President Bush was no bargain.  If I was giving a letter grade to his presidency overall it would be a C-.  Some days I drift toward giving him a D.  He didn't understand how to veto out of control spending, even when his own party controlled both houses of Congress; he sent troops into two Muslim countries as occupiers with little understanding of the historic forces that he unleashed.  And he expanded federal programs in education and prescription drugs that were anything but smart.  That said, he did an excellent job in the aftermath of 9/11 and relentlessly pursued terrorists wherever they tried to hide.  He cut taxes at the right time to sustain the economy after the dual jolt of the stock market meltdown of 1999 and the terror attacks.  And he made a noble effort though ultimately unsuccessful to both reform Social Security and curtail Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before anyone knew of the impending mortgage crisis.  Congress fought him on both but he should be given credit for foresight.

I say all of this because whenever anyone says anything remotely negative about President Obama I notice that his supporters reflexively go to "You think Bush was any better?"  Well actually, I do.  Not all change is for the better and in President Obama’s case, I think the country bought a pig in a poke.  Bush may get a bad grade, but Obama so far gets an "F".

Let's see; he is pushing health care reform, a new entitlement, when the economy is still awful and deficits are out of control. His foreign policy which consists entirely of apologizing to hostile states like Iran and Syria has been a total failure producing no discernible results other than giving Hamas hope as Iran continues developing nukes. He totally spit on Eastern Europe in caving into the Russians on missile defense with no quid quo pro whatsoever. His economic policies such as they are aren't working, and no matter how poorly he does he seems to think if we would just pay more attention to him we would all finally get how wonderful he is.

I cannot think of another president in my lifetime so devoid of a single major accomplishment after his first year in office and in that list I include Jimmy Carter who up until now I considered the worst president of the past 100 years and in the bottom three of all time.  President Obama is doing his best to be the absolute worst ever and that includes James Buchanan.  If I were a supporter of the president I would stop blaming Bush and start perhaps defending Obama by saying, "Well, you think Buchanan was any better?"  Oh, and if that is too obscure, he was the president who dithered while the whole country slid into Civil War.  Comforting thought.