[quote=EconProf]
Another observation about the Bush vs. Obama contest: Obama is charismatic and masterful as a speaker, while Bush talks like a hick. Many people can’t get past appearances in our American Idol culture, to Bush’s disadvantage. I suspect history will treat him more kindly than today’s chattering classes. [/quote]
I dunno. LBJ arguably did more to advance civil rights than any president except Lincoln, but his guns and butter approach along with a bare-knuckled political M.O. doesn’t play too well these days.
If history is going to be kind to Bush, historians first need something to be kind to him for. Carter was a hapless victim of circumstance (so the story goes) and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Reagan had a lot of buffoons in his cabinet (Haig, Watt, Meese, etc.), but he used his boundless charisma to get America out of its funk and “win” the Cold War. Bush Sr. had Desert Storm and, for a president, fairly obvious integrity. Clinton had an economic boom, welfare reform, and is a sympathetic character due to the vast right wing conspiracy’s impeachment.
Even Nixon had China and the various Cold War machinations of Dr. Strangelove, er, Kissinger.
I can’t point to anything similar for Bush other than his finest hour in the immediate aftermath of September 11th when he stood on a pile of rubble in NYC and let it all hang out. That’s better than anything Ford could point to, but I don’t know if it results in enough historical brownie points to rank above, say, Taft.
