One hundred years from now historians will universally mock the terms of Ronald Reagan and the people who revered him.
GW Bush, hands down.
I think this is the key to the OP.
Carter was ridiculed up and down, largely because he had that down-south-dummy accent. On the other hand, he was a nuclear scientist so we know he wasn’t really dumb. Nevertheless, he and his speaking style were at the core of a lot of Saturday Night Live skits. [The Pepsi Syndrome is a classic!]
Bush41’s faux pas in Japan was newsworthy and got spoofed in Hot Shots (or was it Hot Shots 2?). I gotta admit, though, some of the sushi I’ve had could almost make me vomit, too, so if he wasn’t feeling well to begin with…
It was Quayle, VP under G.H.W. Bush who had a horrible habit of botching his pre-scripted lines in front of the press [“To the NAACP! Because a mind is a terrible thing.”] that really made the administration and the party look really bad – and he wasn’t even the leader.
By the time people were tired of the Clinton administration, somehow that shucks-I’s-just-an-avridge-guy facade had somehow become popular with traditionalist America and Bush Jr. epitomized that perfectly. The problem is that it looks like he was either truly the average-guy-rather-than-a-leader that he claimed to be or he was just a figurehead with some truly sinister puppetmasters working him. Either way, it would take quite a miracle for the historians to stand him up next to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Lincoln and say he was just as great.
Speaking of Mount Rushmore, I think it’s embarrassing that there are still groups that want to deify Ronald Reagan by naming one of everything in his honor. But that’s not his own effort (since he’s deceased) and discussion of my objections turns this into a political analysis outside of the OP’s parameters for responses. On the other hand, “I understand those trees make some kind of gas, as well.” wasn’t a good quote from the Gipper when he was addressing a conference on greenhouse gasses and forest preservation.
–G!
Nixon’s The One
Have we forgotten Dan Quayle? Unlike Chaney, he was too stupid to actually do anything stupid.
In terms of sheer embarrassment factor, I’d say Alexander Downer (who was never PM of course) had the crown up until Abbott’s reign. For a) allowing himself to be pictured in Rocky Horror fishnets for … something or other. Charity thing? I forget. And b) when some interviewer once asked him what colour undies he was wearing, actually answering the question. Blue, IIRC. No, Alex. Just no. He really had the whole gormless socially inept thing down to a fine art.
OTOH, I hear he’s mega-smart and made an excellent foreign minister. Just the PR radar was totally absent
Tony Blair. I was very young when he was elected, but there was a great feeling of optimism after 15 years of the Conservatives dragging down the country and pulling the economy to pieces. His first term went well, with a focus on education, introducing a minimum wage for the first time, and huge leaps towards peace in Northern Ireland. But after 9/11, he transformed into the biggest hate figure since Thatcher, meddling in the affairs of foreign countries, dragging the UK into meaningless wars, and becoming George Bush’s lap dog. And his last term ended with the destruction of the economy (not necessarily his fault, since it was a worldwide event, but it was bad form to see that happening and decide to pack his bags and leave someone else to clean up the mess)
Nowadays, all he is remembered for is being a psychotic, unapologetic warmonger.
I feel like David Cameron is going to be remembered as even worse than Blair (for destroying the welfare state, starting the eradication of the NHS by encouraging privatization, making higher education only available to the elite via hugely increased tuition fees, and bringing the gap between rich and poor back to Victorian levels), but I guess it’s a bit early to say that.
This will likely be applicable to our current POTUS.
Politician-worship is perhaps the highest form of folly.
Quayle was harmless. If he had been elected, it would have been all right. He had enough sense that he would have surrounded himself with competent advisors. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but compared to Bachmann, Palin, and Cruz he was Einstein, Lincoln, and Churchill rolled into one.
Not sure I quite understand. The people who hated Reagan were all on the left. The right wing unreservedly adored him. Obama is not loved by the left, half his supporters voted for him just because the right has gone so far off the edge. In the end, the real left, who had/have a low opinion of Reagan, feel that Obama is fairly close to Reagan-lite. The group of people who adore Obama the way the right adored Reagan is quite small, existing largely in the imaginations of the right-wingers who hate him.
For example, there is an active movement, which has had some success, to name freeways, airports, schools, post offices, government buildings, etc., after Reagan, and to get his face on a coin. This is the worship we refer to.
Whereas, I will predict with near certainty that similar movements will not occur with Obama. Once again, the right-wingers have created a fantasy that Obama is worshiped, and it simply is not the case.
My vote goes to Pres. Ronald Reagan, and I think that the common sobriquet given to him - “an amiable dunce”- seems very applicable. That so many of today’s conservatives pine for the good old days of the Reagan presidency suggests to me that their standards are quite low.
I was being 110% serious. I certainly hope your kidding about O. A solid manager and honest?!? :eek:
But whatever, not the place/thread for a debate…
Moreover, the Reagan-blowers took the unprecedented step of naming things after him while he was still alive. This had simply not been common practice before then, and IMO, seems unseemly to me even now.
Outstanding. You’ve made my point for me.
If you’d lived through the Carter years and witnessed the Reagan election, you’d have seen the same thing happening, only with the parties reversed. Carter was considered quite the radical for his time.
Carter was considered quite the radical? Holy crap, what country were you living in? I clearly remember those years, the problem Carter had was that he was a rather conservative Democrat, he made the left uncomfortable. Kind of similar to Obama, the left supported him because the alternative was unappetizing. Obama gets strong and sometimes bitter criticism from his supporters, right now, today; Reagan only ever got fellatio from his. Reagan was worshipped, Obama is, meh, tolerated.
Our historians a hundred years from now will see that same sex marriage, decriminalization of certain drugs and the first stumbling steps towards the single payer health care system that they’ve been enjoying for 75 years occurred under the benign neglect of the current president. He won’t get credit for any of them but it will be noted that they happened on his watch.
Anyone comparing the Reagan worship with the mild kind of warm fuzzies Mr. Obama enjoys is living in unreality. Historians will be astonished at the kind of pining so many Americans did for a way of life long past and never to be seen again and label it as some kind of mass hysteria similar to that of the prohibition era.
Obama - hands down. Will go down as the worst president ever.
I’m impressed with the way in which posters are continuing to ignore the OP’s parameters for the thread, which he has stated repeatedly. This wasn’t supposed to be about policies, politics, or leadership. The basic question is along the lines of “which leader seemed most like a bumbling idiot while engaged in things other than official duties?” not “which leader steered the country into its darkest days with evil policies and nonexistent leadership?”.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Agreed. I have pretty strong political feelings, and won’t deny my center-left tendencies. But I can recognize good in the right when I see it, and I can criticize the left and its people, and I can discuss a non-political aspect of someone without having my personal politics color everything I see. I say these things with pride, and I really wish more people could honestly say the same.