what an understatement,...

He deserves much more than the lowest rankings. He deserves to be incarcerated (if found Guilty) for crimes against the American People and Humanity. I can't wait for the CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS and TRIALS to begin.

This man was either an ignorant buffoon or a willing participant in traitorous acts against the American People and Our Constitution. Either way he should be tried as a Criminal. His Stupidity and IIgnorance are no excuse.

The C-SPAN Historians Presidential Survey puts Bush in the bottom tier of Chief Executives, at #36, slightly ahead of Millard Fillmore.

This is a disservice... to Millard Fillmore.

I think history will show all the bad presdents we have had, as soon as the people start teaching the truth in school. Bush and alot of other are apart of What we did to the Native Americans and all other groups of people in america that have been treated with hate.They are part of the Problem because they did nothing to stop it.

They should start a Bush League of Presidents with this dreadful one in charge of the acceptance committee.

Mr. Bush is sadly mistaken! People make judgments every day and opinions may never change. I hope he does better in retirement than I am; thanks to his leadership or lack there of.

Presidents blamed for this.. Presidents praised for that.. Makes you wonder whose game we are all playing? POWER, GREED AND SELF SERVING STUPIDITY. “Luckily life is above all that..Despite the fact that for some that’s all there is.”

The only doubt I have is which of the two: Reagan or W was the dumbest one. “The great communicator” could not utter two coherent sentences without script. What can I say about W; every time he opens his mouth, confirms what everybody knows: he is a complete idiot. When future generations watch these two, they will wonder how on earth were hey elected, and RE-ELECTED.

Out of sight, out of mind!

In the Brazilian version: What the eyes don't see the heart doesn't feel!

People tend to forget the bad things that lived. Self defense, since remind is suffering a little more.

But the danger that lives therein, I already saw political hated, to pass a 'makeup', appear again, and people re-elect!

Watch out, friends: once unscrupulous, always unscrupulous!

History will be much kinder to the Bush years after they get the facts:

A New York Times article published September 11, 2003 described an emerging crisis with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and partisan resistance to proposed enhanced oversight of these two entities:

"The Bush administration today recommended.......a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.......which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt......."

"These two entities - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis,' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. 'The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."
Bush tried to stop the housing collapse,which would have saved the banks,which would have stopped wall street from crashing,which means your 401K would still be worth something,and you wouldn't be laid off,and we wouldn't need this spending bill,etc.You want to thank your man,Barney Frank ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

I think Bush should be pleased that he ranked #36. Unluckily for him time will only further lower his position in the rankings. He has been an unmitigated disaster on virtually ever front. If you look at the scores he received you'll find there is a lot of room for him to fall further:

Moral Authority – ranked #36. Not sure how any President who was responsible for torture of prisoners and the deaths of tens of thousands of people has any moral authority at all.

Pursued Equal Justice for All – ranked #24. Bushes politicization of the Justice department, the outrageous tax breaks to the richest 1% of Americans, his utter disregard for the lives of the inhabitants of New Orleans, illegal wiretaps and torture are massive stains on this measurement.

History will continue to reflect badly on this shallow minded, arrogant clown of a man.

You mean to tell me that Jimmy Carter was not the absolute worst.
You are all out of your minds.
We will see where saviour Obama leads us.

Bla, bla, bla.

Go watch the "W" movie will you.

So where's the damn list? What kind of bad journalism talks about the list of presidential rankings and then doesn't devote the less than 100 words it would take to give us the names in order of ranking?

The historians may have gotten it wrong. Jimmy Carter is the absolute worst president in history. He had a failed domestic and foreign policy. The domestic problems was having 21% mortgage rates sure didn't help the working class. unemployment was 14% and inflation 12%. He was a miserable failure one foreign policy by allowing a terrorists to overthrow the Shah of Iran. Here is a quote from MoonBattery May 2007 "The establishment of an Islamic terrorist regime in Iran that demonstrated to the world its ability to attack the US with impunity — Carter's main legacy — set in motion disastrous chains of events that include 9/11 and are still playing out." Liberal presidential demmocrat candidate Eugene McCarthy made this statement about Carter "Carter had quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was quite simply the worst president we ever had." What this article says is That we are suffering the consequences of Carters Foreign policy blunders by spending Billions of dollars in the middle east. The budget deficits we currently have can be traced back to Jimmy Carter. I cannot believe the so called scholars would rate Carter better than George W Bush. I believe George W Bush could certainly be called a lousy president, for refusing to defend the border, for allowing entitlement spending to go completely out of control, and for conducting the war in Iraq Vietnam style instead of fighting to win. But in comparison with Carter, he comes off looking like George Washington.

I guess he can not get any hire than number one. After all he did free the slaves even though he did not want to.

God Bless
Frank

George W. Bush was by far the worst president ever. He created a failed economy. He went to war based on lies and thousands have died directly because of him. He is a crimnal at best.

No doubt Jimmy Carter was a bad President even though he was a nice caring man. G W Bush was a terrible President and he is self serving stubborn dogmatic ego centric IDIOT of a RICH spoiled BRAT that outsourced our economic future to the COMMUNIST Chinese and SOCIAIST Indians. Thats enough in my book to at least put Jimmy Carter one rung higher on the totem pole !

What most surprises me about this survey is that while he ranks higher in a couple of the individual categories, LBJ is ranked lower overall than John Kennedy - though significantly not that much lower. JFK was hamstrung in his legislative efforts by the fact that most of the major congressional committees charged with considering his agenda were chaired by conservative Southerners adamantly opposed to his programs, such as federal aid to education, Medicare, and civil rights. To its great undoing, the Kennedy administration, not wanting Johnson to get the credit, essentially relegated him to the sidelines and simply refused to use him to break the hold Congress had on so many of the bills Kennedy sent up to the Hill.

Additionally, as regards civil rights, JFK was throughout most of his administration bigger on the talk and symbolic gestures and little on the do, as the recent book "The Bystander" illustrates so well. "A little more profile and less courage," as Eleanor Roosevelt put it. Rather than seing it as a moral issue, as did Johnson, Kennedy was personally undetached and viewed it by how it affected U.S. foreign policy.

After Kennedy's assassination, it was Johnson who got the core of the Kennedy program passed . Johnson's immense knowledge of the Congress and its personalities - he had been there since 1931 - plus a little 'Bourbon and branch water' after hours and 'knowing where the bodies were buried,' did the job. Let's also not forget that unlike Kennedy, LBJ simply refused to take "NO" for an answer.

As a history major, and also a holder of a master's degree in journalism with historical methods (...yes, they do offer those...), I feel qualified to comment that to judge George W. Bush's tenure at this time in any way is a historical fallacy. Any historian with that claims a PhD in the field that renders a 'historical' judgement at this time should hang it up.
As others have stated, it is ENTIRELY too soon to make any historical judgement whatsoever...will add two further comments...I voted for Barack Obama, but for him to (at least now) claim the mantle of Lincoln, and repudiate what the previous administration did in the name of securing the country is also a historical fallacy. Abraham Lincoln took extreme measures in the absence of the Congress, and suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus (to the point of publicly ignoring the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). Franklin Roosevelt also took extaordinary measures to maintain stability and public order. BOTH had a fair amount of the measures they undertook assailed or struck down by the Supreme Court over time. The bottom line is that they did what they thought was prudent at the time to preserve the fabric of the Union, or the solvency of the U.S. economy. Let true historians take time to FAIRLY judge the late Bush administration, let the new administration have a chance to lead, and let a lot of these commenters on this blog GET A CLUE about their own history...

I believe that George W. Bush outsourcing jobs to India didn't help. However Jimmy Carter's blunder in not supporting the Shah of Iran crippled our country. The budget deficits since 9/11 can be attributed to Carter. When a true liberal democrat like Eugene Mc Carthy calls Carter the worst president in history, it must be true I was there when Carter was president. He crippled the nation and definitely did not help the working and middle class. Carter was by far worse than George W. Bush.

Gary Tallman said:
"Let true historians take time to FAIRLY judge the late Bush administration, let the new administration have a chance to lead, and let a lot of these commenters on this blog GET A CLUE about their own history…"

Spoken from the Ivory Tower of achedmia this sounds wonderful ... but you are missing some very important points here. The first being that we have a seriously flawed character here in G W Bush. First and Formost A person who refuses to admit mistakes. This is a very serious character flaw in ANY leader much less the President of the Worlds most powerful Nation. The FIRST Step in the process of problem solving lies in the ability to openly acknowledge that the problem exists even if YOU are at the center of that problem. At the very least G W Bush did not communicate this effectively to the American People and at the very worse he deliberately lied to the American People in order to save himself from admitting he ever made a mistake until it was way too late. Regardless of how his actions will be viewed in the future this most basic of character flaws will always be first and formost in any INTELLIGENT analysis of G W Bush. Regardless of which Phd. Historian claims to be his biographer decades down the road this man had a FATAL character flaw just as Richard M. Nixon had one. In many respects it is my judegement that G W Bush will most probably be judged in retrospect in a similar light as Richard M. Nixon after all is said and done. A pathetic self absorbed dogmatic personality with a paranoid tendancy to do extrodinarily CORRUPT and CRIMINAL ACTS in the name of some ultimate misguided righteousness.

Gary Tallman said:
"Let true historians take time to FAIRLY judge the late Bush administration, let the new administration have a chance to lead, and let a lot of these commenters on this blog GET A CLUE about their own history…"

Spoken from the Ivory Tower of achedmia this sounds wonderful ... but you are missing some very important points here. The first being that we have a seriously flawed character here in G W Bush. First and Formost A person who refuses to admit mistakes. This is a very serious character flaw in ANY leader much less the President of the Worlds most powerful Nation. The FIRST Step in the process of problem solving lies in the ability to openly acknowledge that the problem exists even if YOU are at the center of that problem. At the very least G W Bush did not communicate this effectively to the American People and at the very worse he deliberately lied to the American People in order to save himself from admitting he ever made a mistake until it was way too late. Regardless of how his actions will be viewed in the future this most basic of character flaws will always be first and formost in any INTELLIGENT analysis of G W Bush. Regardless of which Phd. Historian claims to be his biographer decades down the road this man had a FATAL character flaw just as Richard M. Nixon had one. In many respects it is my judegement that G W Bush will most probably be judged in retrospect in a similar light as Richard M. Nixon after all is said and done. A pathetic self absorbed dogmatic personality with a paranoid tendancy to do extrodinarily CORRUPT and CRIMINAL ACTS in the name of some ultimate misguided righteousness.

I think it's very interesting that the bad presidents, like Fillmore and Buchanan, came at a time when there was a huge, festering crisis building, and they did nothing to get through it. Therefore, they made it worse. Lincoln is the greatest because he faced the crisis that others hid from.

Bush, on the other hand, was so wrong-headed that he couldn't understand the crisis we were in, and his policies just made things worse. So, if the world IS made of Swiss cheese and tax cuts for billionaires, then W will show up as one of the greatest. However, any fool knows that's not what the world is made of.

I would judge primarily on how consequential the Leader was, and what of what he did has stood the test of time. Far less on scandal or applying today's morality to people like Andrew Jackson,,,

The most consequential leader was Washington, the indispensible Leader. Who then showed just how indispensible he was by voluntarily stepping down, walking away from high power showing even the indispensible man must honor the indispensible system America had created for good governance..

Lincoln? Without Lincoln? Well, we know that slavery had ended peacefully everywhere else in the Americas and the Caribbean by 1888, save for Haiti then Lincoln's war. Ended because it was uneconomical with farm mechanization, and because abolition had reached unstoppability by 1850. Without Lincoln, the general belief is that the US would have split without the equivalent of 20 million casualties suffered in todays population levels, 1/3rd of the country would not have been so wrecked it remained 10-15 years behind the rest of the country...and within 25 years, slavery would cease to be an issue, America would be a continental power that the Southern Confederacy would have to rejoin on mainly economic grounds to benefit as well (British cotton from India, Egypt, also from Russian Central Asia and French Africa was coming on line...and tobacco, peanuts, most other Souther crops were in growing global cultivation.

If we look for other consequential Presidents of lasting, significant consquence of positive change they brought, on a Washington or FDR scale or slightly below them – we have Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Polk, Cleveland, Chester Arthur, TDR. And after FDR, we have Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, and even Clinton.

On anyones list, the sheer amount of things Nixon and LBJ accomplished and made permanent should qualify them as "great" in the magnitude of lasting accomplishment and their positives outweighing their negatives. Reagan might actually slip if the economic collapse is partially tied to things 1st done under Reaganomics that caused systemic problems that blew up on us 20 years after he had made them part of America's, and the globes "standard economic policy".

Bush might rise in the rankings if, and only if, Iraq actually works out in the end with a positive outcome for us- but I think it'll go down as an unnecessary war fought for a small man's ego and the ideological ramblings of the extreme right wing. But there's still the matter of Bush managing to complete destroy the economy... so he'll come out with a net negative. Perhaps like he'll be remembered as America's Nero... plying the fiddle as the country burns. Hopefully, Obama will play the part of Vespasian who rescued Rome after Nero's disastrous reign.

He'll always have a warm spot in the hearts of friends who received giant tax breaks.

It really is too early to judge the George W. Bush presidency. Hopefully, President Obama will help this process along by declassifying records on torture, domestic spying, the decision to invade Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the full role of Vice President Cheney in the fiasco of his boss's administration, the full role of the Congressional leadership, etc., that will transform the truth about these things from closely guarded state secret into documented fact.

Once the full scope of what Dubya's did becomes known to history, i would be surprised if he didn't drop into the bottom 5 (or the bottom 2 for that matter) until (God forbid) someone worse comes along.

I mean, once you've seen Dubya in action, ol' Ulysses S. Grant doesn't seem like such a bad president – in comparison....

Bush is an idiot. It really gauls me to think we have to pay him a retirement when he is responsible for ruining so many other people's retirements. I don't think anyone in our history has done more damage to our Constitution and legal system than George W. He and all his cohorts deserve to be in jail.

Bush is the worst President ever. He got Trillion $$ surplus and put us in not needed war. Killed more people than Saddam Hussain and made the world more unsafe. History will tell that he has made IRAN a super power in that region and may create bigger problem, including Third world war.
He is suppose to pay back every penny he has taken from Great American people. Let him have a job in restaurant or Gas station.
What a shame!!!!!!

No doubt Carter was far worse than Bush.

Enough said!

GW's reputation will only get worse, over time, as historians fully comprehend the long term negative effects of his presidency.
Obama's term(s) will be an interesting contrast to say the least!

Bush's legacy will not be really settled for decades at least. The major components of his legacy are still being decided (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.). No judgment of legacy will be possible until the outcome of these components is known. Those who claim to "know" his legacy now are playing politics, not engaging in the discipline of history.

In terms of the economy and other major blunders, he hardly bears all the responsibilities. I would love to see a similar survey conducted regarding the best and worst Congresses in history. The Congress of Reid and Pelosi would likewise have to be ranked in the bottom five, if their consistently-lower-than-Bush's approval rating is any indication.

Finally, I would also point out that Bush's ranking in the "Pursued Equal Justice For All" section is 24, right in the middle. He may have been a bad president in some areas (fiscal responsibility, for one example), but he certainly shone in others. Any fair-minded person would have to agree.

it is indeed too bad that the rankings only go this low. we should perhaps instead rank the 1000 or so leaders in western civ and see where in the 900s w ranks.

the distinction between him and lo demas is that stupid and incompentent as he tho' they were, they did much less harm. in other words, they knew their limits and they did not punish the country for them.

Bush #36 out of 44...I hate to think we've experienced worse Presidents than Bush Jr.!!!!!!

We will be lucky to literally survive the damage Bush caused the world! The damage to the planet alone makes him the worst. Incredible to think Bush/Rove STOLE the 2000 election with the backdoor dealing in Florida. We would have had our duly elected Gore...exactly who we needed to steer us out of this environmental damage that has probably gone too far to recover from.

The criminals from the Nixon administration had much to do with the crimes we are all suffering the aftermath of now. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove...they were all in the crooked Nixon administration along with Bush's administration. They drained the life blood out of the U.S., transfered the wealth from the middle class to very rich, tortured, falsified scientist reports on the planet's health with what I only can describe as evil.

Bush WILL go further down in the ratings as the damage is shown over time...his name will be cursed for centuries to come.

I find it curious that we call certain presidents (Bush) war criminals, yet let presidents like Kennedy (who walked ass backwards into Bay of Pigs) and Jackson (slaughterer of natives and a raging racist) walk free.

George Walker Bush belongs in a cell, not a poll.

People should really study our history – not just parrot the political nonsense so prevalent nowadays. Lincoln and FDR both did far more damage to the Constitution and the economies of their time than Bush did. Both were saved (politically, anyway) by wars, and, in Lincoln's case, a war he had no small part in bringing about.

In addition, Lincoln, far from being a "great emancipator" – he freed no slaves in the Union, only used the slavery card as his last resort to breathe new political life into an increasingly unpopular war – a war, by the way, of highly dubious Constitutionality itself.

Liberal historians will put what they believe, just as liberal news will put forth their agenda. A truer and more realistic poll is when people have had several years to digest the events that have transpired in perspective and more truth comes out and are declassified. I have disagreed with more things that Bush did than not but I also believe history will prove he wasn't a terrible President. Look at Grant and how he jumped 10 spots; the same will happen with Bush.

George W. Bush is the worst president in history, bar none. He will never climb up from the bottom.

Dear Coop:

I want to tell you a great story about some details of a list that I'm not going to show you. Painfull...really.

GEORGE BUSH IS THE BEST PRESIDENT WE HAVE EVER HAD OR EVER WILL HAVE. He did not have an affair with ann intern that everyone just looked over, he did not make oral sex acceptable – the Clintons are pathetic, Bill Clinton doing his thing and poor, old, Hillary trying her best to stay in the limelight. Of course, Democats would not like a president that was a Christian, had faith and lived by it. Obama has no faith at all or he could not possibly believe in abortion, same-sex marriage. He had no more experience in being president than did Sarah Palin. We would have been better off with her. She was not so arrogant as he is. George Bush was the best and people can't stand for other people to do what is right. But that is okay, God will take care of the Bushes, because they believe in him.

A question for history experts: Is Bush the only President to invade and occupy a country?

How did he ever get all the way up to #36 (from 44)? What is it that people don't get? I still can't decide whether I think Laura Bush is a saint or a fool.

Your right by 2549 he bill probably be the 10th worst president, but by then we will be on #200. He will rank higher then Gigior the geneticly
modified dog who was elected in 2344.

While I was never fond of President George W. Bush, I do believe that history may view him more favorably than we do now. No single president or party can be assigned the blame for all our current woes.

That being said, however, I believe that George W. Bush's legacy is inexorably tied to the war on terror and the U.S. post 9/11 actions. For better or worse, President Bush will be little remembered for anything he did between January 2000 and September 10, 2001.

The democratic congress, however, will likely not fare any better in history than does President Bush. They fully supported the war in Iraq and generally voted with the President on all of his proposals. It is very hypocritical of them to now stand back and say what a terrible president he was.

George W. Bush is by far the worst president in US history.

Gotta love American justice system- when a criminal kills- he goes to jail for life. When a president kills, he's off the hook. All because of money. The corporate war mongering machine of America will allow any crime to pass as long as it makes them big bucks. So here we have it ladies and gentlemen- welcome to the machine, as Pink puts it.

George W. Bush did not create the current financial and economic crisis; its deep roots go back 30 years and have *many* contributors, including Bill Clinton. Clinton approved into law the elimination of the Glass-Steagall division between banks and investment banks, thus contributing to the deregulation of this industry. It is too soon to say whether Bush's actions were a net positive or negative in this crisis, but the problems would have eventually arisen for some president as our entire nation has been living on too much financial leverage for a a long time.

Bush is unlikely to ever be regarded as a great president, but he was far from being one of the worst. Unfortunately, current perception is colored by the hyper-polarization of modern politics.

As far as I,m concerned, the lies and disregard against the people of the U.S. should be enough to put this smirking loser in prison. He has destroyed us as a country, lost all respect from foreign countrys, Now we have to try to rebuild everything.

I don't need a pole to consider Bush as the worst prisident in history, cause i;ve already made up my mind due to the following reasons.

1. stealing a general election
2. Going to war under false pretences
3. Killing million of people as a result of the war in iraq
4. Torture
5. Invasion of our privacy through wire tapping of millions of american.
6. A fail economy policy.
7. The most corrupt justic department in the history of this country.

If anyone have a doubt on this facts, means you haven't been leaving in america for the past eight year.

having been around for nine presidencys, it seems that Bush 44 totally missed the mark from the beginning. Having not won the popular vote during the first election, many still believe he was never elected then but was given the Presidency. One problem after another piled up on both of his terms and he never seemed to realize what reality his presidency caused. Does he 'get it?' I dont think he does

as a history major i can also say that it is impossible to judge where history will rank Bush's policy. it will take years and years to see the what effects Iraq will have on the middle east. ranking him this soon is nothing more than a partisan politics move and once bush derangement syndrome has subsided, and reason prevails, bush will be placed higher on the list due to his foreign policy.

Considering everything Geroge W did as president especially in his last 4 years on Iraq, he is the worst of the worst presidents.

It is easy to blame Bush for the current state of affairs, but I am appalled at the mud-slinging. Please do some homework. The housing crisis began during the Clinton Administration and has culminated with our recent economic woes. Did Bush do enough to reverse the economic woes? Perhaps not. But there is enough blame to go around. Last I checked, we were not attacked again on American soil after 911 under Bush's watch. Should we have attacked Iraq? Probably not. I question some of Obama's moves – he took over the Census so he can control political boundaries... He has not worked in a bi-partisan way. (Going to meetings is not the same as compromising.) Obama has made interestingly poor judgment in selecting his cabinet positions...He has not been transparent... He claims the new bill will stimulate the economy – but it looks like a lot of big spending on a democratic wish list. It is awfully costly – how will our children pay it back? Time will tell I suppose.

Reagan was termed "an affable dunce." Bush couldn't even reach "affable" but he certainly had the "dunce" part down pat. Worst. President. Ever.

Remember that 'Every generation blames the one before'. Are we still in America? I lived here all my lfie and have never seen so much 'anger and hate' directed toward any President of the United State of American. Remember that real change comes from positive actions taken by many that believe they can make a difference to make things better for many. I did not vote for Obama but I stills would not talk about with that negative tone.

I'd like to know more about the background of the historians themselves. I would guess that, as a collective, they have a serious liberal bias and that Presidents who advanced a liberal agenda are ranked much higher than they should be. Carter not near the bottom? Kennedy at #6? Ridiculous by just about any fair-minded standard. I was glad, however, to see Washington move ahead of FDR.

OK Bloggers, What situation in the USA gave rise to the need for W to be re elected?

The American Association of Village Idiots sure stand by their man, don't they? History and facts are pointless with these people. There is no question in the past 5 years that George Bush was an ant among men, and stood very, very low on the American President totem pole. While I think he should be rated lower than 36, time will probably prove him at least a couple places lower.

i think gw missed the boat on many of the details, i dont think his over arching goals will be jugded harshly. he lacked the how to but not the what to do.

No chance.

Bush was the worst, not the 7th worst.

The consequences of having an incompetent president for the last eight long years were far worse than those of the other leading candidate, James Buchanan in the late 1850's.

No other American president has simultaneously started a war where there was no threat to the nation, ruined the economy, rejected the science of global warming and stem cell cures, decided that laws and treaties did not apply to him, completely botched the disaster response to a major hurricane, turned a great surplus into a devastating and unprecedented deficit and caused world leaders to lose respect for the once great champion of democracy. More profoundly, this is only a partial list.

It took the election of Abraham Lincoln to begin to undo the harm done by his predecessor. We have now begun to take the first steps to do repair the stupendous damage done during the Bush era. No one knows how long the nation will need to stabilize the economy, our reputation and the Office of the Presidency..

Lets hope the American people will never repeat the mistake of bringing to office a person as inept, arrogant, ignorant, and remorseless as the individual who mercifully left the Office of President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

It is far too soon to evaluate George W. Bush's presidency. In 1952, Truman's presidency was in such low evaluation, that even the Democrat party didn't want him to run for re-election. Yet now, he is thought of as one of the best. Even Nixon's rating has improved in recent years. Those who are blabbing now about the poor performance of George Bush, need to sit back and wait a few years. I predict that 20 years from now, historians will rate George W's presidency much higher than they do now.

I believe Bush has been rated poorly largely due to the way the media has portrayed him. Which other President had to face the crisis he did within a year of their inauguration? People, the media included, will try to blame the economy on him. He wasn't the one who OK'd the subprime mortgages, that all started years before him. All I can say is thank goodness we didn't elect Al Gore.

The horrific events of 9/11 propelled George W. Bush's first term as President. The American people felt confident in his approach on fighting the war on terror. During his second term is when his tailspin started. Never to fully able recover, he crashed and took all of us and the economy down with him.

Difinetive, the worst President of all times.He helped all insurances' companies, oil campanies, and big markets, to raise the prises.$4.50 per gallon. Is redicule in United State. wat's FREE USA MEANS.

Not many Bush fans here. My question is, wasn't he obviously incompetent during his first term? The guy can barely speak. How did we re-elect him? If he didn't have his daddy's connections and money, W would be selling used phone books. He believes he's going to be vindicated because we haven't been hit with a terror attack on our soil since 9-11. But his policies and ill chosen words were the perfect recruitment tool for terrorists. That they haven't struck yet proves nothing.

Any person that would rate Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ahead of George W. Bush shows obvious bias. Both Carter and Clinton rank amongst the worst of the presidents and any "historian" that would rank them otherwise clearly is not an objective historian.

All U.S. President’s place their hand on the Bible and swear to protect and defend the Constitution. George W. Bush then proceeded to shred it. In fact he probably never even read it.

I rather doubt your survey results. President Bush kept us safe. He deserves our gratitude and will be remembered him with kindness.
I wish President Obama success because our future depends on it.
More Democrats need to think of the good of our country not themselves

Its too early to accurately rate his overall performance as President.

Lincoln, rated number 1 enjoyed about a 25% approval rating while in office. Not the raving reviews you would expect someone felt to be the BEST President of the US.

Over time we will gain perspective. Some folks may change their minds, others won't.

James Buchanan said preventing the South to secede from the Union is unconstitutional. Lincoln froze freedom of speech during war time, which is unconstitutional. In addition, during Lincoln's administration, most opposition press were shutdown. Geee....I wonder if the President should abide by the the Constitution or not.

We always say, history and greatness is written and judge by the winners.

If the North lost the Civil War, I wonder if these historians will still rank Lincoln as the greatest president and James Buchanan as the worst.

I am sorry, but I think these historians are nothing but pawns of human history and not as outsiders who can judge impartially.

I think with time Bush's ratings will go lower. We already see some of the negative effects from his presidential policies – more keep cropping up each day. While time and history has been kinder to Presidents in the long run, I think this time his rating right now will be the highest he will ever get – primarily because he did tend to run roughshod over the Constitution.

I find it amazing that with all the information on how badly Bush made a mess of things, there are still apologists that think his poor rating is due to 'media'.

Breaking Constitutional law
Denial of Habeas Corpus
Denial of the Right of due process.
Denial of First Amendment Rights
Illegal wiretaps
Illegally declaring war
Obstruction of justice
Destroying evidence
Hindering a Federal Investigation
The outing of CIA operatives
Misappropriation of funding
Failure to uphold his oath to office

None of these have anything to do with "The Media". The responsibility of this lands squarely on Bush's shoulders, not the media.

No doubt, the absolute worst president ever to hold the office was Jimmy Carter, bar none.

George W. Bush will be remembered as the worst. He corrupted the government, willfully violated our laws and principles, and violated the Constitution of the United States.

He ran an administration based on lies, outlandish "legal opinions," and placing people in the judicial branch who would not investigate the wrongdoing. His goal was a government of supreme executive that totally contradicts the checks and balances of our democratic republic. This was not by chance, it was done with full malice for our way of life. Most people don't get it.

Being old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan left office, I think it worth mentioning that this same survey listed Ronald Reagan DEAD LAST at the time.

Historians are overwhelmingly liberal and suffer Bush Derangement Syndrome at a much higher frequency than even most academics.

This will change. In fact I would say W did better than I expected from this crowd.

Forget Bush...I thought Sarah Palin was an even bigger threat to America.

Bush and his neocon buddies LET 9/11 happen, so that we could go to "war" and Halliburton and KBR could reap huge profits and hoard them at the top, eventually moving their operations overseas to "friendly" Dubai, Saudi Arabia. Thank GOD they didn't figure out a way to take a third term. And I'm a registered Republican!

The review of a president should be based on his impact on his generation and one (or two) generation after. I guess it is difficult to say so-and-so's action 500 years ago for some reason is great now, because unless he foresee it impact so far down the road. He must be acting in the best interest of the country in terms of his foreseeable future, not the best interest 500 years down the road.

For example, a president could not ignore and the value of gold (or what was valuable during his time) 500 years ago because today's international currency might not solely rely on gold. His action might cause misery in everyone's life during his and next generation. But we cannot say today that, after all gold is not that important anyway, so that president is not so bad ...

Of course, President Lincoln saw the intrinsic value of human equality and took action to end slavery. He was great then and is great now. That is because of the, again, intrinsic moral value of humanity.

Other presidential actions (military, monetary, diplomatic or political) may have contemporary value, but not in another few hundred years. Some others are just outright ruining lives of the time – whether they sheer ignorance or poor judgment, but should not be considered as good not matter how long later when lives might have improved (not directly due to his action anyway).

bush can only sink lower. His rating is artificially high because they used a criteria of "promoted equality" which would automaticaly lower the rating of some of the people this list put just below bush. If you look at the other categories he ends up where he belongs – just above or in a relative dead heat with buchannan for last place. As the many many crisis his administration created for no better reasons than blind adherence to ideology mixed with greed and naked partisan aggression he will stay right down there at the bottom. If global warming is closer to the worst case scenarios, for example, he will fall below buchanna because of the damage his deliberate squashing of science and his deliberate evasion of climate based action caused. If we cannot extract ourselves from Iraq, or if qaeda has so successfully exploited bush dropping the ball in Afgahnistan and Pakistan that they manage to take control in that region and get their hands on nukes he will descend into a permenant last place.

The biggest surprises on this list are that reagan ranks as high as he does – I would put him down in the middle at best, and that Carter is not ranked higher. most people are snowed by the right wing rhetoric about Carter. He actually did a commendable job with really catastrophic events that were way outside of his control. He opened China (no – it wasn't nixon, read the history – nixon went there, Carter formalized relations) he avoided nuclear war over Afghanistan, he brought the Arabs and Israelies to the table for the first time since 1948, he dealt with a massive destabalization of the nation due to an oil embargo that was retaliation for his predecessor's policies –AND HE WAS RIGHT about his response – if we had continued his policies of energy independence instead of follwing that chowder head reagan in the 1980s there would be no Gulf Wars, we would be driving electric cars powered from our own well insulated rooftops. Carter started that ball rolling and reagan like the dunce that he was stopped it dead so he could sipohon money to the gop from Big Oil.

No mention of Bush presiding over the ushering in of torture as an official American policy?

History will judge presidents more clearly than anyone's estimation today. Most of the goods and greats dealt with severe challenges. I grew up hearing about what a terrible president Truman was....now in tretrospect he's considered one of the greats. A few years back revisionists were trying to tell us how awful the Eisenhower years were (looks like nobody listened to them), Johnson was reviled for his prosecution of the Vietnam War, Carter considered one of the worst due to the economy and Iran, and Reagan was supposedly horrible too. Years later they've all risen in common estimation. Some will view this particular poll as a validation of what they want to believe, but it's only a snapshot of current events, nothing more. The sands will continue to shift as the years move forward. I predict Bush 43 will end up somewhere in the middle – not a great, but not as bad as some would have us believe from these posts

Of course it will (change)! The GOP is re-writing Bush 43's legacy already, so that the truth will become more and more muddied as time goes on! He may end up being a "good" president as the years pass!

I think fomer President Bush is going to have a hard time making the case he should be viewed more favorably. I'm not sure any President has failed at so many things, and at so many levels. With the exception of not being attacked again, America is worse off by almost every conceivable metric by which you would measure current quality of life and future opporutunity. HIs vision has been generally wrong, his strategies unsound, and his tactics absolutely horrid. Not the stuff of greatness....

Hatred is a terrible thing. Impartial (if there is such) history will be the judge not a bunch of bloggers who probably can't even name ten presidents.

Let it rip from the mouth of Paul Begala,! It’s so refreshing to read a little bit of irony spoken in such common language. The column written by Paul this morning said it all about the usual hypocritical loud mouth politician who professes simple solutions filled with buzz words for complex issues. The usual tickler of fewer taxes and an expanded trade agreement to solve all of our present day financial doldrums isn’t leadership. It’s stupidity at a time that our nation needs leadership from the abyss. These non thinking political jockeys have in past environments been allowed to just say anything and the public accepted it, especially if politicians said it in unison and repeatedly. The old paradigm of talking heads saying anything, especially stuff that doesn’t make sense, really won’t work anymore and that’s what Paul nicely alluded to in his article. The only thing that he didn’t say openly was that talking head elected politicians need to get their stuff together or simply shut up and move out of the way! I loved it when Paul let data talk the talk about the government welfare Palmetto State which “gets $1.35 back from Washington for every dollar it pays in federal taxes, according to 2005 numbers, the latest calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group.” A simple fact stated but quite profound for the State led by an ultra conservative tax cutting governor.

History? If our economy don't get straighten out we all are going to be history. Bush has left this country in bad shape but he will never see it because as I see all the time the rich can not relate to poor people and their struggles. So let him hold on to his fantasies. Some of us live in the real world and from our perspective he is no better than a thug – thoughtless, careless and frankly my dear watson, he just don't give a damn.

Bush crimes is still being revealed. Bush bankrupt the American people right under our nose. He is the worst Pres of all times. Its going to take the hand of God to get us out of the Bull-sh!!!!!!!!!!!!!we are in . Other nations still hate our guts because of what he did..

AND, Bravo to Gene from Vermont!
I would also like to see Mr. Bush #43 brought up on charges. I completely agree that stupidity and ignorance are no excuse for his actions while in office.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration doesn't want to look back.
Isn't it funny how, when the Democrats are in office, they are forgiving and move on, but when the Republicans are in charge, they want to impeach first and ask questions later.
Do you really think that Bush ever even bothered to read the Constitution?
If so, he butchered it beyond recognition in my opinion. I have never felt so "IN THE DARK" as a citizen as when he was President.
I wish Obama would grow a pair and tell those who are so anxious to call him a failure, just where to get off! He is being WAY TO KIND!

As a kid from a military family, I am so happy to see Barak Obama, and his team, renew our country’s sense of patriotism. Our country can feel the optimism, sensing that our country is on the cusp of greatness, once again.

Encouraged by the man, the mind and his principles Americans are stepping up to the plate demonstrating civic responsibility and pride in their country.

At no other time in history has there been such a wealth of experience, political expertise or qualified statesmen, on both sides of the aisle. Between Barak Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary, Clinton, Former President Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Tim Geithner, Harry Ried, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Byrd, Dick Durbin, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, John Edwards, Bob Dole, Former President Jimmy Carter, Chris Dodd, Former Predisent George Bush, SENIOR, Tom Vilsack, Teddy Kennedy, Tommy Thompson, Collin Powell, Madeline Albright, Henry Kissinger, Fred Thompson there is a solution for anything ailing this country.

If these great minds could cohesively shape political action then True Democracy, Renewed Patriotism, Respect of the World, and Doing the People’s Business will be the result. “Government by the People…, For the People!”

Kimberly Blacksmith
Des Moines, Iowa

I think it is too early to judge President Bush's true ranking and impacts in History.

Is anyone in the media willing or intellectually capable of challenging the only thing more incompetent than Bush during the past 8 years – the Congress he worked with.

To judge a US president without judging the people and electorate system that place him there is basically a useless exercise.

It never ceases to amaze me that a country of such vast wealth and resources is basically comprised of a vast population of historically challenged, unworldly individuals who consistently confuse Hollywood personifications with actual leadership abilities.

After all is said and done one fact stands out: A nation gets the leader it deserves...but unfortunately, with the USA, the rest of the world also suffers the consequences of every consecutive US leader and his policies.

I really hope your latest choice works out...for ALL our sakes!

P.S. Why don't you let the rest of us residents of the world participate in this "competition"... You might be surprised by the results...