Visions of champagne flowing at the Richard Nixon Library and New Image Birthplace in Yorba Linda fill my brain with news of a Gallup poll that finds Americans believe history will judge George W. Bush more harshly than Orange County's Favorite Disgraced Son.
WOO-HOO! The long, arduous post-resignation Nixon makeover finally bore fruit!
Gallup:
Although Bush is about tied with Nixon in perceptions that history will remember him as an outstanding or above-average president, he fares worse than Nixon on the basis of his “below average” and “poor” ratings: 59% for Bush vs. 48% for Nixon. As a result, Bush's net positive score (total percent outstanding or above average minus total percent below average or poor) is worse than Nixon's: -42 for Bush versus -33 for Nixon.
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In your face, Charles Krauthammer, who begins his Washington Post Bush post mortum thusly: “Except for Richard Nixon, no president since Harry Truman has left office more unloved than George W. Bush.” 'Scuse me? Did you read the Gallup Poll results, Chuckles?
So how are they celebrating over at the Lie-brary? By allowing visitors to experience Barack Obama's inauguration. After all, Nixon Foundation executive director John Taylor did reveal to the world that Obama is a Nixonite.
In honor of Bush, do you think they'll allow visitors to experience the the most tortured presidential goodbye?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.