A couple observations:
1) Regardless of what your view of him is, I find it extremely amusing how so many people criticize his intelligence & intellect because he often inarticulate. A fault, I might add, many of us possess but are not criticized for since ours does not manifest itself in the public eye. I suggest these individuals evaluate themselves first, because if they did, I believe they would realize they are much too poorly educated and informed to be making character assumptions.
2) Of those who scrutinize his education (or their perceived lack there of), how many possess and undergraduate degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard? My guess would be not many. However, the president does. There seems to be a never ending stream of people who outwardly appear to be hippies or G.E.D. recipients, criticizing the president on his intelligence. Such staunch, arrogant attitudes of many on the left are sadly an ineffective convoluted attempt to mask the reality of their own shortcomings. Also, those amongst you who dismiss his collegiate academic success as a result of his "connections" or family name are showing your poor knowledge of history. If you took time to educate yourself, you would realize that when the president was admitted to Yale, his father had yet to even win election to his first term in the house of representatives! While the family did have wealth, they still lacked the prestige & power many of you assume they held in order to push George through the Ivy League.
3) Quote: "Most people's idea of history begins with the day they were born." The author of this quote will remain nameless so as to not dissuade you from giving me your attention for a moment more. However, it is unceasingly proven true. For instance, people relentlessly refer to the president as not only the "worst" president, but also attach the stigma of having the lowest approval ratings in history. For the sake of brevity, I will address the later of these references first. Anyone who actually attended their 20th century political science class, and remained awake, would recall that this distinction belongs to none other than the Franklin Roosevelt's vice president, Harry S. Truman. During his second term in office, Truman's approval rating hit 22%, according to Gallop, after he fired the WWII hero General Douglas McArthur. This is an approval depth not reached by our current president, regardless of what facts uneducated individuals believe they have seen. As a side note, Truman also achieved a record high approval rating for a president of 67% shortly after the end of WWII. That was until it was broken by Bush's approval ratings of 69% during late 2001.
4) Lastly, for those who believe he is the worst president in history, you again show your lack of knowledge and inability to put something in it's proper historical context. To prove the point (and provide a little humor), here are several presidents or presidential actions whose debacles will likely never be exceeded, regardless of our current president or any to follow:
- James Buchanan (1857-1861): When facing the prospect of southern states succeeding from the union, his only action was to state the illegalities of such a course. He was the man with the greatest ability to prevent the Civil War, and did nothing. Therefore, if we apply the same standards of war death attribution as modern liberals apply to Bush, Buchanan was responsible for 625,000 deaths (2% of the entire U.S. population at the time).
-Warren Harding (1921-1923): During his brief 2 years in office preceding his death, several members of his cabinet were not only kicked out of office, but were subsequently convicted of bribery & fraud felonies, eventually spending the rest of Harding's term, in prison.
-Franklin Pierce (1853-1857): This man aggravated so many people in every political party because of his nonsensical decision making, that no one from any party would support any of his legislation. In response, Pierce decided to sink into a constant drunken stupor, many days being too drunk to attend meetings or make decisions. If this wasn't bad enough, after his term in office, when he was not re-nominated by his party, he pledged his allegiance to the Confederacy. Not long after that, he died of cirrhosis.
-Andrew Jackson (1829-1837): Although being the hero of the war of 1812, Jackson's behavior was often so outrageous (and hysterical) that it cannot possibly be superseded by any other presidents stupidity. He often kept a parrot in the Oval Office that made a habit of swearing (words obviously gleaned from Jackson) at foreign dignitaries. Although no one should have been surprised after witnessing his inauguration celebration. At the party, many guests made moon shine in the White House bath tubs & shot guns in the White House. Eventually, when the party lasted until sunrise and White House staff attempted to get the president to bed, Jackson and his friends insisted that the bash continue. They proceeded to haul their bath tubs of moon shine out onto the White House front lawn, drinking until the tubs were dry and subsequently passing out right there. Jackson is often regarded as one of our top ten presidents. An opinion with which i personally concur. I merely included him for this reason: to show that someone's perception can drastically change with the passing of history, so be careful on what basis you judge someone.
Thanks for allowing me to rant.