W. Only Second Worst

So how bad a president was George W. Bush? He was asleep at the switch on 9/11. He led us into two wars, both of which he bungled badly. His contempt for the Constitution gave us Guantanamo and many other wounds that persist to this day. He was clueless and uninterested in the frailty of our financial system until the collapse was upon us.

His hatred of the worker and war on the middle class were standard Republican policies, which the party pursues to this day. In the interest of clarity, I set them aside.

So how bad was he, compared to other terrible presidents? He was worse than Grant, who badly fumbled the job but can offer his Civil War service in mitigation. Worse than Harding, who presided over the Teapot Dome scandal but did not lead us into war. Worse than Franklin Pierce, whose fecklessness certainly contributed to the coming of the Civil War. But I would say he was not worse than James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, who presided over the arrival of the Civil War, and basically did nothing.

So George W. is only our second-worst president, in my opinion.