase of the cycle outlined by Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The real scary question will be how W handles the inevitable weakening of US preeminence. Let's just hope the really challenging stuff - say, a faceoff with a country with nukes - doesn't come down until after 2008. Here's another case where even McCain or Hegel (though probably not Frist) would be a huge improvement over Bush - while a "moderate" Dem like Hilary could find herself in a huge bind trying to do the smart thing while still looking "tough."

Sticking to modern presidents, Joshua Michah Marshall makes a strong case here that W is a lot worse than Ronald Reagan was. As a child of the '80s, that's pretty hard for me to hear. But Reagan was willing to rethink his assumptions and raise taxes when necessary, limit his invasions to countries the US could safely bully (or run away from, as in Lebanon), and work with Gorbachev as the Soviet Union collapsed. Could you imagine W having the intelligence, flexibility, and vision to do any of those things?

Posted by tedf at March 21, 2006 01:32 PM

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