The Worst

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The kids were discussing NFL quarterbacks this morning. Matt mentioned that one guy was the worst quarterback ever. I realize that kids have a tendency to exaggerate, and my mind did a quick flip through some of the worst quarterbacks I'd seen in my lifetime. Chances are the guys playing now don't fall into the category of the worst of all-time. All-time is a long time.

And it got me thinking... there was an article about George W. leaving the White House. He spoke of wondering about what he'll do with his time - after all his vacations to Camp David will be cut out, right? Yet I felt a twinge of compassion for him.

Seriously. I felt bad that he was going from being surrounded by security to relative anonymity in retirement. Old presidents usually walk around like privileged citizens with all the money they stole, er, earned tucked away. They write memoirs (I'm thinking a pop-up book) and establish libraries. Every once in awhile they are called out to be the face of this event or that event. Life certainly slows down, right?

And I got to thinking about people calling Bush the worst president ever. I am guilty of it too. Is he the worst? Truman left office with an approval rating of 22. That's even lower than W., yet history has treated Truman well. Reagan is considered a grand old gentleman now and he presided over the worst recession since the great depression. He also flat-out didn't know about Iran-Contra. Yet now, you'd think he was the greatest president ever.

And how about Clinton? He brought shame to the office - didn't know the meaning of is, and left with more detractors than supporters. We look wistfully back at the relative peace - at least economically, don't we?

LBJ? and JFK? Remember Viet Nam? 60,000 lost soldiers. Nixon had to resign. Carter sent Chuck Norris to free the hostages.

History is filled with failed presidents and crappy quarterbacks. Who knows? Maybe in a few hundred years people will look back at the presidency of George W. and believe that he did a bang-up job.

Rumor is that he is in the running to be the next commissioner of baseball. Given that the Yanks just offered CC Sabathia $140 for six years it's clear that economics hasn't touched the sport.

Wonder how long it'll take W. to bankrupt it.

Comments

deafjeff said…
Well, since I haven't been alive but for 39 years, I will say he is the worst President of MY life.
16 November, 2008
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