Hillary Clinton in Houston:
“This administration is in danger of being the first in American history to leave our nation worse off than when they found it”
Leaving aside this administration, is she right that no former one has left the nation worse off than when they took power?
I despise Bush. I think he is leaving the world a worse place.
Recent reports seem to indicate the American economy is doing spiffingly now though.
Saddam is gone. Iraqis don’t have to hide in terror from him anymore. Though by all accounts they are not feeling all that jolly yet.
Blair always struck me as a sensible person and more a leader of the “people” then Thatcher or any other Tory. Bush has probably skittled his re-election.
Mr Bush seems to have done a fine job of splitting Europe (ok maybe they were not that cohesive to start with)
The lifting of steel tarrifs has won some friends I’m sure.
So better or worse seems to to come down to deciding if the buck rules or not.
No, Bush can’t possibly be the first, no matter what happens. James Buchanon, for instance, had him beat by almost a century and a half. And that’s just off the top of my head, he may very well not have been the first either.
You miss the point. I’m not concerned with arguments for or against Bush. I’m interested as to whether a serious case could be made for Clinton’s assertion that no previous administration in history had left the country worse off.
What about Herbert Hoover?
But didn’t he promise chickens in pots?
Ok I have sketchy and barely remembered American history from NZ high school…what would I know.
I still vote Bush though.
Good on you! I voted, and will vote, for GW too!
Can I lol? Pleeeeeeeeease? Thanks brutus that was the best laugh I ever got at this time of night!
I do admire your conviction though. It shows Mr Bush didn’t fuck his way to the top.
That was Huey P. Long who promised a chicken in every pot.
I seem to recall a Jimmy Carter… great Ex-President, but Gads!
President Warren G. Harding decided not to seek relection, putting Herbert Hoover in office. The Great Depression followed. (some say Harding saw it coming and didn’t want the blame and Hoover was pretty ineffectual at solving the problems.) Surely that was the worst condition this country has ever been in.
Ms. Clinton :wally should go back to a high school history class for some remedial education.
Worse off in terms of what? The economy? Foriegn policy? The budget? Taxes?
The ones off the top of my head would be Buchanan, Hoover, Lyndon Johnson.
If you want to think in terms of long range consequences, Eisenhower, Nixon.
You may want to consider it yourself. Harding died in office. His vice-president, Calvin Coolidge then took over in 1923, was re-elected in 1924 then chose not to run in 1928 mostly because he hated being president. Hoover then ran on the Republican ticket and was elected.
Lyndon Johnson would seem like a reasonable example as Neurotik . He got us up to our necks in Vietnam and then didn’t seek another term.
As for Jimmy Carter, well, I try to pretend all of that just never happened.
I suppose one could argue that Harding had both ESP and a death wish, and so chose to die, knowing he would be succeeded by Coolidge, which would indirectly lead to Hoover’s Presidency…
Arrrrgh! Neurotik, RickJay ya got me there! (wiping egg off face)
Still, The depression was the worst time for the US of A, Hillary’s posturing not withstanding.
Nixon I can understand, but why Eisenhower? Remember, the way history is taught in high school (and I haven’t taken any in college), you’re lucky to make it to WWII by the end of the year. Forgot making it to Vietnam or later.
Well, the first mistake is in quoting Shrillary on anything. She does not know her butt apart from a burnt biscuit.
As far as leaving the country worse off, in my lifetime alone we have two shining examples: Johnson and Carter.
Eisenhower because of the precedent he set under the Dulles boys in overthrowing democracies. The overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran, for example, cost us a natural Middle East mature democracy and an ally in the region and gave us instead a terrorist supporter and general pain in the butt. Other examples would be Guatemala, which helped contribute to massive instability in the region.
Had Eisenhower made different decisions in those instances, I believe that that world be a safer and more prosperous place today.