At long, long last, it really is morning in America...maybe

[thatcrazycajun]

Today was marred only by the news of Sen. Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy's collapse from a seizure, during a luncheon held today as part of the inaugural festivities. I can understand his wanting to be present for history he himself helped to make; and I wish him a speedy and full recovery.

And praise be to all the gods and goddesses that ever were, are or will be, Junior Bush actually did leave and not decide to top his previous bird-flips at the Constitution by declaring himself President for Life and barricading himself in the Oval Office, a possibility I still feared right up to the very last moment. (All you folks who thought me a fool to worry about this may now feel free to say, "I told you so"—though you must admit, at times he did seem just crazy enough.) But it's finally, finally over; he vacated office of his own accord, doing the right thing for once in his misbegotten life, and went home to Texas on schedule. And his puppet-master, Darth Cheney, had to be hauled out of D.C. in a wheelchair—karmic payback if ever I saw it. And Obama actually made it through the oath and all the way to the White House without getting shot by some racist lunatic with a high-powered rifle, something else I feared.

Now I can only pray that one day very soon, these two get meted some sort of real justice for the crimes they and their minions have committed since this date in 2001: against our laws, against our liberties, against helpless people here and worldwide. And Bush's now-safely-sworn-in successor will hear from me about that tomorrow. But for now, the worst president in this country's history (and I feel absolutely certain posterity will back me up on this...not to mention the shade of Dick Nixon, the previous titleholder) is now history himself. And we can begin cleaning up the gigantic mess he and his made.

Odds are, Barack Obama won't be the liberal messiah I was hoping for in the election just ended. But he's a Democrat, he's intelligent and he was, beyond question, legitimately elected...which puts him three very big strikes ahead of the man he's replacing from the git-go.

Comments

[magicwoman.livejournal.com]

I won't say "I told you so" because I thought just maybe he might do such a thing. Thank goodness it was a peaceful and orderly transition.

And AMEN on all your other points!

Susan

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was nervous until 12:05. It really did feel like a weight lifting from my shoulders.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

me, too.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

You know how I feel, Matt. I'll leave it at that.

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

First of all, I told you so (even if I didn't actually tell you so); second, last I heard, the historians still consider Harding the the worst president -- and Nixon is really problematic (his foreign policy is often hailed as brilliant). You can check it out yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I might give you that one on Nixon's foreign policy, if only for China; but even if Harding is actually the one professional historians currently rank worst, I will bet you dollars to Krispy Kreme donuts they will change that before too long once the whole truth about all the Bush Régime's crimes gets out.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Well, his friends insist that History Will Vindicate Bush. (He seems to sincerely believe it himself; that belief does seem to have had the salutary effect of preventing the flurry of last-minute pardons I was half expecting.)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I actually have a semi-unique opinion on "worst president", and I'll tell you why.

Abraham Lincoln.

Now, you and a bazillion others are probably going to express outrage here. But lemme 'splain.

Folks will argue that Lincoln freed the slaves. That's not true. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed those slaves in areas currently under Confederate control. Which meant that at the time he signed it, it didn't do a damn thing. It did nothing for Yankee-occupied territories, and until Sherman et al moved into an area, it didn't do a thing for those slaves either. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

Lincoln ran roughshod over civil rights north of the Mason Dixon line. He jailed newspaper editors left and right, leaned on others, suspended habeas corpus when it wasn't necessary (and sometimes outright ignored that and other proper due processes), ignored Congress and the courts, and was generally every bit the petty tyrant Jeff Davis made him out to be.

Now, I'm not just making stuff up; matter of fact, it took a bit of convincing to bring me around to this point of view. But Charles Adams took the time, went back to original source material of the day (editorials, newspaper articles, letters, etc., both American journalism and European press) and very carefully laid out his case. Here is the requisite Amazon link (http://www.amazon.com/When-Course-Human-Events-Secession/dp/0847697231/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232508905&sr=8-1).

Bush did not start or provoke a civil war. (Close, but not quite.) He did suspend habeas, but only in a limited fashion, and was forced to back down. He threatened reporters with jail for contempt, and I think did jail one, but no editors. Nor did his generals cut a bloody swath through their native soil, provoking resentment that has lasted more than a century. The deaths of a lot of Americans, and countless more from other countries, can be laid at Bush's feet, but nowhere near the blood that was shed during the War of Northern Aggression. Heck, Gettysburg alone killed more troopers just on the side of the Confederacy than the Iraqi war has cost in American GI's.

And for what? Tarrifs. (This is Adams' point.)

Of course, in terms of feeding American GI's to the meat grinder for no real point, LBJ was a lot worse than bush, by an order of magnitude. OTOH, LBJ didn't go spying on his own people within his own borders in a wholesale and cavalier fashion, not that we know of, anyway.

The good news, though, is that we survived not only Lincoln's regime *and* the political assassination of Johnson (who really wanted to be conciliatory to the South), and we have now survived Bush's imperial reign as well... we simply have to clean up the mess and start rebuilding. And it seems we have a leader not just ready, willing, and able to do that, but who says he's going to do so. Which kinda makes ranking of worst-ness ... academic.

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

I saw an "Arrest Bush" sign in the crowd on the news coverage and thought of you! Cheney looked malevolent as they were wheeling him away; Bush merely looked relieved that someone else would have to clean up his mess.