Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, November 11, 2004
The Worst President Ever?
When Bush did his I’M NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING THAT HAPPENED MORE THAN 25 YEARS AGO bit in 1999, I thought Clinton must have heard it and thought Bush would be his kind of guy if not for politics.
It is really a shame for everyone that these two are in politics. They could be such great friends.
Trying to determine who the worst prez or the best on, for that matter, is or was is a game like trying to decide what the greatest country in the history of the earth is. You can creat all sorts of neat criteria and have mildly interesting discussions, but when you are done with it, you still have nothing.
Let’s say the U.S. of A is the greatest country ever. That doesn’t mean it lacks any of its faults. And I thought we Americans were innovative and not satisfied with not making improvements.
Before November 2, I heard and read several times the idea that a huge difference between Bush and Kerry was that Bush believed Ameerica was different and better than other countries while Kerry saw the home of the brave as a bigger version of France. The interesting thing was that proponents of this idea didn’t believe Uncle Sam was better because of performance but rather that because Uncle Sam was better, he shouldn’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else. That’s like saying THE ELITE SPORTS TEAM OF YOUR CHOICE should get the benefit of the doubt from officials when they are playing the lessers.
Posted by micah holmquist on from the internet 11/11 at 09:53 AMWhenever someone tells me America is the best country in the world, I suggest that if Charlie Manson and Adolf Hitler were sharing a prison cell, Manson would be the best human in that cell.
You’re right, Micah, such comparisons become a game in which most of us lose.
Good to see you at the site, btw.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/11 at 10:21 AMIt is interesting that Chomsky has called the US the best country in the world several times…
most times he couples that statement with the fact that the US finally achieved true freedom of speech in the last several decades.
I always found his calling the US the best a little unsettling, but he has his reasons and I see where he is coming from, but don’t necessarily agree with him.
Can a country be both the best and the worst at the same time?
Posted by James O'Shea on from Puerto Rico 11/11 at 11:20 AMWe have freedom here...to a point. What bothers me about the U.S. more than any other country is the hypocrisy? All state are corrupt and ever-ready to commit atrocities. The U.S. is unique, however, in its self-image...and its ability to indoctrinate its citizens abotu that self-image.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/11 at 11:32 AMI agree.
Posted by James O'Shea on from Puerto Rico 11/11 at 11:48 AMThe best places to live have a focus on assistance to the most vulnerable and don’t make a special effort to beat or kill their dissidents and misfits. The more enlightened liberal security state capitalists recognize the importance of social welfare and civil liberties to the legitimacy of their rule. I’m working, when I can, and hoping always for something better.
Posted by harry on from 11/12 at 08:09 AMbush better than clinton? u must be joking!
was clinton a conservative pres? yes! but comparing him to bush is shear casuistry.
Yes TR was a squalid racist but with which of the hideous quotes u attribute to him do u believe dubya privately disagrees? my guess is none. Remember the original tax bill which contained tax breaks for everyone but the poorest (read here blackest)?
u simply couldn’t be more wrong about clinton and the enviroment! bush has been unable to savage the enviroment by handing it over to big timber precisely because of the legislation clinton enacted over the logging industries obstreperous objections. in this one aspect, clinton’s leadership was extraordinary.
not only did he support all the right legislation he wrote it so skillfully that bush and big timber r finding it next to impossible to circumvent it. the best they’ve been able to come up with is sending control back to the states. on behalf of all us tree-huggers here in the pac norwest i want to let u know that we’d sell our souls and our scalps to have clinton back in the white house. clinton is indeed overrated but ecologically his 8 yrs were a golden age!
Posted by dave on from seattle 11/12 at 07:58 PMI’m glad you’ve decided to chim in here, Dave...but any time you’d like offer evidence for any of your claims, feel free.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/12 at 08:00 PMz, if u mean about bush and blacks, i have no jacksonlike faux pas like “heimetown” to relate. but his tenure has been as unfriendly to blacks domestically (the florida disenfranchisement in 2000, overtime, tax cuts, school vouchers etc) and i’nationally (AIDS, the congo, liberia etc) as can be imagined. he may not be a virulent racist but just playing partisan politics--they’re not his constituency. by the same token, there isn’t a scintilla of concern for the black community discernable in anything this president has done.
if u mean the enviroment, an astute observer can can see that clinton dangled a carrot in front of big timber long enough to have them think that they were going to receive big things from him. in the end he betrayed them. (I’ll cry someday.)
this was despicable but i don’t care. (Those poor billionaires!). clinton was responsible for, among other things but most importantly, the prohibition against building roads in fed-owned wildernesses. he then designated millions of sq. acres as wilderness.
remember yr shakespeare? a pound of flesh but not a drop of blood. that’s what clinton did. most of the forest big timber would like to plunder is far from rivers and require roads for removal of wood.
big timber despises clinton. in effect he stuck his cigar up there ass. and we enviromentalists, especially here in the n’west love him for it.
i hope that satifies u. if not i gots lots more.
Posted by dave on from seattle 11/13 at 05:10 PMMy critique of Clinton is, in no way, a defense of Bush. As for Clinton’s environmental record, I urge you to re-read my post. It’ snot a matter of opinion. Bubba’s record speaks for itself.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/13 at 05:36 PMI thought your article was very revealing, but could indicate where the logging statistics came from. I find it surprising that a three year interval could have less logging occur than eight consecutive years, regardless of policies.
Posted by R Kumana on from Houston 03/10 at 03:19 PMTo R. Kumana: I got that stat from Jeff St. Clair.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 03/10 at 04:02 PM
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