43.3 George W Bush

That said, only Trump keeps Bush from being by far the worst President since Buchanan. (You left a lot of absurdity on the table behind the Katrina response, like the “You’ve done a heck of a job, Brownie” or how Brown’s main experience was being a top manager of an Arabian horses association, or how firefighting volunteers from around the country were diverted into going around handing out FEMA helpline cards instead of helping ongoing rescue efforts…)

Friday Sep 13, 2024

Stephen Weinberg

I wouldn’t give Dubya any more points, but he did do three good things you didn’t credit him for in statesmanship: 1) after 9-11, he did try to get people not to blame American Arabs or Muslims; 2) he did pass a drug benefit for Medicare (even if he chose a very annoying and inefficient and confusing privatized way of doing it); you mentioned those two, but something very important you left out entirely was PEPFAR, which funded HIV/AIDS medicine for Africa.

Friday Sep 13, 2024