Worst President Ever!

A recent poll by Quinnipac University asked people who was the best President since World War II, and who was (is!) the worst. The best turned out to be Ronald Reagan, and the worst was the current President, our own Barack Obama.

Before we take a look at the many reasons why Barack Obama is the worst President since anyone can remember, and probably the worst ever, just some raw numbers from the poll are illuminating.

If I say that Republicans are really great at goose-stepping in unison, can everyone take that as a metaphor for Republicans all thinking the same things that they have been told to think and saying the same things that they have been told to say, and not as meaning that they are all murderous Nazis? No, too harsh?  Too bad. This poll shows some strong evidence of metaphorical goose-stepping by Republicans. (The phenomenon is not limited to this poll.)

Democrats were split (relatively speaking) on who was the best President; Clinton was the winner with 34%, but Obama and Kennedy got 18% apiece. However, an amazing 66% of Republicans polled thought that Reagan was the best, with the next highest former President chosen by only 6%, a 60% gap versus only 16% on the Democratic side. You can see how Reagan wins a poll like this. Republicans know the one true answer; Democrats have to think about the question.

Similarly, Republicans knew what to say when they were asked who was the worst President since WWII. 63% chose Barack Obama, while only 14% chose Jimmy Carter. Among Democrats, George W. Bush was the clear "winner" with 54%, but it was a little closer, with 20% making the obviously correct choice of Nixon, so Republican group-think helped select Obama as the worst President as well.

Another funny note on the polling: People have short memories, and the majority will almost always choose someone recent in this type of poll. Given that, it's astounding that only 1% of Republicans chose George W. Bush  as the best President, while 5% tagged him as the worst. When you can't even get a positive vote among your own party, you must be pretty bad. (Nixon was the only other President to poll negatively on the two questions within his own party.)

I have a sense of how long I like to make my blog posts. I don't normally like to make people read something too long, because I know that I rarely want to, so I am going to stop. That means all those reasons why Barack Obama is so terrible will have to wait for a part two.