Five Worsts At Once

'Wash Post' Sunday Debate: Is Bush Worst President Ever?: "
'By E&P Staff

Published: December 02, 2006 3:30 PM ET updated Sunday

NEW YORK Five op-eds in Sunday's Washington Post may set off an intriguing debate, pro and con. On the front page of the Post's Outlook section, famed Columbia University historian Eric Foner proposes George W. Bush as the worst president in our history -- and author Douglas Brinkley disagrees, but very slightly: He thinks Bush only ranks as poorly as Herbert Hoover.

Another historian, David Greenberg, believes that only Nixon was worst. Meanwhile, Michael Lind pegs Bush at #5 --from the bottom. But Vincent J. Cannato, a historian at the University of Massachusetts, cautions: 'Today's pronouncements that Bush is the 'worst president ever' are too often ideology masquerading as history.'

The Washington Post editorial page, ironically, has been a strong backer of the Iraq war from the beginning. . . "