Which will history regard as worst President: Nixon or George W Bush?

Answer 1

Bush.

Nixon just ruined his own life. Bush has made life worse for all Americans for longer than any of us will live.

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mike b --

You are a follower, aren’t you? And, not a real thinker either, huh? You don’t really know anything about anything, you just repeat what you are told like a good little boy, don’t you? Of course you do.



Let’s just compare the pre 9/11 records of Clinton and Bush.
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Clinton vs. Terror, Republicans vs. Clinton
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President Clinton led the fight against terrorism over strong opposition from Republicans in Congress and the pro-Republican Media. Here's a partial - yet incredibly long - list of accomplishments against terrorism for which the Clinton Administration gets almost no credit or even recognition. President Clinton:

-- sent legislation to Congress to TIGHTEN AIRPORT SECURITY. (Remember, this is before 911) The legislation was defeated by the Republicans because of opposition from the airlines.

-- sent legislation to Congress to allow for BETTER TRACKING OF TERRORIST FUNDING. It was defeated by Republicans in the Senate because of opposition from banking interests.

-- sent legislation to Congress to add tagents to explosives, to allow for BETTER TRACKING OF EXPLOSIVES USED BY TERRORISTS. It was defeated by the Republicans because of opposition from the NRA.

When Republicans couldn't prevent executive action, President Clinton:

-- Developed the nation's first anti-terrorism policy, and appointed first national coordinator.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up 12 U.S. jetliners simultaneously.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up UN Headquarters.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up FBI Headquarters.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

--Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Boston airport.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up Lincoln and Holland Tunnels in NY.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the George Washington Bridge.

-- Stopped cold the planned attack to blow up the US Embassy in Albania.

-- Tried to kill Osama bin Laden and disrupt Al Qaeda through preemptive strikes (efforts denounced by the G.O.P.).

-- Brought perpetrators of first World Trade Center bombing and CIA killings to justice.

-- Did not blame Bush I administration for first World Trade Center bombing even though it occurred 38 days after they had left office. Instead, worked hard, even obsessively -- and successfully -- to stop future terrorist attacks.

-- Named the Hart-Rudman commission to report on nature of terrorist threats and major steps to be taken to combat terrorism.

-- Tripled the budget of the FBI for counterterrorism and doubled overall funding for counterterrorism.

-- Detected and destroyed cells of Al Qaeda in over 20 countries

-- Created a national stockpile of drugs and vaccines including 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine.

-- Robert Oakley, Reagan Counterterrorism Czar says of Clinton's efforts "Overall, I give them very high marks" and "The only major criticism I have is the obsession with Osama"

-- Paul Bremer, Bush's Administrator of Iraq disagrees slightly with Robert Oakley saying he believed the Clinton Administration had "correctly focused on bin Laden. "

-- Barton Gellman of the Washington Post put it best, "By any measure available, Clinton left office having given greater priority to terrorism than any president before him" and was the "first administration to undertake a systematic anti-terrorist effort."

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Here, in stark contrast, is part of the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism record before September 11, 2001:
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-- Backed off Clinton administration's anti-terrorism efforts.

-- Shelved the Hart-Rudman report.

-- Appointed new anti-terrorism task force under Dick Cheney. Group did not even meet before 9/11.

-- Called for cuts in anti-terrorism efforts by the Department of Defense.

-- Gave no priority to anti-terrorism efforts by Justice Department.

-- Ignored warnings from Sandy Berger, Louis Freeh, George Tennant, Paul Bremer, and Richard Clarke about the urgency of terrorist threats.

-- Halted Predator drone tracking of Osama bin Laden.

-- Did nothing in wake of August 6 C.I.A. report to president saying Al Qaeda attack by hijack of an airliner almost certain.

-- Bush - knowing about the terrorists' plans to attack in America, warned that terrorists were in flight schools in the US - took a four week vacation.

-- By failing to order any coordination of intelligence data, missed opportunity to stop the 9/11 plot as Clinton-Gore had stopped the millennium plots.

-- Blamed President Clinton for 9/11.

http://www.mikehersh.com/


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An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted by 9/11 Report

As early as May 2001, the FBI was receiving tips that Bin Laden supporters were planning attacks in the U.S., possibly including the hijacking of planes. On May 29, White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke wrote national security advisor Condoleezza Rice that when these attacks [on Israeli or U.S. facilities] occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.

At the end of June, the commission wrote, "the intelligence reporting consistently described the upcoming attacks as occurring on a calamitous level." In early July, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was told "that preparations for multiple attacks [by Al Qaeda] were in late stages or already complete and that little additional warning could be expected." By month's end, "the system was blinking red" and could not "get any worse," then-CIA Director George Tenet told the 9/11 commission.

It was at this point, of course, that George W. Bush began the longest presidential vacation in 32 years. On the very first day of his visit to his Texas ranch, Aug. 6, Bush received the now-infamous two-page intelligence alert titled, Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the United States. Yet instead of returning to the capital to mobilize an energetic defensive posture, he spent an additional 27 days away as the government languished in summer mode, in deep denial.

"In sum," said the 9/11 commission report, "the domestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat..."
http://www.globalissues.org/geopolitics/... [...]
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If only he HAD done nothing, but he actually made the situation worse.

Soon after inauguration, Bush quietly ended the Cole investigation and withdrew the team of over 100 FBI and JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) agents that Clinton had sent to Yemen to investigate the Cole bombing.

Then, in March of 2001, when the task force sent the White House their final report, which implicated bin Laden and named al Qaeda operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as the architect of the bombing, Bush and Rice simply shelved the report and took no action against al Qaeda. Mohammed went on to be the chief architect of the 9/11 attacks.

Later, after Mohammed was captured in Pakistan, he told his American interrogators that it was specifically Bush's failure to follow through with the Cole investigation - and particularly his failure to come after Mohammed - that convinced him that al Qaeda could mount the 9/11 attacks and get away with them.

It will always be a moot question whether White House diligence and attention could have prevented the 9/11 attacks, but it is a given that failure to act against the Cole bombers and failure to heed the multiple warnings about future attacks simply opened our doors wide to attack and made bin Laden's task simple.

Answer 2

Nixon doesn't even come close. Bush is much worse. At least Nixon accomplished some things that were worthwhile such as opening up China for trade with the US, where Bush hasn't accomplished a thing. Ok, Bush has accomplished one thing - he's given hope to everyone in this country who is mentally challenged. If he can rise to be president of this country, they should never give up on their dreams.

Answer 3

Bush without doubt. Nixon at least did a few noteworthy things such as starting the EPA and opening relations with China. Both extraordinary accomplishments. Bush has done nothing that is positive. He is an utter failure

Answer 4

While Nixon's downfall was Watergate, his upside is the fact that he normalized relations with China.

Bush's downfall is invading Iraq and failing in Iraq. There hasn't been an upside.

Based on that: Bush will be the worst unless he gets a miracle, and how many of us have seen those happen?

Answer 5

The American Historical Sociaety, the organization of historians, have already voted Bush the worst President in history.

Answer 6

Nixon killed people's respect for the presidency.

Bush showed how much a president can lie without getting impeached. He will be the standard for incompetence from here on in. Nixon is free now that Bush will become synonymous with "Most Evil, Dishonest President in History."

Answer 7

By his repeated mistakes the present President has over taken Nixon in this race, and has earned a place in the History for wrong reasons.

Answer 8

Nixon was not a great President but I've never thought he was the worst.

But, I do agree that Dubya is in the running for that title.

I would say most people currently consider Coolidge or Buchanan the worst. They are the Presidents that sat and did nothing or did the exactly wrong things during times of national emergency.

Answer 9

I used to think Bush. But lately I am thinking that George Bush will probably be regarded as someone who delivered Iraq's oil to America, and Iraq's land to once known country by the name israel.

Answer 10

George W. Bush,hands down !

Answer 11

Bush.

Nixon brought "an honorable end" to Vietnam (define honorable) Bush brought a war with no end.