Apparently more Americans believe Bush is the worst president since WWII than any other president. 34% of Americans list Bush as the worst president of the last 61 years giving him a commanding lead even over Nixon at 17%.

It's interesting. I just finished reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin and it's really remarkable how great Lincoln was as a man and a president. In particular, the focus of the book was Lincoln's willingness to accept the opinions and help of political rivals, of differing political views and parties in order to reunite the union, win the Civil War and end slavery. It makes me think of how Bush had a similar opportunity to unite the country, bring his political opponents into his efforts to fight terrorism and lead us to make the sacrifices needed to make our country safe and economically viable into the next century. Instead, he blew it, he chose partisanship over unity, he alienated his political opponents, ignored the desire of Americans to sacrifice in the wake of 9/11, and instead started a pointless war while tax-cutting us into an unprecedented level of debt. I couldn't help thinking again and again, how if only we had a president who appreciated learning, intellectualism, history, reading etc., he might have taken some lessons from Lincoln, and done something really great with the outpouring of support after 9/11. Instead, we have arrogance, debt, the loss of a major city, unilateralism, unitary executive powers, no sacrifice from Americans, no energy policy and pointless war.

The good news is the Republicans are screwed. All they can come up with is xenophobia, flaming gays and burning flags. We have real problems in this country, and people are waking up to the obvious, Mexicans, gays, and burning flags are nothing compared to war, hurricanes, and debt.