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For some reason I have been sitting on the Rolling Stone cover article "Worst President Ever?" I finally read it. My favorite part was his description of the survey of 415 historians on Bush as failure or success. 19% deemed him successful,
among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.
While that's a marvelous gem, the true value of the article lies in its historical perspective, the chance to see a comparison between Bush and the historically acknowledged presidential failures. You know you're in trouble when Nixon and Hoover start to seem not quite completely horrible when compared to you. I suppose though, if you can't be one of the best, being the worst assures that history will never forget your name. Or stop mocking it.

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