No more cutting old letters...

Unless it is something meaningful, that is.

Like something I wrote.

If one wants to break Ryan's adoring fans in on what has been done in the past by this group, then perhaps we should revisit the as yet unfinished "Presidential Report Cards". I distinctly recall being told by both of your sorry asses that you'd have your versions of the report cards done MONTHS ago... and the closest to a finished product I have seen is a final grade list from James, with no meat OR potatoes about how the grade was arrived at. Never saw a speck of finished product from Ryan, at all.

So, without further delay, I give you MY Report Card:

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posted 03-14-07


So, here is my “Report Card” for the Best President of our Lifetime.

I have broken mine down to very simple, traditional educational norms. Each President was given a general report card containing the following categories, with each “grade” consisting of a score of 0 up to 100, with 100 obviously being the best:

Foreign Policy

This topic (read “grade”) is defined by any policy implemented while this man was President… or any policy left in place from previous Presidents. Sub-categories could be military engagements, treaty negotiations, international relations, involvement in international organizations, et. all.

Domestic Policy

Pertaining to anything domestic in nature, where purely internal affairs are graded and international considerations are ignored, unless specifically defined by contrary arguments.

Economic Policy

We all agree that the PotUS has very little to do with the actual functioning of the US economy, but he is a prime figure in how it performs… and it directly effects his ability to function in office when it goes wrong. This is considered here.

Cabinet Appointments

We all agree this can make or break an Administration. All considerations here need to be specific in nature, please.

Legacy

This is a transient topic, as it can change from year to year. However, we can see general trends in action throughout the years we will be discussing… and thus, we can make assumptions for years to come.

*************************************************************************************
Richard M. Nixon
1969-1974
Topic First Term Second Term Overall .
Foreign Policy 70 55 62.5 ( D- )
Domestic Policy 89 78 83.5 ( B- )
Economic Policy 70 62 66 (D )
Cabinet Appointments 65 35 50 ( F )
Legacy 92 25 58.5 ( F )
Final Grade 64.1 ( D- )

My biggest gripe with his foreign policy is that nothing he did was pro-active in the long term. His courting of China gained the US some mileage in the Far East, but it did nothing to stem the river of arms and equipment to Vietnam or Cambodia, and cost the Republic of China its seat on the UN Security Council. SALT I did next to nothing for the US, while it guaranteed that the Soviets and the Chinese would continue to develop ICBM technology while exporting (rather than destroying) MRBM platforms to places like Vietnam, Angola, Iran, India, and North Korea.
I have yet to see an argument that removing the US from the gold standard in the manner that Nixon did actually benefited the economy. Much of what I have read online seems to indicate that it was a leading cause of the later recession that plagued both Carter and Reagan… the Dollar simply couldn’t keep up with currencies that maintained the 1% variable value the gold standard guaranteed. So his 1973 completion of the work begun by FDR is why I give him the low grade in economics.

I have one word for anyone defending his Cabinet… Watergate.

His legacy speaks for itself.

Gerald R. Ford, Jr.
1974-1977
Topic First Term Second Term Overall .
Foreign Policy -- 68 ( D )
Domestic Policy -- 86 ( B )
Economic Policy -- 88 (B+ )
Cabinet Appointments -- 75 ( C )
Legacy -- 92 ( A- )
Final Grade: 81.8 ( C+ )

His greatest lacking was in foreign policy. His support of Indonesia in its invasion of East Timor resulted in an anti-American regime that killed 250,000 people in two years and plagues us to this day. He seemed content to follow Nixon’s policies to the end, and thus gets a portion of his bad grade.

On a side note, he gave an interview to Bob Woodward in July of 2004, and I found it online. It is a ringing indictment of the Bush Iraq policy, stating clearly and unequivocally that the pretext of WMDs as a reason for invading Iraq was a huge mistake, and cost the nation decades of international groundwork in a completely un-needed excuse for a clearly defined national security issue. Read the article.

James E. Carter, Jr.
1977-1981
Topic First Term
Foreign Policy 74 ( C- )
Domestic Policy 88 ( B )
Economic Policy 75 (C )
Cabinet Appointments 75 ( C )
Legacy 69 ( C- )
Final Grade 76.2 ( C )
Jimmy is a problematic subject. While much of what he has done since his term of office has been questionable, while in office, I still feel he was a President that worked outside of the “box” created by his predecessors. His foreign policy changes, such as abandoning the “containment” strategy for Soviet influence as primary policy, showed that he felt a new course of action was needed. However, he didn’t take it far enough, by a long shot. His greatest foreign policy failing was SALT II, not in that it hurt the US, but that it didn’t hurt the Soviets enough. His fight with the Joint Chiefs over troops in Korea was also a disaster… don’t wait for bad press to come after a choice, pre-empt it with reasonable facts and figures to show why you feel troops should be removed from the peninsula.

He fought Congress on “pork”, and he lost. Okay, but he fought Congress… a Democratic, liberal Congress… that’s more than Ford managed.

And, of course… Iran. This is a failure, no question. The only point up for debate is what could have been done differently. He took the blame, and paid for it in Nov of ‘80.

Ronald W. Reagan
1981-1989
Topic First Term Second Term Overall .
Foreign Policy 88 95 91.5 ( B+ )
Domestic Policy 89 82 85.5 ( B+ )
Economic Policy 84 90 87 (B )
Cabinet Appointments 95 90 92.5 ( A- )
Legacy 92 97 94.5 ( A- )
Final Grade
90.2 ( B+ )
If Reagan had understood that out-spending the increase in tax revenue his tax cuts achieved, he would have gotten a better grade from me. His increase in spending of 244% however really undercut his vaunted “small government” position. With an average increase in government of 11% a year during his term in office, I fail to see the connection.

I cannot deny that he took the record-high unemployment of 11% in ‘82 and turned it around by ‘87 to less than 4%. The dollar was strong by the end of his second term, and we were the undisputed “king” of super-power hill.

Domestically he cut more programs than anyone since Hoover, so I took points for that. The difference between an 11% a year government growth and 11.7% seems like small potatoes to me, and it would have gone a long way to making him seem “nicer” to the left, even in hindsight. His retraction of the Social Security Inflation adjustment upset the “baby-boomers” terribly, and hurt his late-office opinion polls, but his legacy is firm and unequivocal… his foreign policy was as instrumental in the reduction of the USSR and Warsaw Pact nations to whimpering “povs” as anyone in the world, including Maggie Thatcher and the Pope.

George H. W. Bush
1989-1993
Topic First Term
Foreign Policy 95 ( A )
Domestic Policy 75 ( C )
Economic Policy 75 (C )
Cabinet Appointments 80 ( C+ )
Legacy 90 ( B+ )
Final Grade 83 ( B- )

This was tougher than it looked. I can’t debate a bit that his foreign policy was nearly a resounding success. He got rid of Noriega, got Hussein out of Kuwait, kept the Coalition together when Israel looked like it would take matters into her own hands, put together NAFTA for Clinton (a strike against him in economics, but great foreign relations material), kept taxes low until the recession hit in ‘91, and then only moderately dropped the “no new taxes” ball… even I didn’t bitch about the taxes, only the broken promise. His cabinet was solid, and except for the afore mentioned “Read my lips” quote, his legacy is very strong and has remained intact.
In fact, the only thing I took points away for in his Legacy area was the Weinberger-et.all pardon fracas he caused at the end of his term. “Iran-Contra” was ugly, and it was embarrassing to both his and Reagan’s administrations… but it wasn’t another Watergate wound that needed to be healed. Those pardons made him look guilty, and worse than that, they made Reagan look guilty.
He also lost points on the failure to see the fall of the Soviet Union. As a former Ambassador AND head of the CIA, he should have had a finger on the pulse of international intelligence. Instead, we all watched him stumble and stutter through a nearly incoherent speech congratulating the Russian people on achieving the freedom they had so long awaited. Duh…

William J. Clinton
1993-2001
Topic First Term Second Term Overall .
Foreign Policy 89 88 88.5 ( B+ )
Domestic Policy 89 88 88.5 ( B+ )
Economic Policy 70 75 72.5 (C- )
Cabinet Appointments 75 72 73.5 ( C- )
Legacy 88 49 65 ( D )
Final Grade 77.6 ( C )

Africa, Haiti, China, the Middle East, the Balkans, Mexico… all can be considered foreign policy success stories. He saved Mexico from collapse in spite of a hostile Congress, ensured peace and stability in Haiti in spite of a hostile Congress, fought an un-winnable fight in Somalia and the Balkans that the Bush administration left him, and responded with appropriate and acceptable force and action after the World Trade Center bombings and the USS Cole… according to the 9-11 Commission Report.

His greatest failings in this grading curve is his cabinet. His choices for key positions hurt him in the long run, including Janet Reno and M. Albright, although I refuse to entertain the notion that it was their gender that hurt the administration more than their ineptitude.

I gave him low marks in economics because he was mostly simply following Gingrich and the boys by not vetoing their budgets and spending allowances. Very little of what he spent was of his own initiative, so I tend to think he was a follower in this regard rather than a leader, as was Reagan and Carter.

I shouldn’t have to explain the bad marks in Legacy, should I?

George W. Bush
2001-2009
Topic First Term Second Term Overall .
Foreign Policy 98 59 78.5 ( C+ )
Domestic Policy 78 85 81.5 ( C+ )
Economic Policy 85 88 86.5 ( B- )
Cabinet Appointments 50 39 44.5 ( F )
Legacy 88 65 73.5 ( F )
Final Grade 72.9 ( C- )

With France, Germany and Kofi Anon the only openly critical opponents to the invasion of Mar ‘03 (excluding Hussein, of course)… it is no wonder he scores so big in his first term. He rode the benefits of his speech at Ground Zero nearly the whole term (and deservedly so, in my opinion), and masterfully orchestrated the Afghani-invasion coalition with the help of Powell.

I can’t complain about his domestic agenda, as he has spent a lot of money in areas I think are important, but I do question how he is spending it. None the less, he is spending, and it is not a bad thing. He has allowed the economy to tank through a crisis in confidence time after time, but that isn’t something unique to him, either. Both Nixon and Carter did the same thing.

As has been said time and again, by both myself and James, his choices for key cabinet positions are atrocious in the extreme, and he was graded accordingly.

The legacy numbers are a bit arbitrary, but I think they are firm in my eyes. He has allowed his public image to fall far below what anyone probably thought they could… and there isn’t a whole lot of excuse for that.

My final numbers, submitted for your approval:
Nixon 64.1 D-
Ford 81.8 C+
Carter 76.2 C
Reagan 90.2 B+
Bush Sr. 83.0 B-
Clinton 77.6 C
Bush Jr. 72.9 C-

I can’t express enough how much I think this is an eye-opening topic. My grading curve is probably off, as I have no 100% yardstick to go by. If you have a suggestion, please make it.