A Most Excellent Article

Rolling Stone has an article by Sean Wilentz ("One of America's Leading Historians") regarding how George Bush may be "The Worst President In History".

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

What makes this article interesting is that everything is done with an eye on history (as a historian properly should, of course), so that instead of saying "George Bush is bad because of X", he writes, "The worst example of X in American history before George Bush was James Madison in 1812... and here is what George Bush did."

We forget that the Spanish American war was also started on false information... and this article points it out. It's interesting to see that George Bush isn't the first to do much of any of the bad things people accuse him of doing... just doing them badder (better?) than any president before him.

Anyway, it's a long read, but by the end, you'll have read a perfect summary of the legacy of the Bush presidency, and how history will likely remember these times and these players.