Since the days of Harry Truman, presidential administrations have been ranked by their approval, expressed as a percentage. Looking at the approval rating of all presidents from that time forward as they left office, only two were higher than 60%. As far as greatness goes, these two men can truly be said to have been great presidents.
Ronald Reagan left office with the highest approval rating to that date, at 63%. During the eight years he was in office, the cold war ended, tax cuts for individuals increased, nuclear arms were reduced worldwide, the war in Afghanistan ended (that didn't last very long), the first female Supreme Court Justice was appointed, the Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike were fired (they would have cost the tax payers $700 million had they received their outrageous demands), a successful rescue mission was launched in Grenada and the Strategic Defense Initiative was implemented.
When Reagan left office, the country was prosperous and at peace. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 950.68 on the day Reagan took office. When he left, it was at 2,235.36.
While Reagan's 63% approval rating certainly sounds impressive, and it especially is when compared with the 34% that both Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush had when they left office, or the pitiful 24% that disgraced Richard Nixon's administration. But impressive as 63% is, it was not to remain the highest. That title is currently held by William J. Clinton who left office with a 66% approval rating. Highlights of the Clinton years included an impressive 115 months of economic expansion, 22 months of job creation, the highest home ownership in American history, the lowest unemployment rate to date, the lowest crime rate in 26 years, the smallest welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest poverty rate in 20 years, the first female Attorney General and the first female Secretary of State and the conversion of the deficit to a surplus.
When Clinton left office, the country was again prosperous and at peace. He took office with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 3,241.95 and left when it was a staggering 10,578.24.
These two men have one very important fact in common, and it is this commonality that made them great. Reagan was a Republican, but the House was controlled by the Democrats. The Republicans held a slim control of the Senate, which they lost in 1987.
Clinton is a Democrat and his first two years saw him with a Democratically lead House and Senate. That reversed in year three when the Republicans took control of both houses and that control remained until the end of Clinton's presidency.
What each of these men had to do was work with the opposition. No president runs this country on his own. They all have to have the backing of the other elected officials in order to be successful and the truly great know that in order for this country to excel, no one political party can ever have its way to the detriment of the other party. There has to be a negotiation where each party gets some of what it wants but neither party gets it all. When we have this balance, when we work together, we are truly the United States of America and our history shows that when this happens, we can achieve greatness.
Showing posts with label Deficit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deficit. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2014
Thursday, March 1, 2007
-- Thank you George Bush
Thank you, George W. Bush, for screwing up my country so badly that it will take several generations to get it back on track. It will take the eight years of the next Clinton administration, followed by an additional eight years of the Obama administration to even begin to clean up the mess you have made.
Our foreign policy has made us the laughing stock of the entire world, thanks to your lack of leadership abilities. You started wars in two third-world countries, spending, according to the National Priorities Project, over $370 billion. "The Cost of Iraq War calculator is set to reach $378 billion March 31, 2007, halfway through fiscal year 2007. "
These wars cost our country the lives of over 3,000 of our citizens, and in Iraq over 60,000. Those deaths all sit on your shoulders, Mr. Bush, as you caused them. Those men and women would not have lost their lives had you not so callously declared war in a country where war was never necessary. You have proven yourself to be a war monger and the cost of that has been the lives of innocent people both here and in Iraq.
And what have you accomplished as our leader? Your greatest achievement has been that you will be known as the worst president this country has ever had. Your approval rating is languishing below 40% and will undoubtedly stay at least that low for the remainder of your term. Your idea to increase the amount of troops in Iraq is nearly as bad as your idea to attack that country in the first place. You obviously don't think any of your decisions through, but instead rashly act based on your own fears and insecurities.
You have instated torture policies that have made the United States and our citizens hated throughout the world, yet you have failed to capture Osama bin Laden, the one person who has truly proven to be an enemy of this country. In fact, you stopped even trying to find him years ago, concentrating instead on attacking Iraq, and probably so that our troops would be in a position whereby you could conquer Iran as well. In case you haven't been paying attention, that would be a foolish idea.
You have created the largest deficit in the history of this nation, and one that will take our people the rest of our lifetimes, and probably those of our children to erase, and this after coming into office in an economy that was thriving. Your tax cuts have benefited the rich and no one else, but that has proven to be the only aspect of our society that matters to you. As you so eloquently put it, these are your people, "The haves, and the have mores." You don't care about anyone else.
Thank you, George Bush, for making such a horrible mess of things. By your actions you have ensured that the Democrats will be fully back in power very soon, and that will prove to be your greatest, albeit most unintended, achievement.
Our foreign policy has made us the laughing stock of the entire world, thanks to your lack of leadership abilities. You started wars in two third-world countries, spending, according to the National Priorities Project, over $370 billion. "The Cost of Iraq War calculator is set to reach $378 billion March 31, 2007, halfway through fiscal year 2007. "
This money could have been better spent on healthcare for our nation's poor, on medicine for the elderly, on education for the underprivileged, or on cleaning up our environment. Instead, the money has been wasted on declaring war on two countries who never attacked us and did not pose the threat to us that you claimed.
These wars cost our country the lives of over 3,000 of our citizens, and in Iraq over 60,000. Those deaths all sit on your shoulders, Mr. Bush, as you caused them. Those men and women would not have lost their lives had you not so callously declared war in a country where war was never necessary. You have proven yourself to be a war monger and the cost of that has been the lives of innocent people both here and in Iraq.
And what have you accomplished as our leader? Your greatest achievement has been that you will be known as the worst president this country has ever had. Your approval rating is languishing below 40% and will undoubtedly stay at least that low for the remainder of your term. Your idea to increase the amount of troops in Iraq is nearly as bad as your idea to attack that country in the first place. You obviously don't think any of your decisions through, but instead rashly act based on your own fears and insecurities.
You have instated torture policies that have made the United States and our citizens hated throughout the world, yet you have failed to capture Osama bin Laden, the one person who has truly proven to be an enemy of this country. In fact, you stopped even trying to find him years ago, concentrating instead on attacking Iraq, and probably so that our troops would be in a position whereby you could conquer Iran as well. In case you haven't been paying attention, that would be a foolish idea.
You have created the largest deficit in the history of this nation, and one that will take our people the rest of our lifetimes, and probably those of our children to erase, and this after coming into office in an economy that was thriving. Your tax cuts have benefited the rich and no one else, but that has proven to be the only aspect of our society that matters to you. As you so eloquently put it, these are your people, "The haves, and the have mores." You don't care about anyone else.
Thank you, George Bush, for making such a horrible mess of things. By your actions you have ensured that the Democrats will be fully back in power very soon, and that will prove to be your greatest, albeit most unintended, achievement.
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