Thursday, February 24, 2005
Today I think I shall defend my inclusion of Reagan and Bush in "the top ten" and my placement of Jimbo Carter at last place. Clinton I shall say as little as possible about: he was evil and disgraced the presidency. Carter, however, was just plain incompetent.
Ronald Reagan is more than the champion of conservative Republicans; he was one of the great presidents of all time. Under Carter inflation and unemployment had reached the double digits. By the end of the Reagan era not only was it down but it has not gone back to that high level since. At the beginning of his administration Reagan called the Soviet Union "an empire of evil" (which it certainly was) and vowed to fight the Cold War to win, not to contain the evil. By 1989, the Soviet Union was crumbling; before the end of the first Bush administration it was finished for good. At the outset of the Reagan years Americans were mumbling about "the malaise" of being Americans and their preachy executive wasn't helping matters, what with surrendering what was left of central America to the communists, destroying the economy and letting terrorists in Iran dictate the state of things. By the end Americans were standing proud and tall again. We always do; just give us a chance. This is an amazing accomplishment--it is impressive to take a country on the downslide and bring it up, not take a country on the up and up and bring it down, like Clinton did.
As for Bush, well it is true I am rather partial to him. But he also is doing an impressive job as chief executive. In fact, his detractors apparently haven't heard that Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis (from Harvard) has listed Bush as one of only three great presidents in American history on foreign policy--the other two being James Monroe (my #1) and FDR, who was admittedly a great wartime president, even his domestic program was a little shaky. He has toppled two evil regimes in the Middle East, put their countries on a fast track to (admittedly) different but democratic governments. He has revived a slumping economy despite a recession brought on by wasteful spending and a terrorist attack on the source of our economic power. He has held on to both Houses of Congress, in fact increasing his party's lead in both Houses and being reelected by a majority when no other president elected by a minority in the popular vote has ever been before. People are free to say he is wrong but no one can say he will not be remembered--all the things said about him were said about Abraham Lincoln, who is now widely considered the greatest president ever. All in all, I think Bush and Reagan deserve to be high on the list of all-time greats. Tomorrow, I will discuss the enigmatic placement of Ulysses S. Grant as the 10th greatest president of all time. Weird? You betcha! Watch this space.
Ronald Reagan is more than the champion of conservative Republicans; he was one of the great presidents of all time. Under Carter inflation and unemployment had reached the double digits. By the end of the Reagan era not only was it down but it has not gone back to that high level since. At the beginning of his administration Reagan called the Soviet Union "an empire of evil" (which it certainly was) and vowed to fight the Cold War to win, not to contain the evil. By 1989, the Soviet Union was crumbling; before the end of the first Bush administration it was finished for good. At the outset of the Reagan years Americans were mumbling about "the malaise" of being Americans and their preachy executive wasn't helping matters, what with surrendering what was left of central America to the communists, destroying the economy and letting terrorists in Iran dictate the state of things. By the end Americans were standing proud and tall again. We always do; just give us a chance. This is an amazing accomplishment--it is impressive to take a country on the downslide and bring it up, not take a country on the up and up and bring it down, like Clinton did.
As for Bush, well it is true I am rather partial to him. But he also is doing an impressive job as chief executive. In fact, his detractors apparently haven't heard that Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis (from Harvard) has listed Bush as one of only three great presidents in American history on foreign policy--the other two being James Monroe (my #1) and FDR, who was admittedly a great wartime president, even his domestic program was a little shaky. He has toppled two evil regimes in the Middle East, put their countries on a fast track to (admittedly) different but democratic governments. He has revived a slumping economy despite a recession brought on by wasteful spending and a terrorist attack on the source of our economic power. He has held on to both Houses of Congress, in fact increasing his party's lead in both Houses and being reelected by a majority when no other president elected by a minority in the popular vote has ever been before. People are free to say he is wrong but no one can say he will not be remembered--all the things said about him were said about Abraham Lincoln, who is now widely considered the greatest president ever. All in all, I think Bush and Reagan deserve to be high on the list of all-time greats. Tomorrow, I will discuss the enigmatic placement of Ulysses S. Grant as the 10th greatest president of all time. Weird? You betcha! Watch this space.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 7:59 PM 
