Happy President's Day to Jimmy Carter and Bush-43!

By John W. Lillpop

In a poll of 65 American historians conducted by C-Span to rank America's presidents, former President Jimmy Carter was knocked down three notches from 22nd in 2000, to 25th place in the current poll.

All of which proves that the more familiar one becomes with the Carter presidency, the less one appreciates Carter's impact, and the more thankful one is for Ronald Wilson Reagan who sent Jimmy back to his peanut farm in Georgia.

Given this backward trend, Carter could end up at the bottom of the list by the time Barack Obama is unceremoniously booted from office in 2012, unless George W. Bush rallies and beats Carter to the bottom.

Regardless of how it turns out, it (finishing last)could not happen to a more deserving fellow, Carter or Bush-43.

For the record, George W. Bush ranked 36th out of the 42 white males whom preceded him to the White House through the end of 2008.

Presidents James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison and Warren G. Harding all finished below W.

However, before excitable Bushies break out the bubbly to celebrate the fact that Dubya escaped the cellar, it must be noted that he was not judged on his January 2009 performance.

That is significant, because W.'s January included dillies like sending $17 billion to Detroit auto makers, and greasing the skids for Obama to complete the robbery of the treasury to the tune of $350 billion additional dollars for Wall Street.

As reported, in part, at Yahoonews:

"Just days after the nation honored the 200th anniversary of his birth, 65 historians ranked Abraham Lincoln as the nation's best president.

Former President George W. Bush, who left office last month, was ranked 36th out of the 42 men who had been chief executive by the end of 2008, according to a survey conducted by the cable channel C-SPAN.

In contrast, Lincoln was ranked in the top three in each of the 10 categories evaluated by participants."

As concerns the race to the bottom between Bush and Carter, may the "worst man win!"


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ranking_presidents