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The Edge of the American West: Don’t Know Much About...

"History can save your ass."

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Don’t Know Much About...

By  David Silbey
July 2, 2014

President Obama is -- according to a recent survey -- the worst American President since World War II:
Worstprez
He narrowly beats out his predecessor, George W. Bush, 33% - 28%.
I’m sure that each one of the 1446 respondents worked their way carefully through each postwar President, mentally cataloguing their performance. Did LBJ’s Great Society counterbalance his Vietnam debacle? Was Eisenhower’s saber-rattling an effective foreign policy? Was Truman justified in trying to nationalize the steel industry to stop a strike? How heavily to weigh Nixon’s opening of China against his criminality in Watergate? Reagan and PATCO, supply side, end of the Cold War, Iran-Contra? Clinton and don’t ask don’t tell, welfare reform, economic growth, Monica Lewinsky. Bush9/11AfganistanIraqMedicaidSurge. Obamacarebenghazililyledbetteryoudidntbuildthatlibyasyria.

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President Obama is -- according to a recent survey -- the worst American President since World War II:
Worstprez
He narrowly beats out his predecessor, George W. Bush, 33% - 28%.
I’m sure that each one of the 1446 respondents worked their way carefully through each postwar President, mentally cataloguing their performance. Did LBJ’s Great Society counterbalance his Vietnam debacle? Was Eisenhower’s saber-rattling an effective foreign policy? Was Truman justified in trying to nationalize the steel industry to stop a strike? How heavily to weigh Nixon’s opening of China against his criminality in Watergate? Reagan and PATCO, supply side, end of the Cold War, Iran-Contra? Clinton and don’t ask don’t tell, welfare reform, economic growth, Monica Lewinsky. Bush9/11AfganistanIraqMedicaidSurge. Obamacarebenghazililyledbetteryoudidntbuildthatlibyasyria.
Given the past evidence of American knowledge of history, where Michael Jackson beat out the Bill of Rights:

More Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the composer of “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” than could identify the Bill of Rights as a body of amendments to the Constitution.

I don’t think this tells us much, just like that poll where Congress did worse than the Ebola virus.

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