It is a fact that somebody has to be the worst ever President. Times have changed dramatically since 1776, and so let us focus purely on relatively recent history. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and _________.
Reagan quite possibly could be one of the top five so let us leave him out of the rest of the discussion. Gerald Ford truly had no opportunity, and only two years, so we will eliminate him. So, Nixon, Carter, Bush, Clinton, Bush and _______. Democrats would probably say Nixon; Republicans, Carter. So let me make the case for ________.
After eight years of Bush, a war weary America voted for change. Compounding an increasing feeling of disquiet was an epic financial crisis that literally shook our faith in our financial systems. So change probably couldn’t hurt, could it?. In the midst of one its greatest crises since World War II, America reaches out and votes for Hope, with a capital H. It is a testament to our resolve, ambition, fairness, and spirit of adventure that we invested our future in an untried, inexperienced but presentable speech reader, whose speeches used to resonate with all the right sentiments, mostly. Unfortunately that was Candidate _______. President. ________ has been quite different.
I have not filled in the name for a reason. Imagine, if you will, the following argument generically.
Election Promise 1. The peace dividend. We will exit Iraq and Afganistan, close Guantanamo Bay and stop military tribunals. Marks out of 10? Zero!. Oh, and we are fumbling around in Libya, or is that the English, or the French, or NATO. We don’t know, ________ seems to be absent.
Election Promise 2. No more partisan politics, peace love and the summer of 69 will reign in DC. Marks out of ten? Oh, about minus 100.
Election Promise 3. An end to the Bush tax cuts. Marks out of ten? About minus 500. Not only did he not do that, he also raised spending astronomically so that the deficit looms like Darth Vader over our entire existence.
Election Promise 4, always leave the best to last, Affordable Health Care for All. Marks out of ten? There simply aren’t enough negative numbers. Forget the incomprehensible bill he allowed Nancy Pelosi to impose on America. America will never be able to afford 90% of what’s in that bill. It may never be repealed, but most will never be funded. Tragically, his policies have resulted in massive additional debt. As a result, there is serious doubt about the viability of the public health care we presently have in Medicare and Medicaid. So forget affordable health care for all, the result may easily be no public health care for anyone.
Therefore, let us not judge him on a quite stunning display of incompetence. When he was elected we knew he had no experience and that the learning curve would be steep. So perhaps that was expected. What we can judge him on though, is his word. A set of promises should be just that, promises. One would imagine that campaign promises are carefully crafted, so that upon inauguration they have a reasonable probability of being fulfilled. He has kept none. So why would a rational person ever think he will ever fulfill a promise? There is probably a name for those type of people but as Republicans and Texans we are far too polite to bring it up, hence .
Finally, a challenge for everybody as we enter Spring and Summer, and please take your time. Name one, just one thing that he has achieved as President that makes you proud to be an American. Please let me know, because I can’t think of a single one, and that makes me very sad indeed.
And so, what do you call a person who doesn’t fulfill a single campaign promise, who divides the country purely for his own political ambition, who proposes a budget that will indebt this nation for ever, who simply won’t listen to We, the People?
Simply _________, the worst President in history.