{"id":43320,"date":"2014-07-02T13:01:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T19:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/02\/worst-president-ever.html"},"modified":"2014-07-02T17:52:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T23:52:41","slug":"worst-president-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/02\/worst-president-ever.html","title":{"rendered":"Worst President Ever!"},"content":{"rendered":"
I hate these kind of polls. Any good historian will tell you that, until you get 50 years out from something, historical judgment, even from experts, is rubbish. Too much memory clouding things, too much nostalgia or recalled anger, partisanship, or anything like that. And too much focus on the little things (or what will come to be seen as little things), vs. the contributions to major patterns (good and ill) that developed after their terms were up. And, of course, there's not enough information — presidential papers, including some key ones, tend to be kept locked down for decades.<\/p>\n

If you twisted my arm (probably not very hard), I'd probably name Dubya as that individual deserving that title — but I wouldn't give more than even money that historians a century or two from now will agree.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Jeremy Nixon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new Quinnipiac poll out saying a plurality of voters think Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II.<\/b><\/p>\n

OMG everybody freak out! It\u2019s confirmed! He\u2019s terrible!<\/p>\n

Or, you know, not. What good is a poll like this? Gee, I wonder why most people chose either Barack Obama or George W. Bush. I wonder why Democrats and Republicans each chose the guy from the other party. Why do you suppose, when the question was asked during the Bush years, Bill Clinton was a popular choice for \u201cworst\u201d, but now only 3% say so?<\/p>\n

Do we really think the poll respondents, familiar with the records of all twelve post-war presidents, carefully weighed the historical factors and made a reasoned choice?<\/p>\n

Look at my name: I share a surname with one of those presidents. Years ago, upon hearing my name, the usual reaction was \u201chey, any relation?\u201d Now, people younger than about 50 ask me how to spell it, and if I tell them \u201clike the president\u201d, they look at me as though I\u2019ve grown a second head. I try to clarify, but they have no earthly idea who I\u2019m talking about.<\/i><\/p>\n

These are the people you\u2019re asking who was the worst post-war president. At a bare minimum, answers should only be counted from people who can name<\/i> all of the post-war presidents.<\/p>\n

This is a poll designed for viral headlines.<\/b> It has no real value.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.quinnipiac.edu\/news-and-events\/quinnipiac-university-poll\/national\/release-detail?ReleaseID=2056<\/a>\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate these kind of polls. Any good historian will tell you that, until you get 50 years out from something, historical judgment, even from experts, is rubbish. Too much memory clouding things, too much nostalgia or recalled anger, partisanship, or anything like that. And too much focus on the little things (or what will … Continue reading “Worst President Ever!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,12,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-fourth-estate","category-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/obama-carter-clinton-bush.jpg.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40180,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/21\/rt-saladinahmed-probably-the.html","url_meta":{"origin":43320,"position":0},"title":"RT @saladinahmed: Probably the…","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 21-Dec-13 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"RT @saladinahmed: Probably the best Venn diagram in the universe. ht @espylaub, @sblackmoore http:\/\/t.co\/BQJiHrIluZ","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130351,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/02\/looks-like-a-beautiful-day-probably-a-good-day-to.html","url_meta":{"origin":43320,"position":1},"title":"Looks like a beautiful day! 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Steven York) Originally shared by +Mark Marley: Vintage oil company ad. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/15%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/15%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/15%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49131,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/02\/our-plane-is-still-in-vegas-probably-trying-to-win-back-its-losses-so-were-current-showing-an-hour-late-to-depart-sna.html","url_meta":{"origin":43320,"position":4},"title":"Our plane is still in Vegas, probably trying to win back it’s losses, so we’re current showing an hour late to depart SNA.","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Jan-15 4:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Our plane is still in Vegas, probably trying to win back it's losses, so we're current showing an hour late to depart SNA. 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